Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Military source reveals some soldiers ‘morally objecting’ to being part of Hegseth’s firing squad

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Military source reveals some soldiers ‘morally objecting’ to being part of Hegseth’s firing squad · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: General, I want to start with you. This is a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: president and secretary of defense who seem to love a spectacle.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: But in your view, how did we get here?
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to say something.
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  Speaker 3: I hesitate to say this, but it was in Secretary
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  Speaker 3: Hex's opening statement. It is a no brainer. That means
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  Speaker 3: he hasn't thought about it. He hasn't considered the moral implications.
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  Speaker 3: He has not considered how it's going to affect allies.
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  Speaker 3: He doesn't want to reach beyond the heinous crime that
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  Speaker 3: Major Hassan committed. There is no doubt in anyone's mind
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  Speaker 3: that Major Hassan should be executed. punished for his acts
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  Speaker 3: of killing people and wounding others. But the way you
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  Speaker 3: do it from an advanced society's perspective is certainly not
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  Speaker 3: this way. There are so many things, Antonio, that weigh
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  Speaker 3: into this. The fact that Hassan is now crippled and
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  Speaker 3: would be in a wheelchair when he's shot. The fact
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  Speaker 3: that you're going to have to detail soldiers to actually
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  Speaker 3: hold the weapons to shoot him. The fact that we
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  Speaker 3: don't have that we haven't had since 1945 a plan
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  Speaker 3: to actually conduct a demonstration. execution like this but adding
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  Speaker 3: to that a live stream event so the entire world
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  Speaker 3: can see how brutal we are and how we are
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  Speaker 3: outside the norms of a normal society yeah it's not
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  Speaker 3: only a no-brainer it's a no moral compass either and
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  Speaker 3: it doesn't understand what the military is about And when
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  Speaker 3: Secretary Hegseth says something like, I want to go back
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  Speaker 3: to World War II because we had winning on our mind,
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  Speaker 3: it's just ludicrous some of the things he's saying on
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  Speaker 3: the deck of that aircraft carrier when he should be
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  Speaker 3: stepping away from that and letting sailors who have been
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  Speaker 3: gone so long reunite with their families and loved ones.
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  Speaker 1: Priya, you were there in San Diego when these sailors returned,
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  Speaker 1: when the USS Lincoln returned, and you've been reporting and
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  Speaker 1: done incredible work on the challenges of that extended deployment.
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  Speaker 1: I want to know what you heard from sailors, from
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  Speaker 1: their families. What was that like?
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  Speaker 4: I mean, the overwhelming sense, Antonia, was of relief that
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  Speaker 4: they were finally home. And I think for a lot
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  Speaker 4: of the families, it was just this collective sigh because
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  Speaker 4: they had been thinking for so many months that these
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  Speaker 4: sailors and Marines were going to come home. But we
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  Speaker 4: know that the deployment got extended twice. This was supposed
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  Speaker 4: to be a routine event. six to seven month rotation
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  Speaker 4: in the Indo-Pacific. But that obviously changed when they were
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  Speaker 4: diverted to the Middle East.
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  Speaker 2: And then they were.
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  Speaker 4: Involved in these nonstop combat operations for almost seven straight months.
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  Speaker 4: They obviously beat a modern day record in the Navy
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  Speaker 4: for the most continuous days at sea. And I think
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  Speaker 4: when Secretary Hegseth went onto the aircraft carrier, at that point,
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  Speaker 4: you know, I had one veteran tell me that he had.
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  Speaker 2: A captive audience, right?
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  Speaker 4: Because those sailors and Marines had nowhere to go.
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  Speaker 2: They were on the aircraft carrier.
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  Speaker 4: And at that point, they would have listened or, you know,
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  Speaker 4: watched any sort of performance just to make it to shore.
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  Speaker 2: So they didn't.
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  Speaker 4: Really care, to be frank, that Secretary Hegseth was there.
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  Speaker 4: But I had a lot of families tell me that
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  Speaker 4: they were– Angry that he didn't decide to go and
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  Speaker 4: participate in the actual homecoming festivities that were scheduled for
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  Speaker 4: the next day, because these families have a lot of questions.
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  Speaker 2: That they want to ask him.
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  Speaker 4: They want to have an opportunity to confront him and
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  Speaker 4: ask him. Why the United States military was so unprepared
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  Speaker 4: for this war in Iran and how did we get
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  Speaker 4: to a place where these sailors and Marines were lacking
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  Speaker 4: basic supplies? So I think everyone is really thankful that
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  Speaker 4: the USS Lincoln is home, but they also want lessons
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  Speaker 4: to be learned. for future deployments like the USS Theodore Roosevelt,
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  Speaker 4: which just headed out from San Diego to the Middle East.
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  Speaker 4: I do want you to take a listen, Antonia, to
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  Speaker 4: what one of the wives of the sailors on the
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  Speaker 4: Lincoln told me when I was there.
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  Speaker 5: Whenever she was born, they didn't have any Wi-Fi, so...
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  Speaker 5: He had to schedule a phone call. So when we
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  Speaker 5: did the phone call, he heard a cry.
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  Speaker 4: He broke down in tears.
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  Speaker 5: It was such a hard moment for him, the worst
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  Speaker 5: six months for him, not being able to meet his daughter,
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  Speaker 5: not being able to be with his daughter, or even
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  Speaker 5: know what his daughter is like. So it's been really
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  Speaker 5: hard for them.
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  Speaker 4: She was one of 122 wives that were part of
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  Speaker 4: this carrier strike group who had babies while their husbands
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  Speaker 4: and partners were at sea. And I think those are
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  Speaker 4: the sacrifices that we have to remember that our service
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  Speaker 4: members are making when they're deployed to these wars. And
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  Speaker 4: that's what they want the general American public to remember
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  Speaker 4: is that this is not just about weapons and stockpiles
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  Speaker 4: and gas prices.
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  Speaker 2: This is about their lives.
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  Speaker 1: I want to go back to something that you mentioned
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  Speaker 1: a moment ago, General. And I touched on this in
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  Speaker 1: my opening, or at least tried to, sort of the
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  Speaker 1: way in which all of this has impacted people's families
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  Speaker 1: and lives and stretched them thin, but also just sort
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  Speaker 1: of the bigger picture of these asks that HEGSETH is
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  Speaker 1: putting in front of service members. When it comes to
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  Speaker 1: this potential execution, I guess, set for December, I wonder
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  Speaker 1: if you can speak to the concept of moral injury
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  Speaker 1: and what happens to a service member when they're asked
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  Speaker 1: to take part in to make something like that happen.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I'm hoping that no service member is asked to
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  Speaker 3: take part in it, Antonio. This is the difficult part
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  Speaker 3: of all this. During World War II, when Private Slovik
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  Speaker 3: was the last one executed for mutiny or going AWOL
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  Speaker 3: from his post on two different occasions, it was January 1945.
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  Speaker 3: There was actually a manual that dictated how these kinds
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  Speaker 3: of firing squads would be, the process in which the
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  Speaker 3: firing squad would take place. There were 12 soldiers who
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  Speaker 3: would shoot. There was a sergeant in charge of them
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  Speaker 3: and another lieutenant. They would all grab a rifle off
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  Speaker 3: of a rack. The 12 rifles would have anywhere from
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  Speaker 3: one to four rifles that had blank ammunition.
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  Speaker 2: In it so they could basically shoot.
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  Speaker 3: You know, assuaged themselves that they weren't the ones that
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  Speaker 3: fired the killing shot.
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  Speaker 2: All of that has gone away. The U.S.
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  Speaker 3: Military has a manual for executing capital offenses, and they
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  Speaker 3: conducted at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where the prison is, the
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  Speaker 3: federal prison is for military soldiers.
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  Speaker 2: They have a manual and it's all about lethal injection.
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  Speaker 3: They haven't conducted a lethal injection in a long time
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  Speaker 3: to execute a soldier. And that's done under the guidance
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  Speaker 3: of the surgeon general, the commander of the disciplinary barracks
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  Speaker 3: is what they call it out there, and selected people.
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  Speaker 2: There's no observers there.
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  Speaker 3: There's a few people that have to watch in order
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  Speaker 3: to certify it, but it's not like we're.
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  Speaker 2: Going to live stream an audience.
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  Speaker 3: And when you're talking about any kind of military personnel
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  Speaker 3: that's been in combat, or understands this, there's always an
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  Speaker 3: element of moral injury to anyone that conducts combat operations
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  Speaker 3: because soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines are asked to do things
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  Speaker 3: that a normal human being isn't asked to do. So,
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  Speaker 3: you know, you're expecting an awful lot of soldiers who
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  Speaker 3: raise their right hand to say, I will defend the
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  Speaker 3: country of the United States and the Constitution, which I
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  Speaker 3: swear an oath to defend.
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  Speaker 2: But this goes beyond the pale.
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  Speaker 3: Shooting a fellow citizens, even if they have committed a
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  Speaker 3: heinous crime like Major Hassan does, is not something we
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  Speaker 3: should ask soldiers to do in a firing squad. And
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  Speaker 3: I would suggest that any commander that's asked to task
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  Speaker 3: soldiers to do this really offers up their protest in
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  Speaker 3: terms of being asked to commit this order. Because truthfully,
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  Speaker 3: it falls under the category of cruel and unusual. And
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  Speaker 3: I think we've, you know, suggested that that's an issue
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  Speaker 3: we don't want to do in our society. If I
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  Speaker 3: can say one more thing to pile on to what
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  Speaker 3: Priya said, because I think it's an important point in
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  Speaker 3: terms of the welcoming home ceremony. My wife once said
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  Speaker 3: there's three things that all of America should see. They
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  Speaker 3: should see a deployment ceremony when military personnel leave because
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  Speaker 3: it's heart-wrenching. They should see a return ceremony because it
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  Speaker 3: is joyous. Family members are so exceedingly happy to have
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  Speaker 3: people come in, and they should see memorial services that
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  Speaker 3: are conducted for those who give their lives. The Secretary
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  Speaker 3: of Defense or any high civilian official should not be
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  Speaker 3: smothering an audience like Priya just mentioned and making it
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  Speaker 3: a performance so.
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  Speaker 2: They have to observe him.
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  Speaker 3: Versus observing what they want to observe, their newborn children,
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  Speaker 3: their family members that they haven't seen in 12 months
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  Speaker 3: or anything else like that. And it's just beyond the norm.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm sorry for preaching, but that's the way I
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  Speaker 3: feel about it. And I'm very emotional about all of this.
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  Speaker 1: I think understandably so. I think it was very telling
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  Speaker 1: that the sort of primary headlines out of that day
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  Speaker 1: then were all about a potential public execution and Hegseth's
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  Speaker 1: own words. And, you know, the secondary story was about
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  Speaker 1: these families, about wives and new babies like the one
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  Speaker 1: that Priya just introduced us to. When that is what
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  Speaker 1: Americans were looking forward to from that day was actually
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  Speaker 1: to hear from the sailors themselves, to see them celebrating
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  Speaker 1: and reconnecting with their family members. Priya, I want to
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  Speaker 1: ask you with our last moments here about how from
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  Speaker 1: your reporting, what you understand service members are. are thinking
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  Speaker 1: and feeling about what could come over the next few
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  Speaker 1: months and just sort of the larger pressures that the
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  Speaker 1: military is under. I mean, we have the comments that
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  Speaker 1: the president has made. around Zelensky and Ukraine today. And
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  Speaker 1: then also just the reporting in places like The Atlantic
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  Speaker 1: and The New York Times that the president has been
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  Speaker 1: weighing whether or not to sort of use the midterms
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  Speaker 1: as a sort of barometer for when things may again
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  Speaker 1: escalate in Iran. And as we know, these are very
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  Speaker 1: real people's lives that are affected by all of these decisions,
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  Speaker 1: whether they're political, domestic or sort of military strategic. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm curious how people are reading all of this and
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  Speaker 1: how it makes them feel to see the midterms. is
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  Speaker 1: such a big part of the determining factor here.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think a lot of people are very frustrated
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  Speaker 4: that these timelines that are really going to impact their
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  Speaker 4: lives are being discussed alongside an election cycle. But I
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  Speaker 4: also want to go back, Antonia, to the point about
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  Speaker 4: the firing squad, because What a lot of service members
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  Speaker 4: are telling me is that they are really disgusted by
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  Speaker 4: the way that life and death is being characterized, right?
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  Speaker 4: That this could potentially be live streamed. We've talked a
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  Speaker 4: lot about those boat strike videos that we saw being
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  Speaker 4: put out by the Department of Defense. It almost looked
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  Speaker 4: like a video game, right, to see the vessel blow up.
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  Speaker 4: There were human beings on that vessel. This is not
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  Speaker 4: a video game. War is not a video game. We're
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  Speaker 4: supposed to be following rules of engagement. We're supposed to
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  Speaker 4: be following international law. And I've had so many service
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  Speaker 4: members tell me that they feel as though that has
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  Speaker 4: been brushed aside and that, again, we are watching people
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  Speaker 4: dying here. And, you know, it's just being minimized the
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  Speaker 4: fact that this is a matter of life and death.
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  Speaker 4: So that is definitely something that I've been hearing. Also,
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  Speaker 4: you know, I was speaking to a source this morning
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  Speaker 4: who said he's the founder of what's called the Military
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  Speaker 4: Religious Freedom Foundation. And he said he's already gotten six soldiers.
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  Speaker 2: Who have filed charges.
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  Speaker 4: He has complaints with him saying that they don't want
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  Speaker 4: to potentially be part of this firing squad. He expects
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  Speaker 4: that there could be 120 to 180 more. So a
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  Speaker 4: lot of people are morally objecting to what's going on.
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  Speaker 4: And I would say that the overwhelming sense right now
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  Speaker 4: is there is alarm over how this war in Iran
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  Speaker 4: is going to end. The fact that we're stretching our
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  Speaker 4: assets to the brink. We've already used five out of
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  Speaker 4: 11 aircraft carriers. These deployments are going on and on
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  Speaker 4: with no end in sight, no port calls. And a
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  Speaker 4: lot of people are really starting to ask themselves, is
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  Speaker 4: this the military that I want to be in? You know,
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  Speaker 4: I expected our lawmakers to be able to, you know,
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: authorize any sort of military campaigns. And so they're really
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  Speaker 4: concerned about the direction that the military is heading in, sadly.
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  Speaker 3: Or just click below.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks.