There is an increasing apprehension among service members that they may be asked to carry out an illegal order, amid reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered troops to “kill everybody” in a boat strike in September.
The concerns, reflected in an uptick in calls to the Orders Project — which provides free legal advice to military personnel — come from the likes of staff officers involved in planning the strikes on supposed drug-carrying boats and those in charge of designating those on the vessels as a threat in order to carry out such attacks.
Even as a reported Justice Department classified memo from this summer preemptively argued that U.S. troops involved in the strikes would not be in legal jeopardy, service members appear far more concerned than usual that the U.S. military may be opening them up to legal harm, according to Frank Rosenblatt, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, which runs the Orders Project.
Not that Hegseth, Trump, or those who love them give one little shit about things like this, but I’ll point out the part of the War Manual where DOUBLE TAPPING SHIPWRECK SURVIVORS IS THE LITERAL EXAMPLE OF AN ILLEGAL ORDER
here’s a really good writeup that leaves no question in my mind about the unlawful nature of this, even though we are not in a state of war (so it’s not a war crime, just a crime crime): https://www.justsecurity.org/125948/illegal-orders-shipwrecked-boat-strike-survivors/
And the people committing these illegal acts … they’re breaking global human rights laws for a soulless drunkard who would throw them all under the bus before he took any responsibility for himself. The consequences after this all won’t be pleasant (for the soldiers at least. This guy will probably get off the hook)
Imagine throwing away your life for that … absolutely pathetic.