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.
This demonstrates another reason why you shouldn’t obey clearly illegal orders. If you kill someone on the illegal order of a superior and then they deny having given the order, guess who’s gonna hang for it?
Nobody, apparently. They think that if they pass the blame enough, most people will forget it ever even happened. They are right.
Until we start lynching killer cops in the streets, they’ll never even think about holding their own accountable. It is only the threat of direct, immediate consequences that will have any effect on the status quo
Tbh I’d you joined the military and didn’t figure this out beforehand, you didn’t do enough research.