Iran Exposes How Trump and Hegseth Have Debased Our Military Standards

Pardons, promotions, and dismissals under Trump and Hegseth all say one thing: They don’t want to be bound by any rules of engagement of any kind.

We now have a ceasefire in Iran, at least for the moment, and President Trump will apparently not blow the country to kingdom come. But the volatility of the situation, and of Trump’s temperament, means we may be back to hostilities next week or tomorrow. The ceasefire is already fraying, and public acceptance of the narrative that the U.S. lost might push Trump to reengage. And if and when hostilities do recommence, there’s a deeper story that’s been happening with the military during Trump’s second term, of which too few Americans are aware.

Since early last year, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been methodically disassembling the ability of the Pentagon to say no to orders that are illegal or immoral. This is made worse by the fact that both Trump and Hegseth have made it clear that they regard war crimes as a necessary and proper part of the “warrior” ethos.

During his first term, Trump pardoned a pair of Army officers convicted of war crimes and ordered the promotion of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who was acquitted despite posing with the body of a teen he had killed. Gallagher’s own teammates accused him of sniping women and children in Iraq. Trump celebrated all of them, seeing nothing wrong in what they had done. This was indicative of how he would approach his second term in office.

One of the first acts of the Trump-Hegseth Pentagon was to purge the military of its top lawyers (also known as JAGs, or judge advocate generals). JAGs perform the critical function of assessing the legality of anything done within the military. One piece at The Atlantic correctly described them as the “conscience” of the military.

They also dismissed the Joint Chiefs chairman, the chief of naval operations, and Air Force vice chief. At the time, Hegseth told reporters that all these senior military officers were removed because he didn’t want them to pose any “roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.” The clear goal was to remove anyone who might raise ethical objections to anything the military was ordered to do by the administration.

At the time, people of course understood the danger this posed and knew that this was a giant red flag. During his first term, Trump called Gallagher........

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