In just 10 months in office, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pinballed from one embarrassing scandal after another. In March, it was his use of the Signal messaging app, which a Pentagon inspector general's report, scheduled to be released Thursday, concluded that Hegseth put military operations and service members at risk.
Now, it's more recent allegations that under his leadership, the U.S. military may have committed war crimes in its undeclared war against drug traffickers.
However, the only thing surprising about this latest black eye for Hegseth's tenure is that it took this long for such atrocities to happen.
If there is a single defining element to Hegseth's view of the military, it is that "might makes right" and that the laws of armed conflict, which have long guided how U.S. soldiers comport themselves on the battlefield, are for losers.
Hegseth's 2024 book, "The War on Warriors," is filled with evidence of his disdain for what he terms "academic rules of engagement which have been tying the hands of our warfighters for too long." And now he has brought his shoot-first, ask-questions-later approach to the Pentagon.
This is a preview of Michael A. Cohen's latest column. Read the full column here.
