Press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the apparent war crime was legal even as she said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth knew nothing about it.
The White House on Monday shifted the blame for killing the survivors of a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and onto the commanding admiral.
Killing survivors of a destroyed vessel is literally an example of a war crime in the U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual. “For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal,” the manual reads.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt, nevertheless, repeatedly stated that it was legal – even as she further claimed, as Donald Trump did Sunday, that Hegseth was unaware that it had happened.
Oh look, exactly what Mark Kelly was talking about. Shit rolls down hill guys. Remember that when someone orders you to murder people.
The top brass who aren’t full on MAGA, but didn’t leave now have clear proof that they are expendable and will be scapegoated to protect Trump and his croneys. Honestly showing their hand at this stage gives me a lot of hope that any coup won’t happen now and resistance will be strengthened from within. I smell leaks coming!
I just followed the orders.
And this is one of the many, many good reasons why one does not comply with illegal orders, damn it!
So we went from denial, to it happened but it wasn’t us…
I think we’re currently in the phase where it’s rapidly undulating between both takes.
Give it another week and it’ll devolve into “what firing on shipwrecked people? What are you talking about? Lalalala, I can’t hear you!”
The Narcissist’s Prayer:
That didn’t happen.
And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is, that’s not my fault. <— we are here
And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it.
Killing survivors of a destroyed vessel is literally an example of a war crime in the U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual. “For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal,” the manual reads.
RTFM
I didn’t see anything about reading the fan mail…
That’s like what my understanding of fubar was, face unrecognizable, belay any response.
Thanks Dad.
Combined with a pretty bad case of face blindness led me to telling a fellow classmate a professor was “fubar” in public…
I’m confused—I thought that acronym was ‘fudged up beyond any repair’? I also don’t get ‘belay any response’. Does this mean to ‘remain unresponsive’? The confusion here being that belay means to halt essentially—so the word choice doesn’t make intuitive sense to me.
If this was all just a setup for the joke, apologies for the technicalities
Your understanding of the term, assuming you replaced “fucked” with “fudged”, is correct. The explanation given by the father was a lie to avoid teaching curse words to a child.
I think it works as instructions on how to face Cthulhu. Or maybe explains deer reacting to headlights.
Edit: I was reading ‘face’ as a verb as in 'to confront", instructing you to face the unrecognizable.
On the other hand I guess it could be a suggestion that you hide any recognizable facial responses to something.
As they should. But the fact that he chose to follow an obviously illegal order, doesn’t absolve the ones who gave that order. This should in no way, take the heat off Hegseth…or Trump himself.
It was LEGAL but ALSO Pete Hegseth DIDNT know about it AND we Fired someone Over it!
First of all, blowing up a boat like is illegal. Even if it was legal you’ll have to prove that the boat contained drugs, but you just blowed your evidences! The guys that survived the attack then would have no charges over them and would be set free. Probably these guys were innocent and the boat was not a drug boat, thus they killed them as a cover up
Hmm, I wonder why Admiral Holsey decided to retire when he did. 🤔
As a sailor, I find the whole shoddy affair most disgusting.
Yes in war (and this was by no means a war) we may seek to kill one another as enemies, but every sailor knows, it is the sea who is the ultimate enemy.
A human adrift at sea is a pitiful thing. To save them is to save ourselves.
We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.
Pete Hegseth [Source]
I can’t believe it was Joe Biden that flew the plane.
I heard Obama told him too
Follow illegal orders, get thrown under the bus.
Dont follow illegal orders, get thrown under the bus.
If he ordered it, or complied with the order from above, lock him up. If not, this accusation is yet another confession.
Ok… So common sense would read that as: ’ it wasn’t legal, it’s a prime example of a war crime, and Pete may not have explicitly approved of that action, but probably gave a vague order like ‘no survivors’ , which the admiral took literally, and so it’s entirely the admirals fault for not disobeying an unlawful order. ’
All I want for Christmas is a military coup, cold hard justice for the traitors enabling Trump, and emergency elections, monitored by the military, and un observers
Ordering that operations be conducted on the basis that there be “no survivors” is also specifically cited as an example of a war crime by the same manual: “Moreover, it is also prohibited to conduct hostilities on the basis that there shall be no survivors, or to threaten the adversary with the denial of quarter.”
As was said elsewhere, the transmitted command will have been recorded. The hard undeniable truth can be provided. Congress just needs to subpoena it, or a soldier with a conscience needs to whistleblow and leak it. Otherwise, we trust the liars’ word and they get away with yet more of what are unquestionably, objectively, war crimes.
