Another One Rides the Bus

 I would imagine that any branch of the military is like a corporation or- if you will- any criminal organization. There is a boss, and there are bosses' underneath him, but he is THE boss. Corporations and mob families are all ultimately about the man at the top. He can be replaced, but for the time he is in power, he is the man, and no one usurps his authority. They only do what they are told. 

There's no doubt in my mind that the 'kill 'em all' order originated from Trump. How could it not? He is the toughest, most powerful man alive. When he is asked about an event and replies, "I don't know anything about that" he is playing 5D chess. What- do you think he's an idiot who only exists to golf and scheme money? Fuggeddaboudit. The bucks all stop at his desk. He knows, because he says so. Capiche?

Criminal organization, corporation or military, every downstream decision is based on what the boss says. Trump, as Commander in Chief of the military (as all presidents are) has the initial say on everything. A word from him to anyone under him is an order to be followed. Trump says that we are at war with narcoterrorists and that the boats in the Caribbean must be destroyed and that there be no survivors, and that is that. He only has to say this to one man under him (Hegseth) and then it goes downhill to those under that man, to those all the way down the ranks, on a need-to-know basis. At no point is there necessarily a written order from the boss. It's all just understood. This is insulation for the main boss, be it Trump, a CEO or the head of a mafia family. It's good to be King. In any of these entities, the King rarely goes to prison even though everyone knows the initial order came from him. The underbosses, executives or officers knew this when they got to where they are. They enjoy the perks of their position and are generally bright enough to know the dangers- well, unless their previous job was weekend host for Fox news. 

The other night I watched a video of my favorite ex-Green Beret explaining how he doubted Pete Hegseth would ever be successfully prosecuted for any war crimes committed thus far. Nate, of Valhalla VHT (Valhalla Firearms Training) is probably right as he has the practical field experience to know how these missions go. It isn't just the boss who is insulated. According to him there are generally a team of military Judge Advocate Generals (military lawyers called "JAG's") involved in these critical missions, making the calls for the men on the ground or behind the drone strikes. The military has its Rules of Engagement (ROE) and these experts get their heads together and decide what is legal- or not- within their parameters. Evidently, if they say it's good, it's good. If it is bad, it's bad. This is why Hegseth, as Secretary of Defense (well, "War" now) could escape punishment, if those JAG lawyers did indeed sign off on the event. As far as we know right now, they may indeed have. If in the opinion of military legal experts, Hegseth was following legal ROE, what can you say? The fact that you or I may know that he's a drunken douchebag in waaaay over his head is not germane to whether he committed a crime or not. It was a shitty thing to kill those survivors, but it may well have been legal. War has rules, believe it or not, and both the good guys and bad guys ignore those rules all the time. Winning the war goes a long way towards determining right and wrong. 

This is why I wonder about those calls to the enlisted men to not follow "illegal orders". Determining a legal order from an illegal one is a lot to put on the average grunt who is 19-20 years old and whose brain has not yet fully developed, and who has recently been extremely trained into doing whatever he is told by those above him in rank, without question. Think of all the gray areas in civilian life and then think of how dark those grays might be with a rifle and the power of life and death in your young hands. Heady stuff. There are no JAG officers advising them in the moment. Just orders from someone above them and you may just be left with the hope that those men know what they are doing. 

It remains to be seen who the scapegoat will turn out to be here. A lot of people think Admiral Bradley will be held responsible as it sure does look like he has been situated in front of the proverbial bus. He probably should have seen this coming as his predecessor (Admiral Holsey) seems to have as he abruptly resigned, effective December 12, 2025. He served one year in the US Southern Command. Bradley is, I take it, the interim boss there at the moment. He is being damned with feint praise from Hegseth now and, yes, I spelled that exactly how I meant it.  

Yes, it does suck to murder people and, yes, it can be murder in war, whether that war is officially declared or not. This Trump regime is all about projecting strength through authority and violence. Damn the torpedoes of legalities, full speed ahead! This can't end well. It's a mess that has to be dealt with until the real mess gets here, any moment now. Here comes that bus...