Democrats who infuriated President Donald Trump when they said that U.S. military service members can refuse illegal orders are now sounding the alarm over Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s recent comments that the U.S. military would give “no quarter” in prosecuting the administration’s war in Iran.
Last week, Hegseth offered harsh words about how the United States would conduct its military operations in Iran.
“We will keep pressing,” he said. “We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.”
But the words alarmed many since the legal definition of giving “no quarter” means to kill enemy combatants rather than taking them prisoner. And “no mercy” only amplified that interpretation. The Geneva Conventions explicitly prohibit the practice.
Last year, a coterie of Democratic members of the House and Senate who worked in the national security space or served in the military released a video saying that U.S. military service members could refuse illegal orders from their superiors.
The group included Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan along with Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris DeLuzio of Pennsylvania, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.
In response, Trump accused the lawmakers of committing “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR,” which he called “punishable by DEATH.” But Hegseth’s words seemed to vindicate their fears.
“I mean, it just continues, just the irresponsible way he’s showing leadership in this war,” Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, told The Independent. Houlahan offered a more blunt criticism.
“If he operates that way, that is a war crime,” Houlahan told The Independent.
Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut and naval officer, sent a letter to Hegseth asking what he meant by the words.
“Because that statement of No Quarter coming from a Secretary of Defense is very alarming, because that is against the law of armed conflict, and it’s against the Geneva Convention and other things,” Kelly told The Independent.
Kelly has been in the crosshairs of the administration ever since he appeared in the video. Hegseth attempted to lower his Navy retirement rank and therefore his pension, but a federal judge blocked the efforts. Hegseth has sought to challenge the judicial order.
But Kelly said he had significant concerns.
“I want some clarification from him about whether or not this is just now the new policy of the Department of Defense,” Kelly said. “He doesn’t get to make those kind of decisions. And if it’s. not, what did he mean?”
Throughout his tenure, Hegseth has focused on restoring “lethality” to “warfighters.”
“No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically-correct wars,” he said at the beginning of the war.
Goodlander was alarmed by the words.
“He should immediately retract what he said, and he should clarify to our country and to the world that under no circumstances, consistent with our laws, our morality and our strategic choices we’ve made as a country, will any US forces order, threaten or tolerate no quarter,” she told The Independent.
Goodlander, who served as a Navy intelligence officer and then in the Justice Department, said Hegseth’s words are part of larger pattern of troubling behavior.
“He’s spoken about maximum lethality and replacing that with tepid legality. He has disparaged our laws casually, and in the case of his statements earlier this week, it is deeply, deeply troubling and demands an immediate retraction and clarification from the secretary of Defense,” she said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson for his part did not comment on the statement.
“I haven’t heard that,” he told The Independent, saying he did not want to comment on something “out of context.”
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