Murder, He Wrought

Murder, He Wrought Hegseth's Second Strike, Ozempic Economy It didn’t take long for Pete Hegseth to go from being a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend to reportedly issuing an order to “kill everybody.” It’s a directive that has grabbed the attention of Congressional leaders, including Republicans. “A top Republican and Democrats in Congress suggested on Sunday that American military officials might have committed a war crime in President Trump’s offensive against boats in the Caribbean after a news report said that during one such attack, a follow-up strike was ordered to kill survivors. The remarks came in response to a Washington Post report on Friday that said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given a verbal order to kill everyone aboard boats suspected of smuggling drugs, and that this led a military commander to carry out a second strike to kill those who had initially survived an attack.” NYT (Gift Article): Lawmakers Suggest Follow-Up Boat Strike Could Be a War Crime . The order, if given, would definitely be a crime. It’s not entirely clear that it would be a war crime since we’re not exactly clear anything about these strikes constitutes a war (or justifies the use of the military). In what has become almost standard in the Trump era, a new scandal has emerged before the original scandal has been settled. We’re debating the legality of the second strike when we don’t even know if the first strike was legal. “In a statement of the former JAGs Working Group, the former military lawyers analyzed, in detail, relevant international and domestic law, concluding that ‘both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both.’” The Contrarian : War Crime...or Murder ? In any other time under any other president, for Hegseth, this would be a simple case of two strikes and you’re out. But under those circumstances, Hegseth would still be issuing orders at the Fox and Friends afterparties. + A broader question raised by this story: What is the point of these strikes in the first place? Have we adopted a new, stronger, and more militaristic determination to stop the flow of illegal drugs? If so, why is Trump pardoning a guy who helped bring more than 500 tons of cocaine into the United States, did deals with El Chapo, and bragged that he would “stuff the drugs up the gringos noses?” The Ex-President Whom Trump Plans to Pardon Flooded America With Cocaine . If using military might to blow up the equivalent of the lowest level street corner dealers while giving top global suppliers a get out jail card doesn’t make sense to you, don’t feel bad. It doesn’t seem to make sense to Trump either. “Well, I was told-I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, they said it was a Biden setup-I don’t mean Biden, look, Biden didn’t know he was alive-but it was the people that surround the Resolute Desk. Surround Biden,...

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