Hegseth told U.S. soldiers in Iraq to ignore legal advice on rules of engagement [View all]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/02/hegseth-us-soldiers-iraq-rules-engagement

"Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, told soldiers under his command in Iraq to ignore legal advice about when they were permitted to kill enemy combatants under their rules of engagement.

The anecdote is contained in a book Hegseth wrote last year in which he also repeatedly railed against the constraints placed on “American warfighters” by the laws of war and the Geneva conventions.
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Prof David M Crane, a former chief prosecutor of the UN special court for Sierra Leone, distinguished scholar in residence at Syracuse University College of Law and an army veteran with 20 years’ service, including stints as a JAG attorney, said obeying rules of engagement was crucial and that those who break them should face sanction.

“After the tragedy of My Lai in 1968, we have tried to avoid another one and prosecute those that do in fact stray. And that happened particularly in Iraq, at Fallujah, and other places in defense, where we had some marines go south and commit war crimes, and they’re prosecuted for it,” he said.
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In
his book, however, Hegseth called into question the entire edifice of laws of conflict, writing: “If our warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so that international tribunals feel better about themselves, aren’t we just better off winning our wars according to our own rules?! Who cares what other countries think.”.... (more)