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Comment by bix6 | Hacker News Reader

https://www.propublica.org/article/hegseth-civilian-harm-mit...

> “No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement,” - Hegseth

...

> Hegseth and the commander in charge of the Iran operation, Adm. Brad Cooper, were questioned about the strike before Congress. Hegseth said the U.S. does not target civilians and would investigate

So the administration does not intentionally target civilians, they have just stopped caring about who a civilian is.

Well Israel has defined "combatant" as "male between 14 and 55", and the Western world more or less shrugged and moved on without missing a beat. I'm not optimistic.

That, unfortunately, originates more from the US than Israel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military-age_male

US classifies military age at 16, not 14. You can join the US army at 16. But you cant be sent to war. No. That is different than Israel.

Not sure wtf “politically correct” in the context of rules of engagement even means.

What a fucking moron

Instead of worrying about woke things like "is this person actually a combatant actively fighting" they want the much simpler rule of "everyone we kill was actually a terrorist that deserves to die".

Basically they stopped caring those woke UN rules about war crimes.

Hey, it's worked for a certain allied country in the Middle East for decades at this point...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_body_count_controv...

That’s strategically extremely dumb, unless your goal is to genocide a population.

Politically correct for this type of ultra-religious zealot just means things they don't believe in. I don't believe he thinks of the children of muslims as real people. The guy is a fanatic who is, from his point of view, on a literal crusade for America.

> So the administration does not intentionally target civilians, they have just stopped caring.

FTFY. IMO I don't think they directly stopped caring about bombing civilians but have stopped caring about doing their jobs. And this staggering tragedy is the outcome.

I think with the atmosphere this current administration has created, questioning things is likely frowned upon. Better to just follow orders and if shit hits the fan, put on a circus act and move on to the next tragic disaster in the making. Someone else can always take the blame.

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