From The Hill:
The Trump administration has asserted that the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” (NIAC) with “designated terrorist organizations,” as backed up by a classified opinion authored by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which argues that because U.S. troops participating in the strikes are taking orders that are in line with the laws of war, they cannot be prosecuted.
“But ‘NIAC’ is a legal term of art which requires certain facts that are not met here,” said Sarah Harrison, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “That means the law of war is not applicable and thus these are not war crimes, but rather murders or extrajudicial killings.”
Harrison, who is a former associate general counsel at the Department of Defense (DOD), argued what is “distinctly disturbing” about the Sept. 2 strikes is that even with the U.S. not being engaged in a war with drug traffickers, the DOD is “operating under the assumption” that it is and is “claiming it is applying the law of war.”
“But every officer and enlisted is trained to know that it is a textbook war crime to execute individuals who are ‘hors de combat’ or ‘out of the fight,’” Harrison told The Hill on Monday. “That no one down the chain of command refused this patently illegal order is shocking and sheds more light on the breakdown of the rule of law within DOD under the leadership of Secretary Hegseth.”
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Since they mentioned Navy SEALS, I would not be surprised if the admiral gave the team the orders directly, so there isn’t much of a chain of command.
Whiskey Pete does appear to be looking for a scapegoat so he knows how serious this is.