Right but the reason we have rules against people declaring no quarter is to prevent a race to the bottom. It is absolutely reasonable to respond to a no quarter declaration in kind, which is... again... the entire reason we have prohibitions on it.
replyBut he did publicly declare his intention to commit war crimes.
replyActually even just declaring no quarter is itself a war crime.
replyHes also liable for the death sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 2441 — War Crimes Act (1996) & 10 U.S.C. § 950t — Military Commissions Act (more relevent)
replyThey won't face any US law. AIUI, they have been getting letters from the DOJ office of legal counsel that say it's legal. This effectively immunizes them (the DOJ can't turn around and charge you with a crime, if they advised you beforehand it was not a crime).
replyThe best shot would be to turn them over to the ICC
Alas, the USA isn't signed up to the ICC.
replySure, but, if somehow they fell into ICC custody overseas...
replyWe've already committed several war crimes.
replyIn case anyone else doubted this, I will save you the time to look it up. Yup, it's sadly true.
replyhttps://www.commondreams.org/news/hegseth-no-quarter-interna...
Yep. And war crime seems to have lost all meaning in the US.
replyBut, even if you dismiss the idea of international standards, this is clearly very bad for US soldiers (and sailors, airmen, etc). I wonder if they see that.
> But, even if you dismiss the idea of international standards, this is clearly very bad for US soldiers (and sailors, airmen, etc). I wonder if they see that.
replyEven if you dismiss the idea of international standards, a no-quarter declaration is against _US law_, specifically subject to the penalty of death with no other lawful penalty defined: https://www.govregs.com/uscode/title18_partI_chapter118_sect....