It’s been reported by both the Washington Post and CNN that Whiskey Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense (not War) has committed either war crime or murder. Well, they didn’t come right out and say that, but they’re reporting he gave orders to “kill everybody” (‘everybody’ in this case refers to the 11 people aboard a civilian vessel allegedly carrying drugs).
Whether it was murder or a war crime depends on whether you 1) buy into the Trump administration’s bullshit argument that the folks on that boat were involved in a “non-international armed conflict” or 2) believe those 11 people were ordinary run-of-the-mill drug smugglers. If you go for Door Number 2, then killing them with a couple of rockets is plain old mass murder. You can’t just execute people you suspect are drug smugglers; you have to go through that whole ‘due process’ business guaranteed by the US Constitution. (Also? Eleven people? On a smuggling run? Them’s some really inefficient smugglers.)
If you buy Door Number 1, then it’s a war crime. It becomes a war crime because the initial rocket attack didn’t kill everybody. Two people survived the first explosion and were clinging to the wreckage when Hegseth (allegedly) ordered a second strike to kill them. The Geneva Conventions clearly state that people who are not capable of engaging in combat due to “sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause” have to be “treated humanely.” Blowing up people clinging to the wreckage of a boat is pretty fucking far from humane.
Either way–murder or war crime–Pete Hegseth ought to be removed from office and…I don’t know, made to cling to some wreckage in the Caribbean.
Hegseth, it seems, sees himself as some sort of modern-day crusader. He has a Jerusalem cross (also known as the crusader cross) tattooed on his chest and the words Deus Vult (God wants it) tattooed on his bicep. Both of that phrase and that symbol can be found on the coat of arms of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem–a militant group of Christian warriors founded in 1099 during the First Crusade to protect Christians and Christian property.
It’s maybe instructive to remember (or learn for the first time) that not all of those famous crusades took place in what are called the holy lands. Nor were they all directed against Muslims. But they were all really really really fucking brutal. For example, the Albigensian Crusade (1209 to 1229) took place in southern France and northern Italy and its purpose was to eliminate the Cathars, a Christian sect considered by the Church (there was only the one recognized Christian church back then) to be heretics.
It was a popular crusade among the ruling classes of the early 13th century because 1) it was a LOT less fuss and expense to go kill people in Europe than to travel all the way to the Middle East, where they spoke different languages and ate strange food, 2) unlike the Muslims, the Cathars were pacifists, so killing them was less dangerous, and 3) you still got cred from the Church for being a Good Christian.
There was a big Cathar community in a town called Béziers on the Mediterranean coast. A crusader army under the command of Arnaud Amalric was sent to deal with them. There was an attempt to get the local Cathars to surrender themselves, but it failed. During the negotiations, a small skirmish got out of hand. Amalric was told that it was impossible to differentiate between the ‘good’ Christians and the Cathars, so he gave the order, “Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius,” which is translated as “Slay them. The Lord knows those that are His.” In other words, kill them all and let God sort it out.
Amalric reported it to the Pope, writing “Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20,000 people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt.”
Assuming the reporting is accurate (and given all we know about him, it certainly could be), Hegseth’s order to “Kill everyone” can be seen as a smaller, more modern version of the crusader order, “Caedite eos,” Slay them. If they’re not guilty, God will deal with it. So long as you’re doing God’s work, it’s okay. You can’t make an omelet, and all that.
Three years after the massacre at, Arnaud Amalric was made the archbishop of Narbonne. Three months after sinking that particular boat, Pete Hegseth is facing a Congressional investigation. With Comrade Trump as president, we may soon see Hegseth become an archbishop.
gregfallis.com 
I tthink Secretary of WTF needs to pay a visit to Leavenworth KS. He can do an inspection of the Ft Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks and also scope out the Federal Penitentiary while he is there. My electrician dad did electrical work at both. He always said he’d choose the fed pen hands down.
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Gwen, when you’re going down on a felony count, ALWAYS opt for the federal system if you can. They’re safer, better funded, better staffed, better food, and significantly less chance of getting shanked.
Of course, the best possible path for a felony conviction is a pardon from a corrupt president.
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I’m ignorant about all this stuff (Christians vs. Catholics), so apologies if this is a stupid question…. Do you think PH follows the Pope? ’cause the Pope sure isn’t supporting all this. (Thanks!)
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Regardless of his social media feeds, the basic fact is Pete Hegseth only follows Trump.
Unlike a lot of folks, I don’t think Trump enjoys killing people. I think he loves having the POWER to order people killed. The people being killed are irrelevant; it’s the authority he craves.
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He loves making people suffer, he just doesn’t want to do the dirty work himself. During his first term, how many people did he fire by tweet or through some subordinate? He wouldn’t/couldn’t even fire people face to face.
I read an article yesterday about a narcissist, and he says something about himself that I believe exactly describes T (just on a different level):
“A lot of the arrogant things Skidmore says in a social situation – that he’s the best at ‘x’, or a leader in his field – he says he believes on some level. ‘At the same time as I believe it, it’s also a front and I’m trying to get other people to assure me that it’s true. I see people in a hierarchy, it’s the only way I can make sense of humans. I don’t love myself, but I can only feel good about myself if I try to believe I’m better than other people. I’m in a constant struggle to promote myself above others, so I don’t feel lesser than them.’”
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We should add piracy to that list.
47 has been saying this took place in international waters as though that excuses it which makes no sense. But blowing up multiple boats in international waters qualifies as piracy.
I suppose the next step is 47 claiming he declared war in his mind so it’s all hunky dory.
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I’m under the impression that piracy includes the intent of non-state actors to acquire plunder, which clearly wouldn’t be the case here. State actors seeking plunder would be privateering, I think.
Now I want to look up the historical definitions of ‘piracy,’ but I don’t have time to do that now. Interesting, though, isn’t it.
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I was going with the American Heritage google definition, the first one.
“Robbery or other serious acts of violence committed at sea.”
I’m pretty sure that murder counts as an “other serious act of violence” although these… things might disagree on the grounds of “Pete always wanted to say ‘kill them all’ “
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BTW, my understanding is that piracy holds the possibility of loot, but the term for piracy which is literally done for the loot is “privateering”. It was supposed to have been a tactic (strategy?) used during the Civil War to outsource the sinking of enemy vessels. Actors outside of the regular chain of command were allowed to sink or board, I suppose, vessels and claim any loot from that, sort of like hiring mercenaries where their pay is whatever they find when they’re done killing.
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Privateering predates the US Civil War by at least 3 centuries. Henry III of England issued the first recognized Letters of Marque back in 1243. These were essentially licenses to seize ships (& their crews & cargo) belonging to the King’s enemies. In return, the Crown agreed to split the profits with the privateer. It was a clever way to commit economic warfare, especially when used against Spanish merchant ships bearing gold from the Americas.
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That’s the ticket!
I guess I could have dived deeper on that one, but now I don’t have to.
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I hope the whistleblower is sending the video evidence to The Hague
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