Incredible

This should be top of the thread everywhere this story is mentioned, forever.

Holy moly, all that's left to do is to add a picture of Hegseth and of the exploded boat to illustrate this paragraph. SMH.

Today I learned the word tragicomical

Nooo, but trump and all his totally cool and not criminal bros said that the president cannot give an illegal order…

The laws will be changed to make them legal. Either that, or de facto standards will "move faster" than laws.

I guess some of these people expect to still be around in a couple years when there is a new administration that might feel like it's a good idea to prosecute people for crimes they committed for trump.

UCMJ is its own system enforced by the military with its own courts. Hegeseth will probably avoid any repercussions, but holding the chain of command responsible for state sponsored murder will send a clear message about obeying illegal orders.

Nobody thinks it could happen while the US congress is dominated by Republicans, Trump is the president, and the Supreme Court is 6-3 GOP.

But, if the Democrats win big enough in the 2026 midterm elections to overcome all the dirty tricks that the Nazis are going to use to try to stay in power, then maybe in 2027 there's a chance they could start holding Trump to account. But, Trump would still have executive authority and unless he were impeached and this time they actually had the votes to remove him from office, they still couldn't get his Justice Department to investigate his War Department. Even if they did impeach him and remove him from office, he's just be replaced by Vance who is part of this whole signal chat.

So, at a minimum it would probably be 2029 before anything could happen, and would require that the Democrats got a congressional majority in 2026, and held or improved it in 2028 while also taking the presidency. And even then, the Supreme Court would still be 9-3 GOP unless some of the GOP members quit or died. So, it would probably require something radical like expanding the court to get any attempted convictions of higher-up GOP members past that court.

And, that's even assuming that the democrats grew a backbone. If they did, they couldn't do anything to Trump because the Supreme Court already decided the president is immune from anything up to, and including ordering Delta Force to kill the Democratic presidential hopeful. They could maybe go after Hegseth and down, but realistically would they? How many times have the Democrats had a chance to nail Trump, and instead decided that in the interest of national unity to let his crimes slide.

Then there's the International Criminal Court. They might risk indicting Hegseth or even Trump for war crimes. However, the US passed the Hague Invasion Act, effectively saying that if any American were ever put on trial for war crimes, the US would invade The Hague. That might deter them from even trying. Under Trump, they've already made life hell for a prosecutor who was going after someone who was merely a US ally. If a Democratic president were in office and a Democratic congress were in charge, they probably wouldn't actually invade, but they still might just ignore any ICC ruling. The US has made it abundantly clear that they're the world's only superpower and that international law doesn't actually apply to the US. And if anybody disagrees, they're welcome to take on the US military.

I love B5 and while the show might look a bit dated now the message sure as fuck is not.

Who went out of their way to find the character for a backwards apostrophe that isn't on the keyboard?

Head of the U.S. Military’s Southern Command Is Stepping Down, Officials Say. Adm. Alvin Holsey is leaving less than a year into his tenure, and as the Pentagon escalates attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea.

Maybe its ethics. Maybe some folks in the chain of command have the fear of God in them. Maybe there's just better pay in the private sector and now is as good a time as any to cash out. But I suspect stories like this are going to be increasingly common in the run up to the '26 election.

Future President Pete Buttigieg will have a cabinet full of people who drew the line at double-tapping a Venezuelan fisherman. And they'll be spearheading our next Great Ethical War with... idk, Argentina or South Africa or something.

we can hope for some high-profile resignations and maybe an outspoken admiral or something. And remember, it's only Trump's DOJ until it isn't anymore, and I think the statute of limitations on murder is more than 3 years...

Our representatives are literally owned by Israel and Israel loves this administration so I doubt we’ll get anything except a congressional hearing where they get a pool noodle beating for an hour or two. Why isn’t Trump in prison? That was a slam dunk case

You are absolutely right. And even if they only end up charging some random lieutenant at the bottom of the chain, it will send a message to the rest of the troops that they will not be protected from the consequences of their actions.

Except the Democrats have basically just announced they are going to do nothing because their efforts wouldn't go anywhere. So better off not trying.

Don't "y'all" me, we ain't kin and you don't know me.

And what I do on Ebay is my own business, Bubba.

I won’t claim to have researched it myself, but I’ve seen about a dozen different people quote the section of military law that talks about illegal orders that are so blatant you don’t need to check or think, they’re illegal, and the example they use is “firing upon the shipwrecked”.

As in, the order to fire upon the shipwrecked should be immediately known to every Navy personnel as blatantly illegal as a precondition of their service.

If you’re performing the example for an illegal order, you’re executing illegal orders.

Edit: and I’m realizing now I responded to the wrong person.

In my mind the rules are clear on that: to use deadly force there must be an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. Potential future harms can't even begin to be accounted for, so the standard has to be judged with those immediate circumstances in mind.

Even in that situation there are means to deter a threat or determine a person's intent prior to employing any sort of lethal force. There's nothing justifiable about this.

Oh don't worry, those down the chain will be prosecuted. Just not Hegseth.

I doubt it. Kegsbreath will just fire everyone involved in the investigation