<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/02/hegseth-us-soldiers-iraq-rules-engagement>
"Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, told soldiers under his command in
Iraq to ignore legal advice about when they were permitted to kill enemy
combatants under their rules of engagement.
The anecdote is contained in a book Hegseth wrote last year in which he also
repeatedly railed against the constraints placed on “American warfighters” by
the laws of war and the Geneva conventions.
Hegseth is currently under scrutiny for a 2 September attack on a boat
purportedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean, where survivors of a first strike
on the vessel were reportedly killed in a second strike following a verbal
order from Hegseth to “kill everybody”.
Hegseth has denied giving the order and retained the support of Donald Trump.
The US president said Hegseth told him “he did not say that, and I believe him,
100%”. But some US senators have raised the possibility that the US war
secretary committed a war crime."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
