The military have become executioners on the High Seas with the Administration acting as judge and jury.
It is not a dramatic statement to say that we now have a string of government-sponsored extrajudicial killings happening in international waters. The military are killing alleged drug dealers with no known investigation to establish their guilt, no effort at interdiction, and no judicial review.
The arguments stated in a recent DOJ classified opinion to Congress that this is a defensive action in a “war” are so thin and unconvincing that military leaders should immediately recognize that they are without merit and not credible. They should therefore ignore or resist any orders based on the clearly biased opinions of DOJ lawyers.
The military code of justice is designed to prevent such illegal activities, but it seems to have failed in all circumstances that have come to light. The “armed conflict” notice was given to Congress a month ago attempting to justify these extrajudicial killings.
Where is the push-back and refusal to follow illegal orders in our military?
In a Washington post article, Martin Lederman, who served as a deputy OLC assistant attorney general during the Obama administration said, “I don’t know anywhere else in domestic law or international law, for that matter, that anyone’s argued that introducing drugs into a country is the sort of organized violence that can trigger an armed conflict and give the nation the right to kill people merely because they’re part of an alleged enemy force …”
He further notes that these drug traffickers are in a business and only use violence to further their business interests. They seek profit and have no interest in making war.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), a former federal prosecutor, told reporters last week, “If that opinion [mentioned above] were to be adopted, it would not constrain any use of force anywhere in the world. I mean, it is broad enough to authorize just about anything.”
The administration has sought to blur the distinction between crime and war. It has sought “to graft the language and framework of the two-decade-long battle against international terrorism onto what has generally been considered a law enforcement problem.”
The administration can fire people who refuse to follow these unlawful orders, but it appears that others will be promoted to simply take their places and the killings will likely continue.
Is this the admired military justice system that we have created after Nuremberg where Nazis were found guilty after claiming that they were not guilty for their heinous crimes because they were just following orders?
This is the failure of a proud, expensive, taxpayer funded institution which recently had toy soldiers marching in parades for photo-ops with a proud Commander-in-Chief looking on. But much worse are murderous jet pilots or ship gunners and their commanders’ destroying boats and their occupants in international waters on the orders of superiors.
In doing so, they are supporting a President looking to enhance his image as a tough and decisive leader who is so powerful that he does not need to care about the rule of law – international or domestic.
This is just such a major disappointment – the downfall of a respected and admired institution whose members have fought and sacrificed for their country in numerous ways including going to and dying in war.
It now appears to be morally and legally broken and under the control of one strong man who sees no limits to his power.
Is there somewhere in the military where a significant numbers of generals or enlisted men and women will collectively say “no” to this illegality and refuse to participate in it?
What a colossal embarrassment for the United Sates of America and its newly broken form of democracy. The whole world is watching and understands the failure of our military justice system.
Will these state-sponsored killings be allowed to continue? Will those who participated eventually be court marshaled or convicted in a civilian court? Will military leaders continue to rely on opinions of a captive DOJ whose sole interest appears to be to increase the President’s power?
After the mass firing of military lawyers who understand military law, the administration’s hope is that military leaders will have to rely on clearly prejudiced and legally questionable DOJ opinions to determine if an order is “lawful.”
But the military code of justice demands that the legal opinions of civilian leaders who wish to allow the military to assassinate virtually anyone of their choosing in the international arena should be forcefully ignored and resisted.
The administration seeks to make the definition of war so broad that everyone, even opposition political parties, can be “the enemy” although they are the “the enemy within” while alleged drug dealers are currently being attacked and killed as an external enemy.
One can be sympathetic to the impossible situation that these military and civilian leaders are in if they resist illegal orders but for those who voted for the President knowing about his status as a felon, a sexual abuser, a friend of pedophiles. etc., there may be less sympathy to go around.
