Pete Hegseth declared that our military will provide “no quarter” to Iranians, which is, in fact, a war crime. Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) responded by informing him that such an order is an illegal order.
“We will keep pressing. We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies,” Hegseth said during a briefing on Friday that has shocked observers. Giving enemy soldiers “no quarter” means outright executing them even if they surrender and/or are unarmed rather than taking them prisoner.
Of course, such behavior is a war crime under the Hague and Geneva Conventions. And ordering our troops to provide “no quarter” is illegal, the exact kind of illegal order that Kelly and several of his Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate reminded our servicemen and women in a video that sent Donald Trump and Hegseth into a rage last year.
As you may recall, Trump and Hegseth sought to prosecute Kelly for sedition, but settled for punishing him by trying to reduce his rank and pension, which a federal judge has blocked.
Now, Kelly has an example of an illegal order Hegseth is presumably giving our troops, and was quick to throw it in his face.
“No quarter” isn’t some wanna be tough guy line – it means something. An order to give no quarter would mean to take no prisoners and kill them instead,” Kelly wrote on social media. “That would violate the law of armed conflict. It would be an illegal order. It would also put American service members at greater risk. Pete Hegseth should know better than to throw around terms like this.”
Indeed, if American soldiers won’t give quarter to enemy combatants, it puts a target on their backs as well because enemy combatants don’t have to give any quarter to them. It’s dangerous and irresponsible for Hegseth to give such an order, and it makes him just as much of a threat to our troops as the enemy. They need to start treating him as such and arrest him and his boss.
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