Press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the apparent war crime was legal even as she said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth knew nothing about it.
The White House on Monday shifted the blame for killing the survivors of a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and onto the commanding admiral.
Killing survivors of a destroyed vessel is literally an example of a war crime in the U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual. “For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal,” the manual reads.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt, nevertheless, repeatedly stated that it was legal – even as she further claimed, as Donald Trump did Sunday, that Hegseth was unaware that it had happened.


And this is one of the many, many good reasons why one does not comply with illegal orders, damn it!
Ah, yes the most upstanding army that didn’t comply to illegal orders in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria et al.
The fuck you guys smoking?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging
A proud American tradition
That just underscores the point I made.