White House Throws Commanding Admiral Under The Bus In Killing Of Alleged Drug Boat Survivors
www.huffpost.com
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the apparent war crime was legal even as she said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth knew nothing about it.

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.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    14 hours ago

    I mean, probably nothing. Its not like anyone is going to investigate or prosecute. Trump’s just throwing up chaff so he can whine about the press treating him unfairly. “We didn’t do it, but if we did it would have been based and cool, and don’t think we won’t do the thing we didn’t do again if we feel like it” is exactly what I’d have expected to hear from a PR flack in the Bush or Reagan Era.

    Hell, I’m pretty sure this is the line Bush Sr used when the US shot down that Iranian passenger airliner. Nobody suffered any kind of consequence for that, either. Hell, the air warfare coordinator on duty received the Navy Commendation Medal after killing a few hundred civilians.

    I bet Trump’s Navy Command is going to look like late-stage Brezhnev by the time he’s finished passing out pins and ribbons for civilian casualties.