The military has long had a saying that “when you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” When it comes to impeachment power, Democrats have long acted as if every problem is a high crime and misdemeanor. After two impeachments against President Donald Trump (including what I labeled as an infamous “snap impeachment“), Democratic politicians and pundits are back calling for the impeachment of President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) was the latest to prepare articles of impeachment. He is demanding the removal of Hegseth over his use of the encrypted messaging app Signal to convey battle plans and the “double tap” order on a disabled drug boat.
The Signal app controversy was a legitimate objection raised by critics. The Pentagon inspector general recently found that such use can endanger both missions and personnel, even though it did not appear to have resulted in damage in this case. Nevertheless, the Pentagon is claiming that the report is a “TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth.” That is hardly convincing. It is akin to Harris claiming that Gov. Josh Shapiro’s description of her book as “utter bulls**t” is a glowing review.
However, such a controversy does not even come close to meeting the constitutional standard for impeachment. Democrats did not call for the removal of Democratic presidents or cabinet members for such past controversies, including the use of social media and private email accounts.
The inclusion of the boat strike ignores how the war crimes story has collapsed this week. Even the New York Times and ABC News (and some Democratic members) now admit that it is not true that Hegseth gave an order to kill any survivors of these attacks or that such an order was issued by military commanders.
A finishing shot on a still floating vessel is not uncommon in war. There is a legitimate debate over the policy of striking these boats. However, in terms of the president’s inherent constitutional powers, he has the authority to strike such vessels outside the United States. Other presidents have asserted such authority. This includes President Barack Obama, who claimed in his “kill list” policy to have the right to kill even American citizens anywhere and at any time based on his unilateral decision that they represent an imminent threat to national security.
With respect to the laws of war, if the military had the authority to sink the boat, the commander could order a finishing shot or shots to complete the mission. It has long been common in war to deliver such finishing shots even when there are survivors on board or in the area of the vessel. The commander must not re-engage for the sole purpose of killing survivors. There is no evidence of any such order in this strike. The Washington Post based its sensational claim on a single anonymous source.
Throughout history (including the famed sinking of the Bismarck in World War II), there have been finishing shots delivered in sea engagements to destroy vessels.
The same is true with aerial attacks. It is common for the military to deliver multiple hits on a target if it is not completely destroyed despite the presence of wounded or survivors in the area. Once again, this does not mean the decision was correct or commendable in any given circumstance. Still, it falls within the discretion historically afforded to military commanders in achieving mission objectives.
In the end, the laws of war reflect the fluidity and uncertainty of military engagement. The “fog of war” is a reality of military conflicts, even with the added technological advances that we have today.
We still have not seen the full video and have not yet confirmed the timeline of orders. That will help establish if the successive strikes were plausibly tied to the mission objective of destroying the still floating vessel and stopping the salvaging of the drugs. It will also help establish that the boat and the drugs were indeed still viable targets. The latter recovery of survivors by the military would indicate that there was no “kill them all” policy with regard to survivors.
What is clear is that this is not even close to an impeachable offense.
Thanedar is not the only one reviving calls for impeachment.
Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta is calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump over his “hateful comments” about the Minnesota Somali community, which he claims are grounds for impeachment:
“What needs to be said that isn’t being said enough in our press over the last 24 hours is that the President of the United States said a blatantly, obviously racist thing in the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday when he said what he said about Somali immigrants in this country. That they don’t contribute anything, that they’re not of value. In no normal world should the President of the United States of America ever, ever say something like that to the American people or even say it privately… I mean, if the President of the United States says it privately, it means he’s a bad person, and we should get rid of him.”
But to me, that was an impeachable moment. There have been so many impeachable moments since Donald Trump has come back to the White House, but to blatantly say something as racist and as hateful and as nasty and cruel and mean-spirited as what he said yesterday. The impeachment proceedings should begin right now. But of course, they won’t.”
There is a reason why they won’t . . . because this is ridiculous. Many of us have objected to the President’s comments about whole groups in this country. It is wrong to attack all Somalis in this country. I have previously written about how many of these immigrants from authoritarian nations embrace the essence of our country in seeking a free and better life.
However, past presidents have also used offensive or objectionable terms to refer to groups in the United States from Hillary Clinton’s reference to black men as “super predators” to Joe Biden’s referring to school desegregation as forcing white students to study in a “racial jungle” or claiming that any blacks who do not support him “ain’t black.”
I also do not remember these critics denouncing the attacks on figures like Elon Musk over his nationality.
The suggestion that these comments by Trump are an impeachable offense is absurd.
There is little danger that such impeachments will move forward. However, if Democrats retake the House, the impeachment impulse will be overwhelming.
Having been wildly success with Commissar (and Cougar Of Wall Street) Pelosi’s first Soviet-style impeachment of Trump, impeachment fever has never left these now-Soviet Democrats and the neo-communism Obama led them into.
They knew they didn’t have the necessary votes in the Senate to remove Trump. But they were also correct that their Soviet-style political show trial of Trump, held behind closed doors, with Schiff lying just as enthusiastically through the proceedings he chaired as he’d lied about their felonious Trump-Russia Dossier would be the Soviet Democrat equivalent of Rome’s coliseum with gladiators fighting lions and each other.
The more blood on the floor, the more strongly the Democrats Useless Idiots defended Pelosi and Schiff and demanded more.
They couldn’t remove Trump, but with Vindmann supplying the lies to convert the Biden crime streak of quid pro quo influence peddling into it actually being Trump, they greatly diminished Trump’s ability to do what he had been elected to do by American voters for about half of his presidential term.
With this latest “controversy”, the same Democrats who never felt any angst at Obama killing Americans in countries we weren’t at war with, and firing a first strike into a wedding party filled with wives and children to kill one terrorist – and then another after enough time had passed for first responders to gather – Democrats are getting similar rewards for their blatant public hypocrisy.
The controversy that was the failed demonstration team flight of Captain Kelly and his Blue Falcon Squadron, defaming and smearing America’s top leadership in our military, the Department of Justice, CIA, etc as supposedly giving those under their command illegal orders has been taken off the front pages.
Now we’ll have political theater as Democrats who had no problem with Obama first wiping out families and their children to kill one suspected terrorist, and after a waiting period firing a second missile to hopefully kill all the first responders and hopefully any survivors of the first strike, will push to the front to proclaim themselves military experts and why anything more than one missile was clearly a war crime.
Republicans will be willing to play along and debate them and their hypocrisy after gauging the need for whether they have to do according to the sentiments of their voters depending on how well the Democrat-Marxist Media Propaganda Complex has done it’s work.
Why wouldn’t they continue their hypocrisy and political theater? It works far better than honestly arguing and running on what they want to continue to do: a Democrat Congress and Presidency to throw the southern border wide open to fentanyl and criminal Illegal Aliens again, to complete Obama’s dream of fundamentally changing America without having to amend the Constitution first.
I’m a little surprised that the Dems are not calling for the names of the drone operators so that they can begin murder prosecutions.
Democrats/Leftists are unhinged children
Professor Turley writes, “It is wrong to attack all Somalis in this country. I have previously written about how many of these immigrants from authoritarian nations embrace the essence of our country in seeking a free and better life.”
Two reasons the Democrat party has become insane: the radicalization of young, white women and excessive immigration. Regarding immigration, too many immigrants despise whites, Christians, and American democracy and are openly encouraged to do so by the Left. Remember DEI? Democrats still push it.
Saying that those immigrant groups shouldn’t be called out sounds a lot like saying Reagan was the provocateur for calling out the Evil Empire. Democrats did say that, but I would remind everybody that Ronny won the Cold War. Were there good Russians? Sure, but they were more hostages than saints. You have to defend yourself.
I can’t remember the Democrat leadership ever shaming their firebrands over lawfare and name calling, and Republicans being soft hasn’t worked either. The Democrats would have lost the Cold War, and they’ll lose democracy, now.
For God’s sake, call ’em out. They started the race war, not us.
Yes, Dio, that may be true (1st paragraph). PT forgot to mention what’s in it for the US?
Diogenes says:Regarding immigration, too many immigrants despise whites, Christians, and American democracy and are openly encouraged to do so by the Left.
That very same Left – Democrats – successfully started the practice of getting Americans to bundle actual carefully vetted legal immigrants together with Democrats’ criminal Illegal Aliens. The successful outcome being that their criminal Illegal Aliens are now considered to be no different in any way and no worse than the legal visa-carrying immigrants who arrive here.
For decades, each year a million new legal immigrants arrive at a port of entry with their new visa in hand. Doing so after thousands of dollars in fees, and after years of waiting while the State department confirmed they had no disqualifying personal or immediate family background and had established that they had the means to be self-supporting upon arrival.
Meanwhile, for the last four years, each of those years Biden first invited (while rejecting his oath of offices duty to enforce immigration laws) and then welcomed four times as many criminal Illegal Aliens into the country than law abiding visa carrying immigrants were allowed by his State Department to arrive each of those four years.
And now even Republicans refer to all of them, collectively, being immigrants. Sometimes, at worst, the they tag the word “illegal” to the front of the word “immigrant”. To be fair, why wouldn’t they?
After all, pretty much all media outlets that Democrats declare to be Republican led the way by doing the same. Fox News for years now has carefully called criminal Illegal Aliens “illegal” or “unlawful immigrants” instead of what they legally are: Illegal Aliens. For a few years, Fox News was willing with others like the Wall Street Journal to call those Illegal Aliens “undocumented migrants”. A migratory species that, having arrived, never moves an inch again in a migratory pattern.
Among the million legal immigrants who arrive each year, as always, some will inevitably have escaped detection during the background checking process and arrive as criminals or turn to crime after arriving here.
And then many Republican voters do what Democrats do when a criminal with a gun commits a mass shooting. While Democrats then claim all gun owners are a threat and guns must be banned, we for our part then point at the tiny percentage that are criminals among the million legal immigrants and demand an end to legal immigration and they must all be thrown out of the country.
Several hundred Somalis in one state, whether there as criminal Illegal Aliens or lawfully admitted immigrants, have been permitted to commit a massive fraud. What percentage of legal immigrants do those several hundred criminals with legal or illegal status in the USA represent?
This identical response may or may not be inadvertent, but it’s just another version of duplicating Democrats and their firebrands, lawfare, and name calling. We actually believe that half the legal immigrants here are criminals who are not living and working here in compliance with the conditions of their immigration visa? No, they are not; not even remotely close.
I often wonder how many Americans have ever read the conditions on the documents that an adult immigrant signs first, before finally being issued that immigrant visa that the State Department laminates into a page of their passport in order for them to finally be allowed to enter the country? My guess is: very damned few, no matter which party they vote for.
The immigration system isn’t “broken”, as Republicans are now willingly eager to join Democrats in claiming. As it stands right now, it provides a mechanism to deal with every single criminal Illegal Alien in this country.
Just as it provides a mechanism to deal with every single legal immigrant who either engages in crime (including illegally applying for federal benefits and entitlements) or who does not fulfill their obligation to be self supporting as well as not be a burden on the country in any way while here as a legal immigrant.
In the first case, you deport illegal aliens, or alternatively you choose to jail them first and then deport them.
In the second case, the legal immigrants who violate the conditions they are obligated to comply with to remain here as legal immigrants, you revoke that immigrant visa and just like criminal Illegal Aliens, they too get sent back home.
We’re happy to allow Democrats to lure us into a fight that favors them, where we first lump legal immigrants in with their criminal Illegal Aliens. It’s the equivalent of joining with Democrats to demanding new gun laws, rather than both parties demanding that we start strictly enforcing the current federal gun laws that we already have.
Well done Democrats; take a bow for that success in diminishing our country and keeping the divisive wedge you have driven into the country in place.
We aren’t asking who we legalize and we aren’t asking how they are being influenced when they get here. It’s time to start asking those questions. We have too many “legal” immigrants who resent this country as founded.
Proof? Arent most immigrants from S. America? Which is very christian so your premise is racist bs.
There will be “controversy” every day and every week until midterm elections. The obsessed and obscene left wing democrats will whip up anger and hatred towards the President. Yawn.
They have no administrative expertise, no ideas, no clue how to actually solve problems. The best they could do was Joe Biden? Harris? Tim Waltz?
They use foul language, throw tantrums and act like petulant 8th graders.
I’m all-in on impeachments. Let’s start with three or four dozen district court judges. Hey, if SCOTUS sticks with the USC requiring documents to be literally signed by the POTUS maybe we can dump a few hundred Biden judges including KBJ.
The drug smugglers are not being blown up because they are high-level or low-level cartel personnel. They are being blown up because they are moving quantities of drugs along smuggling routes.
Concerning the survivors problem: doubling the size the warhead or using 100 gallons of napalm would fix that.
Yes, bigger missiles would do it. No need for a second.
Yes, bigger missiles would do it. No need for a second.
I’m willing to consider that. Which specific missiles currently in our USA arsenal do you recommend be mounted on the delivery platforms we’ve been using?
Murder should easily be an impeachable offense, also the coverup of the crimes in the Epstein files and the rampant pardons given to white collar and drug criminals. Also his financial corruption. Trump also appears to be mentally ill.
+100
Anon,
“Murder should easily be an impeachable offense”
Killing in a war is not murder. You should broaden your concept of what constitutes war. Start with “Unrestricted Warfare.”
Think about Chinese support for fentanyl production in the Western Hemisphere, ownership of private schools in the US, and money spent promoting gender confusion in the US.
“also the coverup of the crimes in the Epstein files”
Epstein’s activities and the slow walking of evidence through the justice system span Obama, Trump, Biden, and Trump administrations. Powerful institutions and people, and Israel, are being protected. It bothers me as a citizen and I would like to see full, unredacted disclosure with zero regard to the fallout.
“the rampant pardons given to white collar and drug criminals”
I guess it would be worth looking at each pardon before forming an opinion one way or the other.
“Also his financial corruption”
Examples please.
“Trump also appears to be mentally ill”
I have not observed anything that bothers me in that area. He does seem a bit more tired than in his first term but he’s still amazing.
Maybe you are a board certified psychiatrist and you could enlighten us.
The US is not at war. Thus it is murder.
Also his financial corruption. Trump also appears to be mentally ill.
One of the aids to Bribery Biden, The Oval Office House Plant and senior partner in Biden White House Crime LLC is trying out his projecting skilz.
“also the coverup of the crimes in the Epstein files”
And we’re to believe that Trump is covering up even more crimes committed by Democrat politicians and donors than Bribery Biden and Bolshevik Barack before him did? You suspect a colleague of Hakim Jefferies in Congress was also involved as his wingman with Epstein?
That seems to be big stretch even for you.
…Democratic politicians and pundits are back calling for the impeachment of President Trump and Secretary of
DefenseWar Pete Hegseth.Maybe the Democrats should reread the reports of the Battle of the Bismarck Sea which occurred in March 1943. The Japanese attempted to move approx 7000-8000 men to a base to counter the offensives of Gen MacArthur . They did this by convoy in an area where air superiority was established by the allies. 8 Transports carried the soldiers and were accompanied by 8 destroyers. The result was basically a massacre of the convoy. Using skip bombing techniques mastered by the 5th US Army Air forces, all 8 transports were sunk and 4 destroyers were sunk with loss of all equipment and approx 4000-5000 soldiers. US and Australian Air Forces bombed and strafed all ships, as well as lifeboats and other rescue attempts and soldiers and sailors in the water and this led to the collapse of the Japanese resistance in the area. This occurred repeatedly in the Indonesia area, Bismarck Archipelago and the Philippines when fighting the Japanese. And they were uniformed combatants in a legitimate command structure.
Refer to History of US Naval Operations of World War, Vol 6, Breaking the Bismarck Barrier.
Terrorists, narco and otherwise, carry out their poisoning and attacks against civilians without benefit of uniforms or a legitimate command structure or nation state and traverse the High Seas (international Waters) and are not afforded the protections of laws of war.
I will consider the Democrats serious when they first prosecute former President Obama for his reportedly 500 + drone strikes.
Frankly I commend the military for the efficacy of their strikes. The terrorists need to be convinced that there is a cost to them that they may not wish to pay.
Smoke em if ya got em.
That is how wars are supposed to be fought. With recognition of that fact, the enemy is less likely to start a war. “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” _TR
“
Funny how the Dems have forgotten about the drone strikes that Obama authorized in the Middle East. Yeah, we killed some bad guys. However, “the US’s estimate of the number of civilians killed – between 64 and 116 – contrasted strongly with the number recorded by the Bureau, which at 380 to 801 was six times higher.” So Obama killed a bunch of “innocent” civilians while Trump has killed the actual pilots of the drug boats. Yet another #Hypocrisy . . .
“A finishing shot on a still floating vessel is not uncommon in war.” -JT
A finishing shot is unnecessary. The answer to this is to raise the order of munitions to a higher order of detonation Ordinance so that the strike vaporizes everything on target and there is nothing left for a second sweep.
That should satisfy; CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, ,,, and Pundits alike.
!!! GOOD MORNING VENEZUELA !!!
Have a nice Day Mr. Maduro
– Superior Firepower –
Yep, in reverse world no more rice with added vitamins to prevent cleft palate, eh? Be careful , world, what you wished.
Hahahaaaaa
The Dems will demand that the MQ-9 land on the water and pickup any survivors.
The sole and ultimate goal of the Democrats these days is to “get” Trump, but getting a Cabinet member will do for starters. They seem not to care what it’s about, only to get. There is no policy top better American lives. There is no idea to make the world safer, more prosperous, or healthier. They only want to GET. They seem not to care that the drugs destroyed kill Americans. They argue about due process and war crimes. They don’t even care about the $1 billion in fraud within the social jumble jackpot. They just want to GET.
Human Trafficking and drug and weapon import-export businesses are as American as they get. How dare Trump escalate from interdiction to incineration! Consider how good these industries are overall for our economy and let the free market work rather than immorally and artificially interposing with military force. Democrats are right. Be nice and fight this the right way, like team Biden did or face the consequences.
It’s just one more example of how the USA is the final human world power in the Daniel, two prophecy of a line of “kingdoms” that has been 100% accurate for 2600 years from Babylon through today. Rome/legs was at its peak 2000 years ago when Jesus was here on earth. This could literally happen any day as we are currently living in the greatest tribulation of human history, predicted in Matt 24:21, with 6B deaths over the past 111 years. Tell others about God’s kingdom as it’s only solution for humans.
Clark, Pareto’s Principle. Perhaps God knows Pareto. That makes us part of the 80%.
Ha. Turley can’t even get through the first sentence of this push piece op ed without lying. The hammer/nail metaphor is used from the outside in to describe the often overly enthusiastic mindset of the military in addressing a problem…, they don’t like to use it in describing themselves.
Laughing at Turley’s thinking the outrage over this complete f up fell down this week as trump slept on camera. No matter how enthusiastic Turley is for instantaneous death penalties for low level drug runners, this trump policy is nothing less than murder. It’s approaching My Lai massacre numbers as we speak (and as Turley further highlights his downfall in becoming a complete trump troll).
Ha. Turley can’t even get through the first sentence of this push piece op ed without lying.
BBBBUUUUTTTTT….. MUH TURLEY!!!!!!
Projection:
Channeling one’s actions onto others typically refers to the psychological concept of projection, where an emotionally disturbed individual unconsciously or deliberately attributes their own thoughts, feelings, and anti-social or criminal behaviors onto someone else.
This is an internal defense mechanism which allows that mentally ill person to avoid confronting their own behavior and guilt by seeing it instead as as the thoughts and actions of another person who they despise and hate.
Oh snap. The cut and paste response. What a sick burn. You’re a moron.
The varied and seemingly confused arguments we now hear from congressmen and senators, and the press, about attacks on the drug boats and how best to prevent drugs from being shipped from South America into the United States is ample reason for the executive branch to never cede to Congress the responsibility to act to protect the United States, “from all enemies, both foreign and domestic”. I can’t envision a successful war waged by a congressional committee and I would never, ever serve in the military if my “Commander in Chief” was a congressional committee.
Democrat Socialist can we just give them the Civil War they want? I’m done with Color Revolution.
“However, if Democrats retake the House, the impeachment impulse will be overwhelming.”
I submit that it is more than an “impulse”, it is an addiction and is a substitute for rational thought (assuming that the Democrats are even capable of rational thought).
Perfectly said.
WOL, 80% of dims are not capable of rational thought. Pareto’s Principle nor are repubs.
Maybe we need a No Confidence vote, unofficially, to rack up some ‘votes’ to impeach the impeachers.
Ammendment change for number of dead weight reps is the answer to that, anon. 2 reps each State. Cut back on that junkyard.
Then doesn’t The Department of Defense Law of War Manuel from June 2015 (Updated Dec. 2016)
Office of General Counsel Dept. of Defense
and Section 18.3.2.1 be changed so as to better protect our military members?