Jon Duffy

Contributor: Don't mistake military escalation in Iran for an actual strategy What is imagined as calibrated pressure in Washington could easily be perceived as an existential threat in Tehran.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: Don't mistake military escalation in Iran for an actual strategy What is imagined as calibrated pressure in Washington could easily be perceived as an existential threat in Tehran.

Using military force as leverage in negotiations is not self-defense.

Air strikes can impose costs, but they cannot dictate how a determined adversary recalculates survival.

My latest in @latimes.com on Iran, force and constitutional process: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Here's a dirty little secret that isn't talked about much: we DO NOT currently have capability for a prolonged campaign against Iran or anyone else really. In 2017 I wrote the piece below explaining why the US, to use the term of art, are out of Schlitz. Nothing's really improved much since. 1/

Contributor: The U.S. military strategy in Iran feels eerily familiar Two decades after American forces invaded Iraq, the circumstances are different but the failure is unmistakable.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: Hegseth's war on diversity is eroding America's military edge Shrinking the pool of Americans who can serve while signaling that only certain types of people truly belong limits whose judgment shapes U.S. strategy.

Culture-war applause lines don’t win wars. Decision quality does.

My latest in @latimes.com: Hegseth’s war on diversity is eroding America’s military edge
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: The U.S. military strategy in Iran feels eerily familiar Two decades after American forces invaded Iraq, the circumstances are different but the failure is unmistakable.

We’re building military power faster than we’re defining what it’s meant to achieve.

That should sound familiar.

My latest in the @latimes.com on Iran, Iraq, and the cost of mistaking force for strategy: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: The U.S. military strategy in Iran feels eerily familiar Two decades after American forces invaded Iraq, the circumstances are different but the failure is unmistakable.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: The U.S. military strategy in Iran feels eerily familiar Two decades after American forces invaded Iraq, the circumstances are different but the failure is unmistakable.

We’re building military power faster than we’re defining what it’s meant to achieve.

That should sound familiar.

My latest in the @latimes.com on Iran, Iraq, and the cost of mistaking force for strategy: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: If you don’t understand why people protest, you don’t understand service or sacrifice The people standing against ICE in the streets of Minneapolis are not seeking recognition or reward. They are neighbors who decided that silence was the greater risk.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: If you don’t understand why people protest, you don’t understand service or sacrifice The people standing against ICE in the streets of Minneapolis are not seeking recognition or reward. They are neighbors who decided that silence was the greater risk.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: If you don’t understand why people protest, you don’t understand service or sacrifice The people standing against ICE in the streets of Minneapolis are not seeking recognition or reward. They are neighbors who decided that silence was the greater risk.

If you don’t understand why ordinary people stand nonviolently in the face of unaccountable force — you don’t understand service or sacrifice.

My latest op-ed in the @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: How does a 3-year-old hire an immigration attorney? Lucy couldn't understand the words being spoken around her or the dangers she fled. Yet under the system we've built, she's the one required to answer to a judge.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: Why Minneapolis marks a line in the sand for U.S. citizens Federal operations across the city are normalizing the use of force as routine, and stripping away the transparency and oversight of ICE agents.

When scrutiny of state force is treated as betrayal, American democracy is in serious trouble.

Minneapolis marks a line in the sand.

My op-ed in @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: Those who execute military orders carry all the risk As Mark Kelly and Pete Hegseth square off in soundbites, service members with limited authority are left to resolve the ambiguity created far above them.

When legality is left unresolved, the burden doesn’t disappear — it gets pushed downward onto those ordered to act.

My new piece for @latimes.com on why “refuse illegal orders” is not a substitute for leadership or accountability.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: Trump just removed the last restraints on presidential power Who now decides when the United States goes to war, and under what authority?

My new @latimes op-ed: “Trump just removed the last restraints on presidential power.”

U.S. military action in Venezuela this weekend bypassed Congress entirely. This piece is about war without consent and why this moment matters.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

GOP signals end to probes into military’s killing of boat strike survivors Despite Democrats’ objections, the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees said they were satisfied a controversial Sept. 2 attack was lawful.

In today’s developments in the Article I Crisis.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Contributor: How does a 3-year-old hire an immigration attorney? Lucy couldn't understand the words being spoken around her or the dangers she fled. Yet under the system we've built, she's the one required to answer to a judge.

I wrote this for @latimes.com after reading reporting I couldn’t shake about a three-year-old appearing alone in immigration court — and what that says about power, responsibility, and character.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Inside the Pentagon's political speech crackdown that's driving troops to scrub their social media The Pentagon is policing troops' speech in ways experts call an "abuse." Some service members are self-censoring and scrambling to scrub social media.

Sen. Mark Kelly is the tip of the iceberg. DoD has many speech investigations underway that have led troops to scrub their own social media and watch what they say: www.businessinsider.com/military-tro...

Exclusive | Survivors of Boat Strike Were Actively Continuing Drug Mission, Admiral to Tell Lawmakers Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the commander of the September attack, is set to provide an account of his role for the first time in a closed briefing.

Hoooooooo boy

www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

Contributor: Killing survivors is not a legal or moral gray area There is a rule every professional military knows it cannot break: You do not attack people who can no longer fight, such as survivors of the recent boat strikes in Latin America.

Reporting now confirms that U.S. forces fired second missiles at survivors of our own strikes. This is no “gray area.” It’s illegal — and it morally injures the very people we ask to serve.
My op-ed in the LA Times on why killing survivors is neither legal nor moral: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Opinion | Pete Hegseth, not Mark Kelly, should be facing justice There’s a reason lawmakers worry about the military being told to ignore the law.

The Defense Department’s Law of War Manual specifies: “Orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.” These are actions that you would expect from the Islamic State or the Russian army — not from the armed forces of a democracy. wapo.st/49LrEvh

Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.

Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.

America Unbound in the Caribbean The real costs of Washington’s use of force.

Pleased to share my new essay in @foreignaffairs.com on the broader implications of the Trump administration’s killing spree at sea.

www.foreignaffairs.com/central-amer...

Contributor: Do our military leaders have the backbone to disobey illegal orders? A recently uncovered memo promises U.S. soldiers immunity for the killing of more than 80 people in boat strikes throughout the Caribbean, effectively conceding it crossed a line.

Too many have gotten comfortable saying "Yes, sir." www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: Do our military leaders have the backbone to disobey illegal orders? A recently uncovered memo promises U.S. soldiers immunity for the killing of more than 80 people in boat strikes throughout the Caribbean, effectively conceding it crossed a line.

We’re killing people at sea without trial or oversight. A secret memo now promises immunity.
This is what happens when a system built to obey forgets how to take a moral stand.
My LA Times op-ed: “Do our military leaders have the backbone to disobey illegal orders?”
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Unless they’re being gunned down in their classroom…

A killing at sea marks America’s descent into lawless power The peremptory strike on a speedboat is a warning to all who serve. Remember your oath.

The strike in the Caribbean wasn’t about drugs. It was about power unbound from principle.
In Defense One (@defenseone.bsky.social), I explain why this is a warning to all who serve: remember your oath.
www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

What is Hegseth so scared of? The Navy needs leaders like Buzz Donnelly.

Fairness and trust keep the Navy strong—not performative outrage. We’re failing that test, and it’s costing good people and hurting the mission. I wrote about it in Defense One: www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

You're too kind. Thank you.

I went to the Naval Academy to defend freedom, not to dismantle it Stripping the library of books undermines our Navy—and mimics regimes we spent decades confronting.

I wrote for Defense One (@defenseone.bsky.social) on why banning books at the Naval Academy is a betrayal of everything we’re supposed to stand for: www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...