Yes, it’s another Hegseth piece, but wait for it. It will be worth it. Well, well, well. Apparently, someone (or “somebodys”, heh) finally grew something we’ve been needing since the beginning of this stupid war (and let’s hear it for Israel Idiocy). How our military got so messed up, starting way back with the “narcoterrorist” boats near Venezuela, to now, is beyond me. It’s not at all what I believed it was, and it’s disconcerting, to say the least. Thanks to Raw Story:
If the Pakistan-brokered Iran ceasefire had not been announced shortly before Donald Trump’s deadline that included a threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would have been confronted by a revolt inside the Pentagon, according to new reporting. That is according to MS NOW’s David Rohde, who told “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire that a handful of Pentagon lawyers were committed to refusing to approve some of the targets the White House wanted to destroy.
It‘s about damn time. One would think that they would know things about international law and war crimes. We have been skating on the edge of that for far too long. Are they just growing something to say no *now*? There has been a ton of research done on war crimes, including by Pz, but they just looked at it and decided to refuse targets? The whole business with hitting anything “that could be used by their military” just bugs me. What parameters are they using to determine civilian or military?
Speaking moments after the former Fox News personality-turned Pentagon head once again battled with reporters at a press availability, Rohde was asked about the aftermath of the ceasefire with Iran. After noting that Vice President JD Vance was tangentially involved in ceasefire negotiations, he veered off and told Lemire, “And just my last thought: this war was a test of how we wage war as a democracy. We are a democracy. And I feel like as a journalist, that is our, that’s my core belief, and it’s the most defining trait we have. So I completely agree with you in terms of Congress not playing a role.”
I am currently trying to figure out what “Congress not playing a role” refers to. We could probably assume it’s because Trump started the war on his own, and Congress was not asked for input and didn’t set out a formal declaration of war. It’s actually surprising Trump didn’t demand one. But then, Trump doesn’t particularly care about legalities, as we’ve unfortunately seen time and time again.
“We were going to take out all these bridges, and that somehow the regime was profiting from bridges and power stations,” he continued. “You know, I had military, former military lawyers saying they were talking to current military lawyers, and these lawyers were going to resist inside. They were not going to sign off on a target list that involved war crimes.”
“And I can just tell you from embeds and my own time in the military and embeds, and the people I’ve known in the military, the United States military does not intentionally commit war crimes, period,” he added. “It does not engage in that kind of war fighting; That’s one of our qualities as a democracy. And so this administration was testing that and flirting with that –– we have killed civilians. There’s no question we’ve made huge mistakes in war. But I just, you know, so I don’t know how we did as a democracy.”
We’ve been having trouble with our democracy since Trump got back into office. I’m not sure what the rest of the world thinks of us anymore because Trump has corrupted so much. We did … okay? I do think that people realize that a goodly amount of the people in the country detest Trump and what he’s doing. It’s still hard to answer questions from my overseas friends about what the heck he is trying to do. And I think people know that not all of us are the lunatics who put him back in office. I hope so. But this war….good grief.
See you soon!
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