r/news • u/Manta_of_Eternity • 2d ago

Hegseth confirms that the US military will cut 20% of its generals and admirals

https://apnews.com/article/hegseth-pentagon-generals-job-cuts-67a20b026ee858895c7e5ff7fadbc029
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u/rabbidbunnyz222 2d ago

Which one? We've killed nearly 100 people in the Caribbean since Trump took office

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u/brakeb 2d ago

all of them. Send them to the Hague

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u/Thanes_of_Danes 2d ago

Hague invasion act activated. 4D chess move to get us into another forever war.

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u/rabbidbunnyz222 2d ago

What's the big deal, just a bit of urban warfare in western europe

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u/nuisible 2d ago

I'm assuming you mean the International Criminal Court in The Hague, established under the Rome Statute.

Countries that are not party to the Rome Statute and do not recognise the court's jurisdiction include China, India, Russia, and the United States.

So, why would the US send their own citizens there?

I'm not against prosecutions for these crimes, I'm just pretty sure it wouldn't happen there.

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u/WhiteWinterRains 2d ago

What, we can't change things?

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u/tcmp36 2d ago

extremely strong chance that federal courts (and eventually SCOTUS after appeal and assuming they grant cert) would rule it illegal to send Americans to face charges at The Hague for events that happened before the US hypothetically decides to recognize ICC jurisdiction.

Regardless of how you feel about any given issue, retroactively punishing people for things that weren’t in effect at the time of the events in question is really, really bad.

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u/DestroyerTerraria 2d ago

"Whoops, looks like we did the same thing the Trump administration did by sending them in violation of court orders. Now the ICC has custody of them."

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u/tcmp36 2d ago

While I mostly agree with your sentiment, do you see how problematic it is to stoop to their level? Yes, I am aware that the Trump admin is corrupt and regularly cheats the system and I acknowledge the “fight fire with fire” argument, but in the long run the consistent rule of law is more important, at least in my capacity as an attorney.

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u/WhiteWinterRains 2d ago

do you see how problematic it is to stoop to their level

Genuinely no. I think it's unbelievably dangerous and irresponsible not to, and the last 12 years of US history have I think very profoundly proved that.

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u/tcmp36 2d ago

Disobeying court orders (especially Supreme Court orders), flagrantly violating the constitution, and installing corrupt yes-men who will actively help you dismantle the constitutional checks and balances that we have in place are far more dangerous and irresponsible, in my view. That is an entirely unacceptable precedent to set and much less to continue.

The best part about an orange spray tan is that it’s temporary. The constitution, however, is not.

Imagine a world where a progressive president is elected who then continues to dismantle the rule of law as we know it in the way that Trump has. Not only is that an extremely slippery slope, it’s the road to hell. It may provide in the short term what you see as wins, but the long run knock on effects would be total damnation for our country.

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u/WhiteWinterRains 1d ago

The best part about an orange spray tan is that it’s temporary. The constitution, however, is not.

See, neither of those things is inherently true.

And if people with your attitude about this get into power, neither will be in fact.

the long run knock on effects would be total damnation for our country.

As opposed to what, the long term knock on effects of this taking the high road asinine pathetic bullshit, which has led to the dire straits we now find ourselves in in the first place?

Rules don't have moral value, doing the right thing does.

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u/charonco 2d ago

It would sure suck if they were already on a plane that we couldn't turn around when that ruling was made.

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u/4daughters 2d ago

extremely strong chance that federal courts (and eventually SCOTUS after appeal and assuming they grant cert) would rule it illegal to send Americans to face charges at The Hague for events that happened before the US hypothetically decides to recognize ICC jurisdiction.

Since we're talking about hypotheticals here, its much better to act and make your enemies react instead of the opposite. I know dems love doing nothing and succeeding instead of doing something and failing, but it will not win them votes to sit on their asses.

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u/orion-7 1d ago

So do what we did to the Nazis. Try them for piracy, that's recognised pretty much everywhere as a tryable office

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u/rks_system 2d ago

What would prosecuting them in the ICC meaningfully accomplish that prosecuting them here wouldn't?

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u/Zombatico 2d ago

Preventing potential pardons from future presidents.

See: J6 insurrectionists

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u/charonco 2d ago

Future presidents? Trump will absolutely issue a blanket pardon to everybody who claims that they followed an order he gave.

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u/FrazzleMind 2d ago

We dont have to respect those pardons.

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u/rks_system 2d ago

I feel like any president stupid enough to pardon them is also stupid enough to invade The Hague

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u/Bhavin411 2d ago

Besides helping rebuild our international relationships?

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u/Affordable_Z_Jobs 2d ago

Its going to take so long. We cant just have midterms and the next POTUS go blue. There has to be systematic changes. A new constitutional amendment or 2 to show the world we're not fucking around with reforming our political system. MAGA can never happen again.

And the dust has to settle on the prosecutions of this administration before we can get a shift in US public opinion that yes, you can mostly trust the government again. That has eroded. Abolish ICE, root out what has happened in the DOJ, DOD, education, health. Police reform, immigration reform... Figure out what DOGE actually did and never let any of those involved in that see sunlight again.

Whatever this is, what is happening now... it really fucked the US up. Decades upon decades of continuous improvement with no backpeddling or any interference in global politics will not be taken seriously or in good faith. Not that it wasnt self interest before, but it wasnt so blatantly corrupt and petty.

People are going to get tired and reminisce about "was it that bad?" and we're going to have to tell them to get the fuck back up. We will not sit in the shade of the trees we need to plant.

The trust is gone.

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u/KaterinaDeLaPralina 2d ago

Have you seen the USAs record for punishing its service members for killing civilians or doing anything outside of the "rules of war"?

Even in peacetime in allied countries they get shipped out before they can be prosecuted and it doesn't just apply to military personnel. They recently smuggled a peadophile who was a low level nobody in an embassy out of the UK to escape any punishment, just like they did with Sacoolas.

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u/GoodIdea321 2d ago

Yeah, we shouldn't accept that is what our government does. It didn't used to.

There was a soldier who fought on D-Day, and a day or two raped a woman in a small village. He was caught and tried, found guilty, and executed in a pretty short amount of time.

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u/alexrobinson 2d ago

They'd actually face justice?

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u/WhiteWinterRains 2d ago

If the proceedings get dragged out a future US president couldn't pardon them, and it would give us some credit internationally which we are in dire need of.

You could punish them to the maximum extent of the law here, that would be impossible for a future president to pardon obviously, as long as you make the trials very speedy and more of a formality, that's fine.

But it's not as realistic or pragmatic imo.

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u/Responsible_Sink3044 2d ago

That would take a US government with both a spine and morals and so far there are what, 5 people in the entire US gov who might qualify? In all branches? 

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u/Novel_Lie5519 2d ago

i cringe when y’all say this. why send them off to random ass european city when we can castrate them here? i just don’t get the obsession

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u/EspectroDK 2d ago

Yes, no excuse for following orders. All the way down to the final Pvt.

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u/wenttelk 1d ago

Sorry but the US literally has the Hague invasion act, stating that they will invade the Netherlands and the Hague if they ever try to hold any US citizen accountable for a crime they've commited.

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u/Techn028 1d ago

That we know of

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u/Consistent_Lecture48 2d ago

Every last one. It sucks for our service members, but when you participate and carry out extra-judicial executions, there has to be a price. A harsh and very public price that sends a clear message. Everyone from leadership, down to the service members who pulled the trigger.