The six Democratic members of Congress, all former military or intelligence officers, were exactly right in their video saying that U.S. troops should not act dishonorably or unlawfully.
The questions about a second strike on a supposed drug boat in the Caribbean, which killed two survivors floating in the water clinging to the vessel’s wreckage, makes their point vividly real.
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threw a fit over the Nov. 18 message from Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan.
Trump spoke of “sedition” and that they should hang. The FBI is investigating and Hegseth said that the Pentagon is considering recalling Kelly, a retired Navy captain and combat aviator and astronaut, back into full-time naval service to court-martial him.
It’s all hooey; while lawful orders must always be obeyed, illegal orders, like killing shipwrecked survivors, must not be obeyed. It is a crime to follow an illegal order, just as it is a crime to issue one.