War Crime or Murder?

Posted: December 2, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An AI generated cartoon from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that he posted on “X” in response to war crime accusations. Franklin is a character from books and an animated TV series for young children . Apparently, the Secretary has nothing better to do than to “own the libs.”

The United States continues to attack unarmed boats at sea under the guise of stopping alleged narco-terrorists operating in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. To date they have attacked at least 23 boats and killed over 80 people. The president and his cabinet allege that the boats carry drugs that are killing tens of thousands of Americans. As I have explained in previous posts, such claims are baloney. The administration has yet to present any concrete evidence that the boats are being used in the drug trade or to explain exactly how this is a direct threat to the United States since the boats are too small with too little fuel to directly reach the United States. The president wrongly asserts that he can declare anyone a terrorist and thus they can be legally killed by the U.S. Armed Forces.

In the last few days, the Washington Post published an article asserting that the Secretary of Defense ordered the destruction of the first boat attacked on 2 September this year, with the order to “kill everybody.” There were eleven people onboard, which to those of us that have participated in stopping the drug trade, means it is unlikely that there were significant, if any, drugs on board because the number of people limits the cargo space. There are usually only three people on drug boats like these. After the first weapon hit the boat — the only video released to the public — two people were observed in the water clinging to the wreckage. A second attack followed to kill the unarmed, helpless survivors. This is in direct contrast to everything that the United States holds near and dear and is a crime under U.S. law, international law, and the Department of Defense Law of War Manual which in section 18.3.2.1 describing clearly illegal orders and violations says, “for example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.” It is the same as the German U-boat commanders machine gunning survivors in lifeboats after hitting a ship with torpedoes.

Most legal experts, former military officers and national security officials understand that the entire operation is illegal. It is not a military problem, it is a legal problem. Even if the people in those boats are drug runners, they are criminals, not terrorists and not a direct threat to Americans. If the attacks are illegal, then the United States is murdering people on the high seas. Even if one believes that the entire operation is legal, then a war crime was committed. Trump and his administration claim that this is to stop the illegal drug trade, which would be humorous even if it were true. The people in the boats are not cartel members or anything but mostly poor fishermen that have been coerced into transporting the cargo or paid a few hundred dollars to help feed their family. This is not to say that anyone condones such activity, but no one is going after the real drug lords or manufacturing plants or distribution centers. Instead we have a Secretary of Defense acting like a 12 year old with new toys to play with. After the first video went public, the Secretary was on Fox News bragging about how he ordered the operation and watched the whole thing “live.” Clearly he knew what happened and observing his personality, he probably thought it was really cool to kill people.

There is now a concerted effort to pin the whole thing on the operational commander Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, USN. At the time he was the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) commander in Fort Bragg North Carolina. Trump and Hegseth are publicly washing their hands of the whole thing by claiming “support” for the Admiral who they say ordered the strikes. In fact, Admiral Bradley should be held accountable. Whether or not Hegseth ordered the second strike, the Admiral should have known it was an illegal order. But clearly, by his own statements, Hegseth was involved as the senior person in the chain of command that conducted the attack. Therefore he is liable for a war crime. Or murder.

I suspect that there has been push-back from the military about the anti-fishing boat operation. As I wrote earlier, Admiral Alvin Holsey, USN is resigning two years early from his post in charge of the military’s U.S. Southern Command responsible for the Caribbean and Latin America. Widespread reporting indicates that he is leaving after arguing with Hegseth over these operations. Additional reporting indicates that military Judge Advocates General (JAG) did not clear these operations. They decided that they were illegal. The final opinion on the matter — claiming that the U.S. was in ” non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations” — came from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel. In other words, non-military people that are coopted in Pam Bondi’s DOJ that is running amok.

Remember that one of Hegseths first moves when voted into office (by one vote — the Vice President’s) was to fire scores of JAGs. Additionally, I warned back in September that Hegseth’s speech to all flag and general officers and senior enlisted at Quantico Virginia had some very disturbing words in it. It turns out that he was signaling that war crimes were just fine with him. As a reminder, here is what he said about the Rules of Engagement (ROE) — essentially what is legal or illegal during a particular operation.

“We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.” (emphasis added)

Apparently telling people not to kill unarmed survivors that pose no threat is stupid. What a great patriot!

Only an unserious person would think that all of this is about stopping drugs and killing terrorists. There are several “tells.” First, that they did not want any survivors in the first attack. Second, they actually returned two other surviving “narco-terrorists” from another attack on a “go-fast” boat to their native countries where they were allowed to go home. Why? If these are the worst of the worst why not take them prisoner, bring them to the U.S. and put them on trial? In my opinion they did not do that because they would have had to produce actual evidence of their crimes and the survivors would have a chance to tell the world what they were really doing. It would not hold up to public scrutiny. If you want further evidence that this is not a serious counter-drug operation Trump just pardoned and released the former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez who had been convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He was at the center of an enormous drug ring that brought tons of cocaine into the United States, tortured informants and is believed to be responsible for more than 50 murders. Trump said it was a political “witch hunt” by President Joe Biden and set him free. So much for the war on drugs.

So what is really going on? I do not know but I have an idea.

Besides the cosplay by Hegseth — have you noticed he is not in on any serious national issues such as the war in Ukraine, solving the Middle East crisis, working on China issues, procuring future weapons systems or anything else that a real Secretary of Defense would have in his portfolio? — there is something else going on.

I think that Trump sees the world as dominated by three people — himself, Putin and Xi. Each has, or should have, their own spheres of influence where they can pretty much do as they want. Trump’s domain is the Western Hemisphere. Putting 15,000 uniformed Americans in the Caribbean area of operations is a demonstration to the rest of the hemisphere that he has the power and the will to use it against anyone that gets in his way. Blowing up fishing boats is a manifestation of that power. He is showing that he can do anything that he wants. In Venezuela, it is to get oil for his billionaire oil buddies that are paying him what are, in essence, bribes by buying his crypto, bitcoins and “contributing” to his various vanity projects.

For Putin, Ukraine is his for the taking. Trump probably believes that Putin deserves to control Ukraine because Russia is a power and Ukraine is not. If one looks closely at the 28 point peace plan — experts can tell it was originally written in Russian and then translated into stilted English — it is really a surrender plan. It gives Russia everything they want with no guarantees of Ukrainian sovereignty. Note also that the prime negotiators for the Russians and the U.S. are billionaire businessmen. Included in the negotiations are many U.S.-Russian business deals ranging from oil to precious minerals to development projects. Ukrainian concerns are not Trump’s concerns. He has also offered to broker a “deal” between NATO and Russia. Wait. What? The U.S. is part of NATO, how could he do that? Because he does not believe in NATO and would leave it at the drop of a hat if it meant a deal with Russia where he benefits. (I have no idea, but some people speculate that the Russian intelligence agencies have copies or at least know what is in the Epstein files.)

Xi gets to have the western Pacific. Specifically he can take Taiwan without the U.S. offering any real resistance. China is big and powerful, Taiwan is not. Japan is not. China deserves it.

Note how Trump talks with such admiration about Putin and Xi. He thinks he is in their league and that they adore him as much as he adores them. So, lets divvy up the world and all its riches. Trump will make himself rich (he has already accumulated billions since he came into office) and he will make all of his billionaire buddies even richer. Same with Putin and Xi. Regional alliances and the rule of law are old fashioned. Plutocrats rule! We, the rich and powerful will run everything. If other people were as smart and savvy as we are they wouldn’t be poor and weak.

With that perspective, a lot of what this administration is doing makes sense. What’s a war crime against some peasants in a boat when we own the world?

Six Senators and Representatives with military and national security backgrounds released a video reminding the military that not only does one not have to obey an illegal order, it is the law as established in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) that they must not obey an illegal order. The six are 100 percent correct as any individual that has been in the military more than two months knows. Hegseth is clearly threatened as he is making a lot of noise about bringing Captain Mark Kelly, USN (ret) (now a Senator from Arizona) up before a court martial. (Officers serve at the pleasure of the president. Retired officers can be recalled to active duty at any time — even if it is extremely unusual.) The others are being threatened by the FBI. It is ridiculous and without any legal grounding to do so, but the intent is not to actually convict anyone. The intent is in the harassment, expenses and time involved in defending oneself. It is meant to instill fear and to inhibit criticism. The exercise of power against the powerless. The message is that if we can come after these high ranking people we can come for you. He also thinks that the military should be loyal to him, not to the Constitution. They should do whatever he orders them to do and the six are getting in his way. He even threatened to execute them.

Each of those participating in the video ended their explanation the same way that we should all be thinking — from “No Kings” demonstrations to quiet support for those in need. We should all remember their words which are the foundational motto of the United States Navy:

DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP!

Bizarre. Embarrassing. Scary.

Posted: October 1, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yesterday Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Pete Hegseth ordered roughly eight hundred Admirals, Generals and Senior Enlisted Advisers to Quantico, Virginia so that he could heckle, humiliate, and embarrass them while giving a totally political speech. Not to be out done, Trump showed up 26 minutes late to give a 73 minute campaign speech that was barely coherent. This was the best use of the time and money (estimated to be in the millions of dollars) of our most senior military leaders from around the world?

The good news? Those present demonstrated to the American people that our military leaders can remain apolitical in the face of brazen attempts to use them as props for some harebrained tirade against a “woke” military. They were polite but Hegseth’s and Trump’s applause lines fell flat. No applause. Or any other reaction. Trump in particular seemed nonplussed that his usual antics had no impact.

Hegseth’s speech (transcript here) and delivery reminded me, as one commentator noted, of Major Frank Burns of M.A.S.H. fame (the television version. I know. I am old.) He came across as the totally unaware disgruntled junior officer that is pissed that he cannot do what he thinks he should be doing rather than what he is told to do. Lots of talk about “woke” (apparently the military started down the woke path in 1947 when the Department of War was replaced by the name National Military Establishment which in 1949 became the Department of Defense). He railed that women in combat roles ruined the “warrior ethos” by lowering standards (and plugged his book on the subject — a true Trump Administration member, never miss a chance to make a buck). Of course, he forgot to mention that the standards have been the same for men and women since the beginning of integrating women into combat positions. He denigrated minorities. He talked about pushups and haircuts. He stated that many of the officers he fired and most still in the services were only there because they were women and minorities, saying “for too long, we’ve promoted too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts.” Of course. How could they possibly be qualified to lead when they did everything every white male did to get where they are?

You know what he did not talk about? Strategy. Equipping the force. Relations with allies. Regional threats. The future of warfare. Countering our adversaries around the world. Or any other national level policies that a SECDEF is supposed to focus on and help to formulate. Instead he is focused on redefining hazing and bullying. “We’re talking about words like bullying and hazing and toxic. They’ve been weaponized and bastardized inside our formations, undercutting commanders and NCOs [Non-commissioned Officers — enlisted leaders]. No more. Setting, achieving and maintaining high standards is what you all do. And if that makes me toxic, then so be it.” He added that physically and verbally abusing recruits will be okay again because these are the “tried and true methods” that turn new recruits into “warriors.”

As a twenty-eight year Navy veteran I was appalled, embarrassed and angry at the way that he spoke about my, our, military. Apparently, no one since World War II knew how to run America’s first line of defense at all. Only he and Trump know how. He was insulting.

Underneath the in-house blather about pushups and “dudes in dresses” one thing caught my eye because it is totally reckless. He already fired Inspectors General, Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers and civilian attorneys trained in the laws of warfare, the Constitution, the Geneva Convention and ethics. He intends to change the Rules of Engagement (ROE). This should worry us all. (Keep this in mind when I address Trump’s speech below.) As Hegseth put it, “we also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.” This spells TROUBLE. Visions of Lt. William Calley who led the Mai Lai massacre of civilian men, women and children in Viet Nam in 1968 come to many people’s minds. These words of Hegseth’s are repugnant to today’s military. The U.S. Armed Forces take pride in being the best in the world at fighting hard while doing their best to protect civilians — of any country. I am sure that our professional military officers and enlisted were insulted when he said in this same context that today is the “liberation of America’s warriors, in name, in deed and in authorities. You kill people and break things for a living. You are not politically correct and don’t necessarily belong always in polite society.” So says the Fox News weekend host about our highly educated officer corps that has as their foremost mission being prepared to fight in order to deter conflict. (As we used to say “Deter. Defend. Defeat.”)

Clearly Hegseth has no concept of what the modern military does, of the people that are in it, what modern warfare is about, or where and how our enemies are taking advantage of new technologies. He wants to refight World War II using the same training and tactics that won the Big One. Embarrassing.

I thought it was the worst speech I have ever heard in the context of understanding the audience, their ethos, their values and their profession. At least until I heard the Commander-in-Chief’s speech. (You can find it here. As of this writing there is no official White House transcript. The administration stopped providing verbatim transcripts some months ago because it only highlighted how incoherent Trump is in his public remarks.)

Clearly thrown off guard by the lack of response to his “greatest hits” Trump mumbled through a monologue of lies, exaggerations, political attacks, whining and self-congratulatory remarks with a rambling seventy-three minute stream of consciousness. I’ll spare you the details (although there is a classic bit in there about steps — clearly Trump is afraid of falling, but Obama was great at steps — as well as a reference to Victory At Sea the old 1950’s television show about World War II which prompted him to say “it’s something we’re actually considering, the concept of battleship.”) Unfortunately, thrown into the mix were some really scary ideas. I can only imagine what his audience thought about the competence, knowledge and mental health of our Commander-in-Chief.

About halfway into his talk, Trump started ruminating about the state of our cities and how immigrants have made them unsafe. “You know, the Democrats run most of the cities that are in bad shape. We have many cities in great shape, too, by the way. I want you to know that. But it seems that the ones that are run by the radical-left Democrats — what they’ve done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles — they’re very unsafe places, and we’re going to straighten them out one by one.” Pretty much standard fare for the MAGA crowd. But then, it became threatening. “And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war, too. It’s a war from within.” In other words, all of you combatant commanders listening to my speech, “now hear this!” We are going to be using the United States military to fight a war in our own cities.

Too far-fetched? Maybe I misunderstood the intent? I don’t think so since he then went on to say “And I told Pete [Hegseth] we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military — National Guard, but military — because we’re going into Chicago very soon. That’s a big city with an incompetent governor. Stupid governor.” Remember that he continually talks about his political critics as “radical left lunatics.” In a speech he conceded that “I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them.” He also calls Democrats “terrorists”. And there we go. He wants troops in Portland, Oregon to use “Full Force” against American citizens. He already has ICE agents in military gear wearing masks and little to no identification “disappearing” folks off of our nation’s streets. Now take another look at Hegseth’s remarks about ROE.

And this from Trump to the military leaders at Quantico, “last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control. It won’t get out of control.“

One positive thing that may have happened yesterday is that our military leaders saw with their own eyes how unhinged our president actually is and the dangerous ideas he has about how to consolidate his power over our country. Everything that he and his minion at the Pentagon said yesterday flies fully in the face of our military’s traditions, values, ethics and their oath to uphold the Constitution — with no trace of loyalty to one man. I hope that they can hold fast.

No Limits? No Constitution.

Posted: September 29, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I have been away for awhile. If I thought we were on the path to authoritarianism a month ago, I have dropped the Pollyanna wishful thinking and now know that we are under a very real authoritarian regime. That regime no longer pretends to be doing the people’s business or even trying to couch their activities in some dressed up guise of justification. Now, they take the most blatant un-Constitutional actions and do not even try to hide it.

A quick look at what has happened over the past few weeks gives a giant red flashing light that we are in authoritarian territory. A few examples:

  • The president wanted a comedian off the air and he was subsequently suspended from his late night show. A clear violation of the First Amendment. Stations he does not like should lose their broadcasting licenses. In Trump’s own words, “the stories are 97 percent bad. They’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad. See, I think that’s really illegal, personally.” “George Slopadopolous [sic] had to pay $16 million to me because of what he said, and that’s ABC… I think that reporting has to be at least accurate to an extent. Again, when somebody is given, 97 percent of the stories are bad about a person, that’s no longer free speech… that’s just cheating, and they cheat. And they become really members of the Democratic National Committee is what they are, the networks, in my opinion. They’re offshoots of the Democratic National Committee.”
  • Further attacking the First Amendment, officials in the Department of Defense (DOD) announced that reporters can no longer report on issues, classified or unclassified, that have not been officially released by DOD. “DoW [sic] information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” (DOW stands for Department of War, more cosplay by Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Pete Hegseth. Only Congress can change the department’s name.) This new requirement seriously hinders the public’s right to know what is happening in the Pentagon.
  • Representative Mikie Sherill (D-NJ) who is running for governor of the state discovered that her opponent received a nearly completely unredacted copy of her complete military file, including much personal information such as her Social Security Number, home address, insurance information, performance evaluations and other highly sensitive information in an attempt to dig up damaging information to hurt her run for governor. The information was provided by the Trump Administration through the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) headed by interim administrator Secretary of State Marco Rubio. To do so is illegal.
  • The U.S. claims it has now destroyed three small boats from Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea that the administration claims were operated by narco-terrorists smuggling fentanyl into the U.S. There is no legal basis for such action and the administration has provided no information to substantiate their claims. Those sized boats cannot reach the U.S. from Venezuela. (Most fentanyl in the U.S. comes from Mexico and China and is smuggled in vehicles at the U.S. – Mexico border).
  • Trump broke our justice system by ordering the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute his “enemies” starting with former FBI Director James Comey. Trump’s hand picked prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia refused to do so because of a lack of evidence. He was replaced by Trump’s personal lawyer (who also happens to be in charge of “cleaning up” the Smithsonian museum system). She has no prosecutorial experience. No career attorneys in the office would sign the paper work needed to bring an indictment. He has several more former and current officials that he is directing be prosecuted, including his own appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray.
  • The FBI and DOJ dropped an investigation into “Border Tsar” Tom Homan who last year took $50,000 in cash in a paper bag, captured on tape, from FBI agents posing as businessmen looking for favors from a new Trump administration. To date, no one, including Mr. Homan disputes he took the cash, only that there is no evidence it was a crime. (Maybe because $50,000 is chump change in this administration’s many grift and graft schemes?)
  • The most troubling of all developments to me in recent weeks is that Trump signed an Executive Order making “Antifa” a domestic terrorist organization. There are two problems with this. One, there are no laws in the U.S. that pertain to domestic terrorist organizations. Second, Antifa is not an organization. It is short hand for anti-fascist or opposition to fascism. It has no organizational attributes. There are no designated leaders. It is a loose coalition of individuals that protest decisions that they believe contributes to our government being run like a fascist dictatorship. There are no bank funds or identifiable assets or sources of income. Essentially it is just a protest movement and an ideology. So, in essence, Trump is trying to get the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to crack down on political dissent. Anyone, any organization, anything at all that Trump declares is part of, or contributes to, Antifa is a terrorist. Put plainly, if you do not support Trump or MAGA you are susceptible to being investigated, arrested and prosecuted at Trump’s direction. This runs counter to our Constitution in too many ways to enumerate.

The week to come is a potential historic breaking point. A few examples:

  • In a very dangerous development, Trump is shopping a Congressional bill that would allow him as president to declare any individual, organization or country in the world a narco-terrorist. It would allow him to use the U.S. military to eliminate those so designated. It does not define what exactly is a narco-terrorist and it does not geographically limit where force could be used. It gives Trump carte blanche to do as he sees fit. Scary powers for any president. In this president’s hands it is essentially a license to use the military where ever and how ever he desires.
  • SECDEF Hegseth ordered every general and flag officer (Generals and Admirals) in the world to come to the Marine Corps Base in Quantico Virginia tomorrow. Note that the DOD has the most secure video-conference capability in the world and that there is active conflict in some of the areas from which these officers were summoned. No one is sure about the purpose of the meeting. Originally it was just SECDEF that was going to be there. Now Trump has inserted himself into the proceedings. I am very worried about what this means. The possibilities range from forcing some sort of loyalty to Trump, to Hegseth lecturing seasoned combat veterans on what the “warrior ethos” means. That phrase is the Fox News personality’s go-to catch-all to justify whatever harebrained scheme he is promoting at the moment. I am most concerned that this is some kind of propaganda stunt to make it look like the senior military officers are in Hegseth’s and Trump’s camps on all of their un-Constitutional schemes. This has bad vibes all over it. I have no doubt that the officers will uphold their non-political professional demeanor. They will not applaud as Trump brags about his alleged macho accomplishments. They will resist every attempt to politicize the moment. However, AI, spliced video and other devious and unethical methods can be manipulated to make it look like they have pledged allegiance to Trump. Otherwise, why make them show up in person for a “lecture”?
  • The government runs out of money tomorrow night. Trump has directed that if that happens, he wants thousands of people fired from their jobs. Not furloughed as in other shutdowns. Fired. How will that be used to his advantage to strengthen his regime?
  • Trump is ordering the military to Portland Oregon to “save” the “war ravaged” city under siege from Antifa. A totally made up excuse justified by doctored video from years ago. He wants them to use “Full Force, if necessary” [sic]. There is nothing in any military Rules of Engagement (ROE) called “Full Force.” Nobody knows what that means but I suppose he thinks the military should shoot American citizens if he declares them to be Antifa. (Do you see a pattern building here?) The military does not enforce the law in the U.S. and they certainly do not shoot fellow citizens. This tenant is perhaps the most ingrained value in our current military. The Constitution comes first. Not a demented politician.
  • Trump is sending 50 billion dollars to Argentina to save their economy. America First my…. Argentina is going into economic ruin for the umpteenth time but Trump needs to save a fellow right wing wannabe dictator. Of course, thanks to tariffs, U.S. farmers cannot sell their crops to China and are going bankrupt. So, what countries are taking up the slack to sell to China? Brazil and, wait for it, Argentina. So Trump is bailing out an economy that is using his tariffs to save their own farmers while Americans are left holding the bag. America!

There is more. Too much more. This will be an important week. The onslaught on our rights and values continues. There is hope. Jimmy Kimmel got back on the air when most Americans, left leaning or right leaning, pushed back on the limits to free speech. That is the lesson of our time. Congress appears helpless, district and appeals courts push back on Trump only to be over ruled by the Supreme Court in unexplained “emergency” rulings, but the people still have impact.

Don’t accept the lies. Don’t ignore what is happening. Keep pushing.