Love the guy, but his doctor should dial back his HRT dosage a touch. What national interest is served by putting out statements like this? Just do, don’t talk.
Remember Hegseth views himself as a Christian warrior. He was a pick from the heritage foundation, where a Christian nationalist named Russell Vought wrote a lot of the project 2025 plan. This person is unhinged but he has the qualities those pulling the strings want.
I'm going to assume that maybe he's getting a bit too caught up in his own rhetoric, and this doesn't mean that he's actually going to give that order.
Hopefully?
But he should at very least know better if he's the secdef. If anything, the civilian leadership should be more restrained than the military.
And it does signal that no one is briefing him beforehand on things you really should or shouldn't say.
Why does this sound like it was written by a sixth grader writing an essay about his favorite video game? I couldn't help but to keep getting a sense of "thou doth protest too much".
Just comes off like a puffed-up pigeon strutting around the stage, trying to cover up his own insecurities. The true great military leaders dont act like this. Even Patton, who has that kind of reputation, was far more thoughtful. On the journey to invade North Africa, Patton took the time to study the Quran, to better understand the people of the land he was to fight over.
I doubt Hegseth even knows what it means to give quarter, probably just said it because he thought it sounded tough
That's not limited to "great military leaders". Even ordinary military leaders do not commit war crimes aloud, on their own web sites.
And trying to avoid complicity via "I'm not a criminal, I am merely ignorant of my job" is also not the mark of somebody with even faint pretensions to competence.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 40.6 ms ] threadThe Hague Convention IV (which the US is a signatory to) has this to say:
>Art. 23. In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden
>(d) To declare that no quarter will be given;
This is a pretty significant statement given that Hegseth is explicitly stating that the US will summarily execute surrendering Iranian combatants.
"CNN doesn't think we thought of that. It's a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better."
Hopefully?
But he should at very least know better if he's the secdef. If anything, the civilian leadership should be more restrained than the military.
And it does signal that no one is briefing him beforehand on things you really should or shouldn't say.
I doubt Hegseth even knows what it means to give quarter, probably just said it because he thought it sounded tough
And trying to avoid complicity via "I'm not a criminal, I am merely ignorant of my job" is also not the mark of somebody with even faint pretensions to competence.