Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Hegseth Gives Illegal Order, Commits War Crime
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (who is known also as Secretary of War Kegsbreath) has bragged about bombing an alleged boat running drugs from South America. He has done this many times in the last several weeks, but this one is especially troubling. While all of the strikes are probably illegal under US and international law, this one certainly was. After the first strike, two survivors were clinging to the wreckage. The order was to leave no one alive, so a second strike happened. That is an attack on non-combatants, by all standards a war crime. That presumes the US really is at war with the drug cartels (a dubious claim). Otherwise, this is simply murder. Mr. Hegseth needs to be impeached and removed.
Naturally, Secretary Kegsbreath has tried to pin the blame on Admiral Frank M. Bradley. The admiral is well-regarded in the Navy and across the services. He was in charge of the operation. And if the attack on the two survivors did occur as the media are reporting it happened, then a court martial is in order. If he did order the second strike, he should not have done so. He will be testifying before Congress before the end of next week.
But an admiral cannot order an attack without civilian authorization from one of two people, the President of the United States or the Secretary of Defense. There is no way the White House is going to have POTUS take the fall; that is why Mr. Kegsbreath is in the cabinet. He is the fall guy, the patsy. The secretary knows this and is working to avoid responsibility himself. The problem is that he cannot claim the admiral went rogue.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, stated that Admiral Bradley had "worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated."
The words "within his authority" have to mean within the orders he received.There is no other way to interpret the words. As a defense, "I was just following orders" failed at Nuremberg, and it should fail now. This journal believes a court martial is in order. At the same time, the illegal order could not be followed if it were not given. Whoever gave the order is more guilty of the crime than the admiral (if indeed the admiral is found guilty).
Mr. Kegsbreath is almost certainly that party. He has said he was watching the live video of the attack, and as such, he was the senior person involved. That means he was responsible. It might not be fair, and it might not make sense, but it is the way the military chain of command works.
If the secretary were less of a wanker, he might be able to survive this as Congress has rolled over for the administration on almost everything since January 20. But he is not well-liked there, and many Republican Senators voted to confirm him with great misgivings. Those worries have proved valid. Hearings are inevitable, and this will become another open wound, just like the Epstein Files. The best thing he could do for the administration right now is to resign. He will not.
The Bulwark, a conservative anti-Trump site, stated what the official story is for now. "Hegseth was there, watching live, but didn't issue any orders, but was extremely happy that the spirit of the orders he never issued were executed anyway, which he then took credit for in real time and hailed as a glorious triumph without revealing that it wasn't."
It is often hard to say if evil policies are made worse by incompetence, but in this instance, the incompetence is so great that it does make the policies even worse.
The decline under the Trump administration continues to accelerate.
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
|
|
|
