More than 80 people killed in campaign that law-of-war experts have labeled extrajudicial murder

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly gave a verbal order to leave no survivors behind as Donald Trump’s administration launched the first of more than a dozen attacks on alleged drug-running boats that have killed more than 80 people over the last three months.

On September 2, U.S. military personnel fired a missile striking a vessel in the Caribbean that carried 11 people accused of trafficking drugs into the United States.

When two survivors emerged from the wreckage, a Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions to “kill everybody,” according to The Washington Post, citing officials with direct knowledge of the operation.

  • itisileclerk@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    What is the difference between the US military, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and Hamas? The US military is the most effective, the Israeli Defense Forces are less effective than the US military, but much more than Hamas, Hamas is the least effective. Okay, the Russian military is probably the least effective. Let me rephrase this. To someone, someone’s hero is a terrorist. And vice versa. If a military force can kill without accountability, it is a terrorist organization, like Hamas or the IDF.

  • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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    1 day ago

    Our ancestors didn’t defy kings, battle their own wayward countrymen, charge trenches, and rush fortified beaches headlong into the jaws of death. . .

    . . .for. This. Whatever the disgraceful hell this is.

    About now, every real patriot for what’s good about this country should feel a profound and gnawing agony at every passing day these monsters aren’t held to account and rendered incapable of further harm to humanity, whatever form that would take.

    We need to make it loud and clear that if “the other team” in places of power doesn’t use every single tool at their disposal to end this threat IMMEDIATELY, they are complicit fools and will be held accountable as accomplices to whatever untold horrors would await us, should we refuse to hold the line.

    • Wilco@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Yea, this bothers me. At this point I agree that any politician that doesnt start fighting this Nazi is a traitor to the US.

  • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    As I understand, not a single one of these boats were even remotely capable of making it to America to begin with. Not without refueling, which isn’t likely that we’re set up for it.

    This was all a coordinated targeted mass murder right in front of our faces and they need to be tried and punished for every one.

  • switcheroo@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    That sounds rather… war-crime-y.

    Should the orange cancer expect sternly written letters off displeasure (that are written at an adult comprehension level and not written in crayon, leading to him disregarding them ofc)?

  • WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    But Americans won’t take Hegseth out because that would just be so uncouth and WE WOULD BE NO BETTER THAN HIM.

    Cowards.

  • DeICEAmerica@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    There will be a National Lottery for seats for when he and his ilk are read their sentences and have their fusillade carried out.

  • Victor@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    God you can just tell that he gets off on the feeling that he had the power to kill people. Gets him moist.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    11 people? There were 11 people on the boat? There’s no fucking way that was a drug smuggling boat. 11 people means at least nine people’s worth of weight that can’t be dedicated to drugs.

  • HailSeitan@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    If anybody is still under the impression that someone somewhere in the chain of command might refuse illegal orders, this tells you everything you need to know

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Unfortunately the US doesn’t consider that one to be an illegal order. It is heartless, and unnecessary. But ever since the advent of airpower the US has maintained that planes, helicopters, and drones are not required to accept surrender because it is impractical to impossible in any given situation. So the standard is usually to keep firing. Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom had notable exceptions with mass surrender instructions dropped beforehand. And again, I know that’s not reassuring. But this is why politics isn’t supposed to be a team game. This is the level of power we are making decisions on. For other things that are completely legal but most people don’t realize; heavy machineguns can absolutely be used to target individual soldiers; Flamethrowers are still 100 percent legal against military targets; You can be shot after your surrender is accepted, (I’ll expand below); You will be shot if you do not or cannot actively surrender; and Nobody respects the rule against shooting medics and medevacs.

      To expand on the most inflammatory one, the only time you are “safe” is while you are in custody. Modern combat operations move very fast and surrendering people are often left in place after their weapons are removed/destroyed. If they don’t actively surrender again to follow on forces then they are legal targets because we haven’t developed psychic powers yet. This especially matters with surrendered wounded who may not be in a condition to surrender again. Shooting bodies as you advance is legal and expected in a war. You just aren’t allowed to personally go back and shoot someone again without them presenting a new threat. With that information in mind you should also know the US military and any professional military sends multiple waves across a battlefield. It is incredibly lethal, by design.

      I say all this not to call you out but to highlight that war is a giant bag of dicks that most people outside the military are still naïve about.

      The other pressing thing here is this is an order to fire on a declared enemy, outside our border. Meaning the president signed a sheet of paper declaring them to be the enemy, Congress hasn’t thrown a flag, and they are beyond the jurisdiction of law enforcement. That is very clear cut to the military. If you change any one of those 3 parameters then things go to gray zone or illegal very quickly. Someone asked me some months ago while Trump was vomiting about Greenland if the military would obey that order versus an order to hunt down and kill Americans inside America. And the answer is Greenland would be fucked but those Americans are pretty safe from the military. They are not however safe from anonymous DOJ task forces and DHS.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          To use force against Americans inside America without martial law, an act of Congress, or an extenuating circumstance like self defense.

          Trump really pushed the envelope by ordering troops to accompany ICE raids under the authorization to guard federal property. But they still couldn’t do anything but defend themselves technically. It’s just that he effectively tied their self defense to the ICE agents defense. I’m pretty sure the courts knocked that one back and the military pulled back though. Which is why they’ve gone so hard with Border Patrol, ICE, and any volunteers from within DHS/DOJ that have badges.

          • Jhex@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            To use force against Americans inside America without martial law, an act of Congress, or an extenuating circumstance like self defense.

            so nothing because the idiot king can declare martial law with no justification just as he has broken rules or laws over 200 times in less than a year

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              13 hours ago

              That’s what these court battles in Los Angeles and Chicago have been about. I’ve been staying very top level but suffice to say he cannot just yell martial law and charge into a blue city. Laws describe when and how it is proper to do so. The court push back is important not because we think it will restrain Trump, but because the generals are not personally loyal to Trump. As a reminder, Trump wanted to shoot Americans in his first term. It was the establishment that told him no. He tried to directly order the military and a general literally yelled at him for it.

              The threat is overwhelmingly from DHS and DOJ. They have the authority, ability, and will. ICE just got funded to an amount equal the British military. The only thing missing is the volunteers and the federal law enforcement training centers have pushed back training for anyone other than ICE to handle the glut of new ICE agents. ICE’s detention budget is also now far larger than the federal prison budget. They could theoretically hold about 8 percent of the US population with the budget they got.

              Everyone is worried about the military while our federal law enforcement is doing military style presence patrols in Los Angeles.

              • Jhex@lemmy.world
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                10 hours ago

                I’ve been staying very top level but suffice to say he cannot just yell martial law and charge into a blue city

                I want to believe you/this, but honestly laws only matter when they are enforced and so far, it looks like nobody wants to enforce them against the Orange Pedo, therefore, he is subject to no laws

                The court push back is important not because we think it will restrain Trump, but because the generals are not personally loyal to Trump

                What gives you this impression? I have yet to see even hesitancy from any General in following any order so far

                As a reminder, Trump wanted to shoot Americans in his first term. It was the establishment that told him no. He tried to directly order the military and a general literally yelled at him for it.

                Yes but this second term is something else, everybody fell in line and the idiot king has SCOTUS bought and paid for

                Everyone is worried about the military while our federal law enforcement is doing military style presence patrols in Los Angeles.

                Precisely

            • arctanthrope@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              that’s not illegal actually. if it were, administrations could try to invent felonies for opposition leaders to have committed. now this particular felon should also have been ineligible to run under the 14th amendment, but he was never charged or tried for those crimes, let alone convicted

      • Dragonstaff@leminal.space
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        2 days ago

        This has not been adjudicated by anyone. You can say “the US doesn’t consider it to be an illegal order”. Maybe there is some JAG letter somewhere that says helicopters are not required to accept surrender. But there is nothing that precludes trying everyone involved for war crimes.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          Oh it’s definitely been US policy for decades. The videos are out there. If you want to talk about what constitutes being “out of combat” and whether the Hague would take the case it could certainly be an interesting exercise. However I doubt the Hague would take it up and neither the Department of Justice nor the military courts are going to take it up without a directive from the President. Democrats aren’t going to fall all over themselves to give that directive either though because it would mean Biden and Obama also officially presided over a regime of war crimes.

          At the end of the day it comes down to the US having X policy that lies in a gray area of international law. Which leads me to another Bush era policy that we’ve never really rescinded. If you’re not a uniformed soldier in service to an enemy country the US doesn’t consider you to have the protections that a soldier would have after surrendering. It was a neat little policy that we used to allow ourselves to torture people labeled terrorists. So yeah that’s another thing I expect to hear in the next few days, “cartel members are unlawful combatants.”

      • Jhex@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        and they’ll do similar mental gymnastics forever…

        the military won’t save you Americans

    • Fit_Series_573@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      There was the one high profile commander who stepped down du to this. Wish more would follow suit since it’s technically illegal for all involved to disobey orders unless they all do so collectively.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      2 days ago

      There’s a big difference between this and shooting at unarmed American citizens who are legally exercising their 1st Amendment Rights.

        • Dragonstaff@leminal.space
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          2 days ago

          Yes. If Americans haven’t proved they’re generally racist and Nationalistic, I don’t know what else it would take.

          It sounds like you’re trying to make a gotcha, but it’s quite fair to say a member of the military who murders Venezuelans at whim may still balk if ordered to kill white American.