‘Kill them all’: Pete Hegseth’s order is a feature of America’s cowboy justice

Which brings us to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and the now-infamous “Kill Them All” directive. The mainstream American commentariat is working overtime to portray his alleged order — to eliminate the two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a bombed Caribbean vessel — as a shocking departure from established norms. But the truth is far less flattering. The Caribbean strike is not a fracture in American conduct. It is the logical expression of it. It is not an aberration. It is a revelation.