SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Pete Hegseth is under increasing fire for a double-tap strike, first reported by The Intercept in early September, in which the U.S. military killed two survivors of the Trump administration’s initial boat strike in the Caribbean on September 2.

The Washington Post recently reported that Hegseth personally ordered the follow-up attack, giving a spoken order “to kill everybody.” Multiple military legal experts, lawmakers, and now confidential sources within the government who spoke with The Intercept say Hegseth’s actions could result in the entire chain of command being investigated for a war crime or outright murder.

“Those directly involved in the strike could be charged with murder under the UCMJ or federal law,” said Todd Huntley, a former Staff Judge Advocate who served as a legal adviser on Joint Special Operations task forces conducting drone strikes in Afghanistan and elsewhere, using shorthand for the Uniform Code of Military Justice. “This is about as clear of a case being patently illegal that subordinates would probably not be able to successfully use a following-orders defense.”

  • falseWhite@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    100% nothing will happen, or they will just get pardoned. USA is done. Kaput. All hail Nazi USA.

    • WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca
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      It’s fucking comical how many Americans seem to think that the collapse of their entire legal system is just a blip and there’s a “normal” to go back to.

      It’s a bit like going to see a magician- if you catch a glimpse of how the trick is done, the spell is broken. There’s no going back. Everyone is now fully aware that accountability only exists because of shared suspension of disbelief that it might not. A new administration doesn’t fix this. Your constitution and legislation has been fully exposed as lacking enforcement measures. There isn’t any coming back from that, regardless of who’s in the big chair.

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        It’s already been collapsed for years though. Normal people don’t even get trials anymore. We get outrageously high bail amounts and plea-bargains (forced confessions, that’s what they are) so we will spend 2 years in prison instead of 5 awaiting trial.

        Want to prove your innocence even if it means spending years in pretrial jail? Guess what? They’ll end up dismissing the charges a week before your trial starts because they don’t think they’ll get a conviction. You’re not officially acquitted so the prosecutor’s success rate stays high AND you still were imprisoned for years so it’s a win-win for them.

        • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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          So to be clear, you’re suggesting the reason for allied forces joining WW2 was to save Germany from itself?

          I’m not disagreeing that Trump will pardon everyone involved, I’m not disagreeing that no other country cares if the US comes out the other end, I’m just saying, these regimes have a history of not sticking around long term. So I’m disagreeing with the statement that “nothing will happen”. Shit is happening and will continue to happen until their reign of terror is brought to an end, just like WW2.

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            The thing is that Germany was a land empire; to expand they had to piss off and/or invade their powerful neighbors. America can do whatever the heck it wants and as long as they don’t do something dumb like attack China they’ll be left mostly to their own devices. Hell, I’d bet good money that the EU won’t lift a finger if they annex Greenland. We’re looking at more of a Franco or Sukharto situation.

          • WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca
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            It’s not “their” reign of terror. They are a symptom.

            This shit is the fault of all Americans. Those who voted for it, those who enable it, and those who are sitting on their asses either thinking this ends with a new administration or who are waiting for someone else to come put Nazis in the ground for them.

            Blaming this on the Trump admin is like blaming a toddler for bringing a loaded handgun to school.

            The adults in the room number in the hundreds of millions and you’re doing fuck all.

            • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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              Your analogy can’t have it both ways. Either the allies saved Germany from itself, implying there was a good portion saved from the fascist portion, OR the Nazi party was the fault of all Germans, those who voted for it, those who enable it, etc., and blaming any portion on Nazis/Hitler is like blaming a toddler. So which is it?

              I’m 86% convinced you’re a divisiveness bot at this point. Prove me wrong.

              • WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca
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                Germany was saved from itself as an undeserved RESULT of the allies’ victory. The allies didn’t go in to improve the lives of Nazi enabling German citizens, clearly.

                • bthest@lemmy.world
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                  Isn’t Europe continuing friendly relations with the US also enabling? Can’t you vote in better governments who will draw a line in the sand against America? Still doing military exercises with us? Really? After Denmark was threatened with an invasion of Greenland? Why would Denmark let JD Vance go to Greenland and film a propaganda video while that was happening! Why?! Why let him do that? It’s against Europe’s interest to be in bed with us now. It certainly was considered enabling when they were doing it with Nazi Germany. Besides the way Europe is voting they’re headed down the same path. In 10 years we could have a left-wing America and a fascist Europe.

                  But I mean unlike Nazi Germany, the US is untouchable militarily speaking so it’s a moot point.

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      Even before the USA was kaput, double tapping became typical US strategy under the Obama administration, which makes me even more confident that nobody will face any consequences for this. To try Trump they’d have to try Obama.

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          I really don’t understand why people (GOPers mainly, it seems) trot this line out every time there’s the “threat” of a Repub being (gasp) held accountable for something…

          We don’t fucking CARE! GOOD! Prosecute the criminals! It doesn’t matter what side they’re on politically!

          Some of us don’t hang our hat on individual cults of personality and just want the rules applied equally all the way across. Why is this so difficult to understand?

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            For some people, their entire world view revolves around “there must be in-groups to protect and out-groups to bind”. That’s it. Everything else is a polite fiction on top of that.

            These people are, generally, bad people. Like, a child reading about them in a book would point out that they’re not good.

            Many conservatives adhere to this world view.

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            We don’t fucking CARE! GOOD! Prosecute the criminals! It doesn’t matter what side they’re on politically!

            You don’t care, but the people in power do. That’s the point I was making.

        • danc4498@lemmy.world
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          And……. Nothing will happen. As both commentators said and are, depressingly, probably correct.

      • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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        I’ve seen this sentiment a lot lately. It’s just a very bad argument.

        We aren’t going to type out a list of every US war criminal ever. We are talking about current events and want the active war criminals stopped.

        Obviously we should try all war criminals, but let’s stop the war crimes first

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          That’s not my point. If Democrats seriously attack Trump on this, he’ll hit back by attacking them for supporting Obama, and establishment Democrats won’t throw their man under the bus. Ergo, nothing will happen. Screw Obama, but that’s not the argument I’m making here.

          Edit: Aaand there it is.