A group of senators has called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to answer questions about his execution of military operations against Iran, saying several of his actions violated federal and international laws and weakened norms for protecting civilians.<\/p>\n
The 11 senators, all from the Democratic caucus, sent a letter<\/a> to Mr. Hegseth on Sunday evening. Led by Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the group demanded that Mr. Hegseth explain his actions by May 4.<\/p>\n The letter referred to four separate attacks that killed civilians, including a Tomahawk missile<\/a> strike on an elementary school<\/a> in Minab that killed 175 people and a Precision Strike Missile<\/a> attack in Lamerd<\/a> that killed 21. Both attacks occurred in February, at the beginning of the war.<\/p>\n The senators said they were \u201cconcerned that these were all preventable tragedies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe high human toll of this war reflects the administration\u2019s broader disregard for the strategic legal, and moral imperative to minimize civilian harm,\u201d the senators added.<\/p>\n The senators took note of Mr. Hegseth\u2019s declaration<\/a> on March 13 that he would offer \u201cno quarter\u201d and \u201cno mercy for our enemies,\u201d which they said was an explicit violation of international law<\/a>, as well as the Defense Department\u2019s own \u201cLaw of War Manual.\u201d A no-quarter order means U.S. forces would continue to attack an enemy who is wounded and no longer capable of fighting back.<\/p>\n Such orders also endanger U.S. service members, the senators said, as they \u201cerode good order and discipline\u201d and could invite Iranian forces to reciprocate in kind against American troops.<\/p>\n The lawmakers noted that Mr. Hegseth had gutted Pentagon offices created to reduce civilian harm<\/a>, shortly after taking office as defense secretary.<\/p>\n Protecting civilians in combat, they said, \u201cis essential for the U.S. military\u2019s operational effectiveness and central to U.S. interests.”<\/p>\n Mr. Hegseth\u2019s bellicose statements deriding legal concerns in war<\/a> in order to celebrate and focus on killing<\/a> harms the credibility of the armed forces, the senators said, and exacerbates \u201cthreats to civilians and U.S. service members alike.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pentagon\u2019s efforts to formalize processes for limiting civilian casualties in war, the senators noted, began during the first Trump administration. The secretary\u2019s actions, they said, contradict \u201cmore than a decade of bipartisan consensus\u201d to \u201csystematically prevent and address civilian harm\u201d in military operations.<\/p>\n \u201cThousands of innocent people are dead after the Trump administration gutted programs meant to prevent civilian harm,\u201d Ms. Warren said in a statement. \u201cHegseth\u2019s chaos and incompetence are a danger to both civilians and our troops. We need answers and accountability now.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Hegseth\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of senators has called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to answer questions about his execution of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[80642,15019,1452,43473,4471,14670,9,11,10,4472,855,1069,5251,1876,80641,1596],"class_list":{"0":"post-203822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-christopher-jr","9":"tag-defense-department","10":"tag-donald-j","11":"tag-elizabeth","12":"tag-hegseth","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-news","17":"tag-pete","18":"tag-senate","19":"tag-trump","20":"tag-united-states-defense-and-military-forces","21":"tag-united-states-politics-and-government","22":"tag-van-hollen","23":"tag-warren"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}