the Democrat and Republican leadership alike tend to act as if questions of war and peace were above their pay grade, with only a minority of Democrats and a handful of Republicans ever making noise about the latest military action taken in our name. Congress’ ultimate responsibility notwithstanding, Presidents Biden and Donald Trump have made their decisions to launch attacks on Yemen unilaterally.
What we’ re dealing with here is what we might call the Defense Department’ s Offense Division— the part that maintains the 700 – 800 foreign military bases around the globe( the exact number is classified, but maybe if you could get your number on Hegseth’ s phone list …), along with the ships that ply its waters and the planes and drones that fly its airs. As previously noted, Trump is not the first president to bomb Yemen. And while, as in so many areas, he may well be the crudest exponent and practitioner of American foreign policy that we’ ve seen in some time, the bombs Trump orders do not fall far from those dropped by previous administrations. Prior to the current episode, the U. S. has bombed Yemen during every single year since 2009— nearly 300 times, primarily via drone.
Nor is Yemen the first country bombed during the second Trump administration; Iraq, Syria, and Somalia have preceded it. None of this was considered much by way of news— a failing of the news media, yes— but less so than of the congressional leaders who have failed to make it news. Here too, while Trump may denigrate his predecessors, he apparently takes no issue with their bombing choices, joining the George W. Bush, Obama, Trump I, and Biden administrations in the serial bombing of Somalia that has occurred more than 350 times over the course of those presidencies. The U. S. has also bombed Syria and Iraq every year since 2014.
All of this has been justified under tortured, expansive legal interpretations of the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force permitting military action against entities that“ planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons” as well as“ to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.” Under Bush, the authorization was interpreted to extend to the occupation of Iraq. Under Barack Obama, it would encompass action against groups that did not even exist in 2001, but were“ descendants” or“ successors”— such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria( ISIS). The first Trump administration would expand that logic to warfare against eight different groups— including the assassination of an Iranian military commander. It was now understood to allow for military actions anywhere on the globe.
Before the Trumpists coopted the use of the term“ Deep State”— to encompass what they believe to be a malign government network that supports programs like the“ Ponzi Scheme,” as Elon Musk sees it, of Social Security, or Medicare— the term was used by quite a different group of people to quite a different end. The Deep State back then referred to the unelected elements of the government committed to waging endless war, often covert, often illegal— e. g. the Central Intelligence Agency— the sort of thing President Lyndon Johnson was talking about when he said that under President John F. Kennedy the U. S. had been running“ a damned Murder, Inc. in the Caribbean.”
We don’ t call that the Deep State anymore because, as the above discussion indicates, our government no longer feels a need to hide these things. It’ s above ground now— part of the DOD’ s Offense Division. The CIA now conducts assassinations openly— via drone.
This is the part of the U. S. government that should really worry us. It’ s what Pete Hegseth was hired to run, something that was clear right from his
Senate confirmation hearings that culminated in a narrower win than even his boss’ s on Election Day— his approval requiring a vice presidential tie-breaking vote for only the second time in history( the first being the approval of Betsy De- Vos as Trump I Secretary of Education) From the get go, Hegseth was forthright in declaring himself against increased“ wokeness”— and for increased“ lethality.”
One simple way to increase lethality is to broaden the potential killing range. And in this area, Hegseth came with a pretty strong record, having successfully lobbied for pardons of soldiers convicted of war crimes during the first Trump administration, and suggesting in a book he wrote last year, The War on Warriors, that rather than adhering to the Geneva Conventions, the U. S. would be“ better off in winning our wars according to our own rules.”
Nor has he missed a beat since taking office; he’ s announced plans to terminate the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Office and the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, and the Army will no longer require training in the law of war; henceforth it will be optional. Results have quickly followed, with the bombing of a migrant detention center in Yemen, for instance. One of Hegseth’ s infamous Signal chats even described the targeting of a civilian location.
One last thought for the secretary: Pete, If you were to spend your time on our national defense— instead of“ lethality” in attacking foreign nations with which we are not at war— you could probably rest easier about using your phone. Of course, we both know that’ d get you fired in a New York minute. You’ re there to play offense.
56 The Trial Lawyer