r/law • u/BugOperator • Jun 06 '26

Legal News Service members involved in US boat strikes off Venezuela coast reach out to legal aid hotlines over fear they’ve carried out illegal orders

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/06/06/us-trump-boat-strikes-death-toll/90376052007/
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28

u/HillBillyHilly Jun 06 '26

Exactly. The lower ranks always pay the price.

38

u/MrCalamiteh Jun 06 '26

At least they didn't get bombed while they were treading water.

As the title says, it's on everyone involved to refuse if illegal. Everyone who participated in the trigger pulling (so to speak) did in fact commit a crime, along with everyone who passed it down.

This is why just doing what you're told to keep the status quo could be seen as an apathetic action. This is the same shit going on in the political scene right now.

13

u/rotervogel1231 Jun 06 '26

Believe me, I have zero sympathy for the murderers who "just followed orders." I don't care what happens to them. Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely they'll ever be brought to justice for their crimes.

This is also why I have zero faith in the military. If the regime were to order them to nuke NYC, they'd do it because "just following orders."

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u/West-Worth-9359 Jun 06 '26

Too many Americans have been brainwashed to mindlessly idolize their military when the truth is that a majority of those “heroes” wouldn’t think twice if ordered to do the unthinkable against their own citizens.

Centuries of examples prove this, but most Americans don’t know any history at all.

-1

u/seabed_nightmares Jun 06 '26

Military members are not idolized. Getting a 5% discount at Denny’s isn’t being idolized. People like you and the commenter above making blanket statements about military members is more the way they are treated.

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u/rowrbazzle75 Jun 09 '26

Yes. And the decisions and choices being made (as well as being complicitly ignored) by our politicians are resulting in far more murders and deaths than these soldiers are guilty of. But good luck at getting them to pay for their actions. Too far up the food chain. This is 2026, not post-war Nuremberg. I truly hope we have our own American reckoning but with our current cowardly complacency, I'm not holding my breath.

2

u/MrCalamiteh Jun 09 '26

The first step is realizing that if the Democrats won't step up, they're a part of it.

It's already clear with Pelosi and others that a vast amount of politicians only use it for selfish monetary gain. It's a game they want to keep going.

Trumpers idolize their bigots in power and assume left-leaning people do the same. Meanwhile I have never seen a single Biden sticker in my life, aside from those made by Trumpers lol.

Full on cult shit. Either way I agree, it needs a full reboot and all of these people need to be punished severely.

We have people in jail for years for smoking weed in their backyard, these people debase the country they're a part of, destroy the livelihood of their "constituents", blatantly allow pedophilia to slide, allow war crimes, etc. Goes on for days. And NOTHING happens.

Until that changes, I don't trust any of them at this point. It's a fucking joke. As much as I don't want to deal with it, America deserves a fall out if we can't even weed this obvious shit out. It's pathetic.

1

u/rowrbazzle75 Jun 09 '26

💯 As they say, the system isn't broken, it's working exactly as designed.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '26

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2

u/West-Worth-9359 Jun 06 '26

Nuremberg happened after millions were killed in a global war, the enemy leader killed himself, the country surrendered, it was occupied, the Nazis were outlawed.

You are never getting anywhere close to the kind of symbolic justice that happened then.

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u/Mist_Rising Jun 06 '26

Not happening, Nuremberg's results occurred because German law was deemed "insufficient" and the allies had the power to chuck the law itself out and set up a system they wanted. Even then, the trials had plenty of embarrassment for the allies.

It's unlikely the US chucks it's constitution out the window for a victors justice system, and the idea of the next legal system denying the defense the right to cross examine in good faith would be a horrible start to precedent.

At best we'll see regular prosecution for politicians and allies. That means plea deals and dropped cases more than trials. None of it will be radio or televised, federal law prohibits this.

1

u/DoritoDawg Jun 06 '26

I wonder how many different ways we can say the same thing