As we said early on, when a department head falls in the Trump administration, that person will likely be Pete Hegseth. In a misadministration which is rampant with incompetence, Hegseth is still far and away the most mis-cast cabinet member. Hegseth would do well to keep his head down and just attempt to ride out the rough seas but instead of doing that, he deliberately goes out of his way to stretch the envelope of his authority. Right now Hegseth is being charged with a “textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing.”
New reporting shows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may have violated U.S. and international law by ordering a follow-up attack on two survivors in the administration’s controversial missile strikes on alleged drug smugglers.
President Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief ordered the Sept. 2 strike off the Trinidad coast, but drone footage showed two survivors clinging to the wreckage after the smoke cleared – and the Washington Post reported that Hegseth gave a second verbal directive to “kill everybody.”
Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, reported to the White House afterward that the “double-tap,” or follow-on strike, was intended to sink the boat and remove a possible hazard to other ships, and not to kill survivors, and a similar explanation was given to lawmakers in closed-door briefings.
“The idea that wreckage from one small boat in a vast ocean is a hazard to marine traffic is patently absurd, and killing survivors is blatantly illegal,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), a Marine Corps veteran and Trump critic who was briefed on the strikes with other members of the House Armed Services Committee. “Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder.”
A variety of experts agreed with Moulton’s assessment on social media, saying Hegseth quite likely had engaged in a war crime.
“So the order for the US military to launch these deadly Caribbean boat strikes was straightforwardly illegal under US and international law, immoral under long established standards, and on top of that, terrible strategy,” posted Nicholas Grossman, international relations professor at University of Illinois. “Not maybe. Not got to check with a lawyer. Unambiguous. Blatant. Deliberate.”
“Declaring ‘no quarter’ is a war crime,” argued Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer and an editor at Just Security. “Even assuming an armed conflict exists.”
“Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing,” agreed Just Security co-editor-in-chief Ryan Goodman.
“If the U.S. was at war, Pete Hegseth’s order would be a war crime, a military lawyer said,” said Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell. “Instead, it might just be murder.”
Wow. A Secretary of Defense who might have just committed murder in the course and scope of his duties as Secretary of Defense. But you can’t say that it’s surprising. Not with this cast of characters. This is the most outrageous thing to happen this week since Marco Rubio claimed that the Russian wish list was a list of negotiations authored in Washington, D.C.
I would call Pete Hegseth a war criminal, but we aren’t at war. He’s just a mass murderer.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 28, 2025
The incompetence is so intense that it burns. And for Hegseth, this latest action on his part is even worse than SignalGate. Hegseth managed to top his own previous misfire with a greater one yet. How many more chances is Hegseth going to get?
Who would prosecute him? DOJ, a military court, or an international court? This should end his career, even if it doesn’t immediately put him behind bars. trump can’t be far behind.
A military court would be the most effective, I believe. He would have to be called back into service and court-martialed This might not be possible as yet, but his career could easily be ended at any time. The bet way to do that would be not just putting gpreure on him, but on Trump for ever hiring him in the first place. he’s been nothing but one disaster after another. And really, it was predictable.
Well if he says it’s OK to recall another former officer, Senator Mark Kelly, and then court-martial him, he should be judged by his own standards and ‘hoist by his own petard’.
Justice and Karma demand it.
I think it is determined by how you were separated. Retirees are not on active duty, but are still considered part of the military (their retirement pay, in fact, is accounted for in the DoD budget) So they can be recalled at any time – for a reason like “We need your expertise in this [new] war” to “You are going to stand a Court Martial for what you just did.” But those of us who didn’t stay for 20 years or more are just veterans, with no further connection to the military, and I don’t think we can be recalled. Did Pete retire? (It would surprise me if the military could put up with his attitudes and behavior long enough for him to do so.)
btw – a petard is a bomb – an engineer in the 16th century was an expert in explosives – as much as one could be when they were mostly just gunpowder.)
‘m
Ok, now we are getting into the type of thing I recall from back in the day during classroom instruction on the UCMJ and the Laws of Land Warfare. (Yes, there is an actual set of international laws on what those in war zones can or cannot do and wounded or prisoners is well covered by them) I remember a hypothetical question that was pretty close to this. The question was if an enemy had no weapon and/or was unable to fight (the question involved him being pinned under something and unable to move) then it seemed like he should be taken prisoner. The officer conducting the class said yes, this was what he called a common sense of if ordered to kill the guy it would be an illegal order. One that one not only would have a duty NOT to follow but report.
Common sense. A couple of guys who somehow survive their boat being blown up are in the ocean and mange to cling to some wreckage. No way in hell were they a threat in any way, and as you say whatever was left of the boat was no danger to an actual ship if it remained afloat for any length of time. Hegesth damn well knows it was an illegal order. The officers who received it (I assume it was aircraft who fired to kill the guys and therefore officers who carried out the order) should have radioed a regination rather than carry out an illegal order. More than most readers I know how much goes into earning their wings, and keeping them. Just maintaining ‘carrier qualifications” offers up more ways to get killed than you can imagine.
But to commit murder so some fucking punk in a fancy suit with gelled hair in an office with a fucking makeup studio can play tought guy should be worth giving up one’s wings.
Ok, Denis, let’s discuss.
First: There is no doubt in my mind the Pilots damn well knew it was an illegal order and yes, they were saving their jobs cuz, I don’t know, kids in school, etc, whatever. We agree.
But: “Hegseth damn well knows it’s illegal”? IF Hegseth is just playing the role of a total moron, he is doing an Academy Award winning job. Otherwise, UCMJ or not, he may not have known at all and LONG forgotten what he learned as a plebe from the Code.
And as for your first paragraph, in theory everyone should agree with you, BUT, as a raging, steaming, angry misanthrope utterly disgusted by humanity’s total hypocrisy as regards us Jews, if that helpless person under the car were Yahyah Sinwar or any of those people, I don’t know about you, but I know what they would do to my people, and I would figure finishing them off would be a gift to all of humanity, even though I know all of humanity would cry in pity and scream at me “but what about the children” and all their other BS!
Comments, Denis? Do you agree with me or not?
Hegseth was never a ‘plebe’ since he didn’t attend one of our service academies. However, as an Army Officer he would have gotten more training than I did as an enlisted puke in the Corps. And I learned easily enough from those who taught the classes on the UCMJ and covered topics like international laws on warfare and the Geneva Conventions that yes, killing someone unarmed who can’t fight back is a war crime. Hegseth damn well does too. For any set of orders a senior commander at the Pentagon (starting with SecDef) there is always JAG input and when Hegseth was formulating the original orders you and I both know the subject of ‘what about if we blow a boat to bits and there are survivors in the water?’ question came up. Hegseth would have been reminded of the rules. And if he didn’t like the advice he got he could like Baby Bush did with torture find a toady who would tell him what he wanted to hear. THAT would be even worse in my book.
A ‘just let anyone who might survive the missile die in the ocean rather than rescue then arrest them is criminal in and of itself. Ordering them to get blow away after having been incredibly lucky not to have gotten killed by the initial volley is even worse. On top of it all, with the assets that are being deployed any of these boats could be interdicted, then boarded and there would be proof as to whether they were actual fishing boats or smugglers and with the latter just what it was they were smuggling. Drugs is the logical thing to think of as the payout would be biggest for that but drugs aren’t the only items smugglers sneak in here or anywhere else.
I 100% agree with everything you say above, Den. But you still didn’t answer my “as an angry and fed-fucking-up Jew” question. What if the person who couldn’t defend himself were a Hamas guy? Would you still insist on the UCMJ applying? You know my answer.