Comment by AnimalMuppet
10 hours ago
You remember that video that some Democratic legislators did about refusing to obey illegal orders? This is where that becomes absolutely real.
(Targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime. Orders to commit war crimes are illegal by definition.)
Yup. Remember the blowback from those videos showing potential double-taps on the alleged drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean? That’s a clear violation of “hors de combat” as outlined on page 244 of DoD’s own Law of War Manual [1] because unlike Hegseth, I actually took the time to read it.
Hegseth came completely unhinged, going after Senator Mark Kelly’s retirement, etc.
Then a few weeks ago, Hegseth gave an interview where he literally argued that the United States doesn’t have to follow international law. He called the rules of engagement “stupid” and went on with a bunch of similar remarks.
It’s pretty clear that rather than trying to defend violations of international (and U.S.) law, the regime is now just saying they don’t have to follow them in the first place.
https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jul/31/2003271432/-1/-1/0/DOD...
Is that US law or international law?
International law consists of treaties that have been bilaterally agreed to by several countries, in most cases including the US. Being treaties, they are US laws that are much more difficult for the US to amend than ordinary laws. US law/international law is a false distinction, when we speak of international law in the context of the US, we are generally referring specifically to treaties that the US is party to.
There was this legal analysis about the Iran war crimes situation posted yesterday by some former military lawyers: https://www.justsecurity.org/135797/war-crimes-rhetoric-powe... Among other things they link to this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2441
International law is also US law. https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article...
That says internation law as US law.
Light investigation says it is selectively applied for national security. So... pretty big loophole.
4 replies →
They left "obeying the law" behind a long, long time ago