LEMON DROP | Time To Boot Pete Hegseth!
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What did General Mark Hertling say about the Venezuela boat strikes being illegal?
I want to begin with an interview that really stopped me in my tracks because it's not every day that you hear a retired commanding general of the United States Army speak the way that General Mark Hertling spoke. It was a fascinating interview. And when a man like that chooses his words carefully, when he slows down, when he takes a moment, takes the time, and he lifts his eyebrows, you know, just a little. If you watch him, he's a very moderated guy all the time. But he was particularly moderated. moderated on this interview when he says that what happened he believes in september on those boats in venezuela in the waters there that it was illegal that it was immoral that it is dangerous um you see the weight of his career behind him and a career
behind it and you see a man who has commanded soldiers and life and death situations even talks you know in this interview about some of the situations that he's been in a man who has taught the law of armed conflict and a man who understands not just what war is but what war requires here's general hurtling
not a lawyer but i will tell you that if a senior official urged someone else a military person to conduct such a strike then we are morally bound to ask additional questions that any democracy should be asking were these unlawful orders it appears they were were they issued or were they implied we don't know that that's part of an investigation did the service member feel pressured to act unlawfully. We don't know that either. Were there the attempts to suppress the supporting? Was additional guidance provided? These aren't political questions, Joe. These are constitutional ones, legal ones, and moral injury ones.
And you hear something there, and he said it appears that they were illegal. Did you hear that? He said something in there that this country is not used to hearing on national television. You hear a general say out loud that the Secretary of Defense, when he says it appears, issued an unlawful order. Listen to it.
Soldiers or anyone who is asked to pull a trigger in this kind of situation, not only does it illegally based on what they've been taught, but it also creates, and the reason we have these rules is to avoid moral injury for those individuals.
So let me tell you why that matters. And it matters a lot. He's speaking the truth here. He and Senator Mark Kelly, I believe, are speaking the truth, are the clearest voices in this moment that speak from just a sense of knowing, having been there. General Herling is not a partisan pundit. He's not a blowtorch on social media. As I said, he's a very moderated man. He's a grown-up. He's an adult. He's one of the most respected voices on military ethics in America. And when he was asked about the Washington Post reporting that Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. force to kill everybody on a civilian vessel, including survivors clinging to wreckage, He didn't hesitate. He said, if you want to say the quiet part out loud, he just said it out loud that it was an illegal order.
And it looks like it was. He said that every service member is trained to refuse illegal orders. Listen.
The reason we have these rules is to avoid moral injury for those individuals. And doing any of this, along with some of the other things that we have watched happen, the Secretary of Defense disparaging legal oversight, sidelining JAG officers, eliminating the press to report on such actions, or treat accountability for such actions as an enemy, they do more than risk
Why does Hertling argue unlawful orders cause moral injury to service members?
unlawful actions, they weaken the moral foundation that makes our military so great.
And that's what's happening right now. In this interview, he also hearkened back to all of those senior military officials and generals and such being summoned to Washington, to the Pentagon, and then being told that they, you know, had to change what they were doing because I guess the Hegseth rule, the Trump rule, they want them to behave a certain way, which may be unconstitutional. which would possibly go against the military code of justice.
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