N.B. Screenshot above of the New York Times article updated February 23, 2025 linked below, was not included in Daniel Larison's original post.
Hegseth removed three of the top military lawyers as part of his Friday purge of the Pentagon:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to fire the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force represents an opening salvo in his push to remake the military into a force that is more aggressive on the battlefield and potentially less hindered by the laws of armed conflict.
Hegseth has derided international law and the domestic laws governing war for many years, and he has been a vocal cheerleader for accused and convicted war criminals. His advocacy for war criminals was one of the main reasons why he was unfit to be Secretary of Defense, and he is already proving his critics right. It is unsurprising but still alarming that he would remove officers that might get in the way of future lawbreaking. Presumably he will now fill these roles with replacements that share his ideological hostility to the rule of law.
The Secretary of Defense admitted that the reason for removing the JAGs was so that they wouldn’t be “roadblocks to anything that happens.” If top military lawyers don’t serve as roadblocks more often than not, they aren’t doing their jobs properly. Hegseth’s idea of “sound constitutional advice” will likely be rubber-stamping whatever it is that he and Trump want to do. The goal here is to make it easier to trample on the law and to let criminals off the hook. Hegseth may also want to remove any “roadblocks” that could get in the way of illegal uses of force, whether in Mexico or other parts of the world.
The administration’s move to fire the top JAG attorneys is ominous, and suggests they’ll try to stack these roles with officers they believe will be more pliant and less likely to push back against unlawful orders.
Hegseth can’t ensure good order and discipline in the military when he shows such contempt for the law and the officers responsible for upholding it. He is clearing the way for more war crimes, and he is sending the message that military personnel won’t be made to answer for any crimes they may commit against people in other countries. His “warrior ethos” babble is just a license for abusing detainees and killing civilians.
There is something deranged about looking back on the last two decades of failed foreign wars and concluding that the problem was that the U.S. wasn’t brutal and destructive enough. That shows that Hegseth and other hawks like him have really learned nothing from these debacles. Like a lot of other hawks, Hegseth imagines that fewer legal restrictions on how U.S. forces fight will somehow make the military more effective, but he is wrong. The U.S. isn’t going to win any wars by committing more atrocities and trampling on international law. It will bring lasting shame and dishonor on the soldiers that are encouraged to fight that way.
Below is a video published yesterday by the Economic Times with the following description:
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that he was replacing the top lawyers for the military services because he didn't think they were "well-suited" to provide recommendations when lawful orders are given.
Speaking at the start of a meeting with Saudi Arabia's defence minister, Hegseth refused to answer a question about why the Trump administration has selected a retired general to be the next Joint Chiefs chairman, when he doesn't meet the legal qualifications for the job.
President Donald Trump on Friday abruptly fired the chairman, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., and Hegseth followed that by firing Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations, and Air Force Gen. James Slife, the vice chief of the Air Force.
