Two Men Murdered In Our Name

"No mercy for what we are doing
No thought to even what we have done
We don't need to feel the sorrow
No remorse for the helpless one"

- Metallica, "No Remorse"

It is the type of action that, if uncovered, could end the careers of the participants. It might even land them in jail. With the stakes so high, there was clearly motivation to protect the secret; perhaps by setting aside the First Amendment and muzzling the press corps.

There is no dispute that, for an hour, the two sailors clung to the smoldering wreckage of their vessel. They "were shirtless, unarmed, and carried no visible radio or other communications equipment." According to one Democratic Congressman, the survivors appeared to be "in clear distress without any means of locomotion."

Under the Geneva Convention for the Wounded and Sick at Sea (GWS Sea), the two men were "in distress at sea" and, therefore, considered "shipwrecked." The Department of Defense Law and War Manual specifies that any reprisals against them or their equipment were "prohibited." Members of our military ignored these rules and unleashed two missiles at the men, allegedly to satisfy "Department of War" Secretary Pete Hegseth's command to kill them all.

The Trump administration and its allies in Congress defended the killings by claiming the men were engaged in drug smuggling. With no evidence provided, we are expected to take the word from an executive branch that has continued to deny that Trump wrote an obscene birthday message to the mastermind of a pedophile ring, even after the book with his signature was released. Even in its strongest year, 2024, 27% of Coast Guard drug interdiction boardings found nothing. In 2021, "41% of boats searched yielded no drugs."

The blood of those men stains the hands of all Americans. They were killed in our names in the latest battle in the War on Drugs, a failed war fought to protect us from ourselves and our refusal to "just say 'no'."

Ignoring the rules outlined in the Geneva Convention to kill shipwrecked mariners is the type of action that Senator Mark Kelly and the rest of the "Seditious Six" probably had in mind when they released a video warning members of the military that they "all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution" and reminding them of their training that tells them they "can refuse illegal orders." This is in line with the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which requires members of the military to disobey "patently illegal" orders. A service member who obeys an unlawful order can be held personally responsible for the crime committed.

The fact that Kelly and his fellow elected representatives, all of whom served with distinction in either the military or intelligence services, were quoting the law directly did not stop Trump from labeling their words as "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL" and calling for them to be "ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL." A little more than an hour later, he called for their execution, stating that "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!"

Sedition is defined as "conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch." Given that Trump, or any other president, does not have the authority to tell troops to ignore this law, the video made by Kelly and his allies would not fall under this offense. Even if the elected representatives were guilty of this crime, the maximum punishment for civilians is twenty years in prison. Still, Speaker Mike Johnson removed his lips from Trump's ass long enough to claim that death is the proper punishment for sedition and that the video quoting the law was "wildly inappropriate."

Barely a year into Trump's second term, his assaults on the Constitution are expanding. Civilians are being killed at sea, opposition leaders threatened with execution, and the press corps replaced by loyal influencers. Did the American voters expect anything different when they elected the man the Supreme Court said was immune from prosecution for any of his actions?
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Recognized as "a valiant fighter for public schools," Carl Petersen is a former Green Party candidate for the LAUSD School Board. Shaped by raising two daughters with severe autism, he is a passionate voice for special education. Recently, he relocated to the State of Washington to embrace the role of "Poppy" to two grandsons. Explore more at TheDifrntDrmr.