Hegseth Should Be Impeached And Arrested For Murder

On September 2nd, Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. military to kill all the people in a small boat in the Caribbean. The stated reason for the attack was that the boat was carrying narcotics destined for the United States. No proof has ever been offered by Hegseth (or Donald Trump) that the boat was carrying narcotics, but the attack was carried out.

After the smoke cleared, it was observed that two of the boats inhabitants were still alive and clinging to the sides of the damaged boat. Admiral Frank M. Bradley then ordered a second strike on the boat to kill the remaining helpless men.

That second strike against the survivors was against international law. It was also against the U.S. military law. If we had been at war (as Trump claims), it would have been a war crime. Since we are not at war, it was just an inexcusable murder of two helpless people.

It's now looking like Trump and Hegseth are throwing the Admiral under the bus. The Admiral deserves to be punished. He had to know that issuing that order for a second strike was illegal (whether he did it on his own or at Hegseth's command). But he is not the only guilty party.

Hegseth openly admits that he was in contact with the military forces carrying out the attack, and watched the attack taking place. That means he had to have heard the command given for a second strike - and did nothing to stop it. That makes him as guilty as Admiral Bradley. Hegseth should be impeached and arrested for murder.

Was Donald Trump also watching the strike take place? It is likely that he was since he loves watching the military blow things up (and he was in Washington that day). If so, then he is also guilty for hearing the order for a second strike and not taking action to stop it.

The Trump administration seems to think it can do anything it wants and get away with it - including murder. But this attack (especially the second strike) was far beyond the pale. They must be held accountable for this illegal and immoral action.

Even Republicans Are Beginning To Balk At The Trump/Hegseth Murders

 

The following post is by Steve Benen at MS NOW:

After three months of deadly U.S. military strikes against civilian boats in international waters, the Trump administration has generated a great many questions, though a simple one has hovered near the top of the list: Are these operations legal?

A great many experts have argued that the White House policy of extrajudicial killings is plainly illegal. Evidently, the senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing the lethal strikes came to the same conclusion, as did a variety of other legal voices within the administration.

These questions grew considerably louder late last week, with striking reporting from The Washington Post. In an article published on the day after Thanksgiving, the Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive to military personnel to kill everybody on a vessel carrying 11 people. From the piece:

A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack … ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

The Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, emphasized the fact that the men targeted in the second strike posed “no imminent threat of attack” and were not in an “armed conflict” with the United States. . . .

Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised special operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign, told the Post that this second deadly strike “amounts to murder.” This is not an uncommon reaction to the allegations.

Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel at the Pentagon, described the allegations as a “textbook” example of a war crime. Jack Goldsmith, who led the Office of Legal Counsel under George W. Bush, added that if the Post’s reporting is accurate, “it appears that Special Operations Forces committed murder.” A group of former military lawyers issued a joint statement that concluded that the allegations raised in the Post’s report “constitute war crimes, murder, or both.”

This, among other things, also adds fresh context to the hyperaggressive response to Democratic veterans who advised service members not to follow illegal orders.

Complicating matters for the White House, some congressional Republicans have raised related concerns.

Late Friday, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a statement with Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the panel’s ranking member, noting that the committee was aware of the reporting and adding, “we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”

A day later, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, issued a related statement with Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the panel’s ranking member, which added, “This committee is committed to providing rigorous oversight of the Department of Defense’s military operations in the Caribbean. We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question.”

Appearing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, also said, “Obviously if that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act.”

For the administration, this is not good news. Donald Trump has grown accustomed to GOP lawmakers simply turning the other way in response to scandalous allegations. That the bipartisan leadership of the Armed Services committees, in both chambers, plan to put these allegations under the microscope will lead to scrutiny the White House would likely prefer to avoid.

U.S. Military Commits War Crime On Hegseth's Order

From joycevance.substack.com 

Hegseth Locks Virtually Every Media Organization Out Of The Pentagon

Pete Hegseth was tired of being embarrassed with media stories detailing his incompetent leadership of the Defense Department, so he came up with a new policy. He demanded that all news organizations sign an agreement to report only Pentagon-approved stories, including unclassified stories. Failure to sign the agreement meant the media organization would have their press passes revoked and they would be locked out of the Pentagon.

That meant the media could only report Pentagon propaganda - not real stories about what was happening in the nation's largest and most expensive government department. The media rebelled, and all but one (the Trump-loving MAGA outlet One America News) refused to sign the ridiculous agreement.

On Wednesday, the media outlets turned in their press passes and removed their equipment from the Pentagon. They will continue to report all the stories about the Defense Department they want. They just won't have the normal access to sources within the building. And Hegseth can expect the embarrassing stories about his incompetence to continue.

Hegseth failed in his attempt to censor the media. Even right-wing media outlets (like Fox News and the Washington Times) refused to sign the agreement. 

Listed below are the media outlets that signed and refused to sign the agreement:

Trump Blames Hegseth For His Birthday Parade Failure

 

This is by Julia Ornedo in The Daily Beast:

President Donald Trump was unhappy with his sparsely attended military parade over the weekend and blamed it on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, biographer Michael Wolff revealed.

Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast that Trump wanted a “menacing” show of force to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary and his 79th birthday on Saturday—but got a “festive” parade instead.

“He’s p---ed off at the soldiers,” Wolff said. “He’s accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face.”

As thousands of soldiers flanked by tanks made their way past empty bleachers along Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., social media users pointed out that the soldiers were marching out of sync, and the muted atmosphere appeared to match the gloomy weather.

That didn’t escape Trump, who pointed the finger at his defense secretary, according to Wolff.

“He kind of reamed out Hegseth for this,” the Trump biographer said. “Apparently, there was a phone call, and he said to Hegseth, the tone was all wrong. Why was the tone wrong? Who staged this? There was the tone problem. Trump, he keeps repeating himself.”

“It didn’t send the message that he apparently wanted, which is that he was the commander in chief of this menacing enterprise,” Wolff added.

Trump And Hegseth's Racist, Misogynistic, And Homophobic View For Our Military

Pete Hegseth has said he wants to improve our military by making it a merit-only organization. But his actions show otherwise. 

He has taking action to drive transgendered people out of the military - regardless of whether they are doing a good job or not (merit be damned).

But he's not stopping there. He's also making it clear that no members of the LGBTQ community are welcome. He has ordered the Navy to rename a ship - the USNS Harvey Milk (a fleet replenishment oiler).

This makes no real sense. Harvey Milk was a great American who made a mark on our culture as the first openly gay person to hold elected office. It does, however, send a message to LGBTQ soldiers - you are not welcome in the U.S. military (regardless of merit or job performance). 

He's not stopping there. On his list of ships to be renamed are ships named after Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriet Tubman, Dolores Huerta, Lucy Stone, Cesar Chavez, and Medgar Evers - all American heroes in their own right. Why? Because none of them are white males.

He's making it clear that no one is welcome in the military unless they are white, male, heterosexual, and a MAGA-lover. 

And this is OK with Trump, who is also trying to rewrite and whitewash American history.

When Trump took office, and before Hegseth was named Secretary of defense, the United States had the most effective and most powerful military in the world. One reason was the diversity it embraced. Trump and Hegseth's racist, misogynistic, and homophobic views are destroying that.

We can only hope that too much damage will not be done to to our military before both can be replaced. Our national defense is at stake.

Most Voters Think Hegseth Should Resign

The chart above is from the Daily Mail / J.L. Partners Poll -- done between March 25th and 27th of a nationwide sample of 1,001 registered voters, with a 3.4 point margin of error.