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Jay Wilson's avatar

When our Sociopath of War Hegseth shrugs at the rules of war, he’s not projecting strength—he’s gambling with the lives of every American service member. The rules of engagement aren’t moral window dressing; they’re a fragile, reciprocal contract that helps keep captured pilots from being tortured, executed, or disappeared.

If we signal that mercy is weakness and “maximum lethality” is the only principle, we shouldn’t be surprised when adversaries adopt the same logic. In that world, a downed pilot isn’t a prisoner of war—just a target that hasn’t hit the ground yet.

Jack's avatar

The US military has been remarkably effective. Has been. Setting aside Trump & Hegseth (enough has been said about their incompetence), the rot is going deep. Top leaders have already been purged for political reasons, and this week we learned of four colonels whose promotions were denied personally by Hegseth, apparently because two are Black & the others are women. It appears that the four-star who disagreed with Hegseth has been retired, along with some other generals. Hard to keep up. Hegseth celebrated the Easter weekend by holding a service for Protestant Christians (no Roman Catholics) and firing the top army chaplain. So at the same time as he's replacing experienced, competent leadership with politically correct officers who adhere to the right kind of religion, he's crushing the morale of the rest of the service. An aviator down behind enemy lines, and all you hear from the CinC is "Take the oil?"

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