No.
He says it because he means it: stop giv him excuses.
But he does know, and there should be no more excuse.
Not even the Nazis expressly announced they were committing war crimes. Indeed, at Nuremberg war crimes were denied.
But here, openly, the US Secretary for Defense is explicitly admitting to committing war crimes.
That is not being “fair”. That is being daffy.
We cannot face the fact that a Defense Secretary who ordered the shooting of shipwreck survivors now means what he says about committing war crimes, and so we instead giggle and pretend he is too stupid to understand what he is saying.
Saying openly and explicitly.
Of course.
You liked one of the daffy replies?
<giggle> he doesn’t understand what he means </end giggle>
He ordered the shooting of shipwreck survIvors.
Anyone else think we should stop making daffy excuses for him?
Or we could stop making excuses for him.
Let’s stop making daffy excuses for what he says?
He knows what he is saying and it's not the first time he's said it. It's brazen and hopefully will be easily evidenced come the day, and the wall ...
As he has already said, "no more stupid rules of engagement".
He's not just stating it off the cuff either; he's reading it out from his notes / statement so it could (should) have been checked beforehand by someone.
Perhaps we should stop making daffy excuses for what he says?
The amount of daffy replies suggesting he doesn’t realise/understand what he is saying is exactly why he gets away with saying such things.
Plausible deniability.
But people still say and like the daffy things.
Perhaps we should stop making excuses for what he says, like this one.
We may be too stupid to realise we should stop making excuses for him, like this one.
Hegseth: "We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies."
No quarter is the refusal to take prisoners and instead just execute everyone. It's been considered a war crime for over a century.
Not even the Nazis expressly announced they were committing war crimes. Indeed, at Nuremberg war crimes were denied.
But here, openly, the US Secretary for Defense is explicitly admitting to committing war crimes.
✋ Former USG war crimes lawyer here.
Apropos of SecDef's remarks this morning:
Denial of quarter—even the declaration of no quarter—is a war crime.
And recognized as such by the US Government.
From DoD's Manual for Military Commissions.
“Don’t proudly announce an international war crime for at least 20 minutes” Pentagon challenge.
That is very well put comment
there's a principle in livestock breeding (we are where we are) that if you select for a particular characteristic, you inevitably select against all other qualities.
If the police and Home Office select for terrorism legislation as theatre, they inevitably select against it as serious law.
NEW
How the Palestine Action proscription case...
...and the botched prosecution of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh...
...show how the Home Office, the police, and the prosecutors, are not taking terrorism law seriously.
By me at The Empty City blog
Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/how-the-pa...
Gosh
"EU lays down a royal flush. UK looks at own cards: Mr Bun the Baker, Pikachu, a Shadowmage, a fireball spell, and the Fool"
ht @23duff.bsky.social @motomatters.com and Johnny Pixels, from old place, for that last post.
Memories.
"President Trump holds the cards."
Thank you for finding it!
This reminds me of the (now sadly deleted) JohnnyPixels tweet @davidallengreen.bsky.social always reposted in response to Brexit:
"EU lays down a royal flush. UK looks at own cards: Mr Bun the Baker, Pikachu, a Shadowmage, a fireball spell, and the Fool"
