皮特·赫格塞斯(Pete Hegseth)周二告诉调查他担任国防部长资格的委员会的参议员，“限制性的交战规则”已经“使击败我们的敌人变得更加困难”，因为该小组的民主党人表示，他低估了战争法。
当选总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)挑选的国防部负责人海格塞斯(Hegseth)对该委员会民主党领袖杰克·里德(Jack Reed)说，他的首要任务是“不让律师妨碍”军事效力。
里德说，在委员会成员对被提名人提出质疑时，黑格斯在福克斯新闻频道主持节目时倡导赦免被定罪的战犯，这使人怀疑他是否尊重军事司法程序。
里德参考三次宽大处理特朗普在他的第一个任期结束时采取了行动，为此，黑格斯提出了一个公开案件，包括军事法庭的两项定罪，称“在其中两起案件中，与这些被定罪的服役人员一起作战的军事人员不支持赦免。”
“他们履行了作为士兵的职责，报告战争罪行，”里德说。“你对杀伤力的定义似乎是拥抱那些确实犯下战争罪行的人，而不是那些站出来说‘这是不对的’的人。”"
在特朗普于2019年11月获得赦免前不久，赫格塞斯表示，总统可以对以下定罪采取“迫在眉睫的行动”军队克林特·洛兰斯中尉和绿色贝雷帽少校马特·高尔斯汀因战争罪和军衔降级海军海豹突击队·埃迪·加拉格尔被判无罪，他杀死了一名受伤的伊斯兰国俘虏，但被判四个月监禁，并因在2017年部署到伊拉克期间与一具尸体合影而被降级。
“我已经非常深入地思考了合法性和致命性之间的平衡，”海格塞斯在周三的确认听证会上告诉里德，“确保前线的男人和女人有机会摧毁...敌人，而律师不是挡路的人。”
后来，在独立参议员安格斯·金(Angus King)的敦促下，赫格塞斯同意日内瓦公约是“国家法律”，但这种战争法律存在于“现实之上”，国际法和地面战斗之间存在“战术区别”。
“当它渗透到一个连或一个排或一个班的级别时，你就有了一个没有人承认的交战规则。这让你在战场上很难真正完成任务，”这位战斗老兵说。
“我们遵守规则。但是我们不需要繁琐的交战规则，让我们无法赢得这些战争。
里德也是一名退伍军人，他问黑格斯，“你已经在文章中贬低了日内瓦公约、法律规则，所有这些东西。你如何能有效地领导一支以纪律和尊重合法权力为主要元素的军队?”
这位参议员还要求Hegseth回答他在《勇士之战》一书中用来描述军法署署长(Judge Advocate General's Corps)或JAGs的军队律师的贬义词，他在书中称他们为“jagoffs”。
“没有步兵喜欢陆军律师，”海格塞斯当时写道。
当被问到时，Hegseth首先拒绝详细说明，但在Reed的第二次催促下，他提供了一个术语，指的是“一个将自己的优先事项放在战士、他们的晋升、他们的奖章前面，放在那些在前线做出艰难决定的人后面的JAG军官。”
里德讽刺地回答:“有意思。”
赫格塞斯承认军事司法的统一法典是由“法律”形成的...当参议员埃利萨·斯洛特金问他是否会寻求改变它们时。
斯洛特金指出，南卡罗来纳州共和党参议员林赛·格雷厄姆(Lindsey Graham)“大半辈子都是军法署的官员。”
海格塞斯说，他只是在他早期的作品中“谈论我不得不对付的特定的军法署官员”。
Top Democrat presses Hegseth on supporting accused war criminals that Trump pardoned
Pete Hegseth told senators on the committee investigating his qualifications to be secretary of defense on Tuesday that "restrictive rules of engagement" have "made it more difficult to defeat our enemies" as Democrats on the panel suggested he undervalued the laws of war.
Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Defense, told Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the committee, that it would be his priority "that lawyers aren't the ones getting in the way" of military effectiveness.
Reed said Hegseth's advocacy for pardons for convicted war criminals when he was a Fox News host raised questions about his respect for the military judicial process as the members of the
Reed referencedthree acts of clemencyTrump took at the end of his first administration and for which Hegseth made a public case, including two convictions by courts martial, saying that in "two of these cases, the military personnel who served in combat with these convicted service members were not supportive of the pardons."
"They did their duty as soldiers to report war crimes," Reed said. "Your definition of lethality seems to embrace those people who do commit war crimes, rather than those who stand up and say, 'This is not right.'"
Shortly before Trump's pardons in November 2019, Hegseth said the president could take "imminent action" on the convictions ofArmyLt. Clint Lorance and Green Beret Maj. Matt Golsteyn for war crimes and the demotion in rank ofNavySEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was acquitted of killing a wounded Islamic State captive but sentenced to four months confinement and a reduction in rank for posing with a corpse during a 2017 deployment to Iraq.
"I've thought very deeply about the balance between legality and lethality," Hegseth told Reed in Wednesday's confirmation hearing, "ensuring that the men and women on the frontlines have the opportunity to destroy...the enemy, and that lawyers aren't the ones getting in the way."
Pressed later by independent Sen. Angus King, Hegseth agreed that the Geneva Convention was the "law of the land," but that such laws of war existed "above reality" and there was a "tactical distinction" between international laws and fighting on the ground.
"By the time it trickles down to a company or a platoon or a squad level, you have a rules of engagement that nobody recognizes. And then it makes you incredibly difficult to actually do your job on the battlefield," the combat veteran said.
"We follow rules. But we don't need burdensome rules of engagement [that] make it impossible for us to win these wars," he said.
Reed, also an Army veteran, asked Hegseth, "You've already disparaged in writing the Geneva Convention, the rules of law, all of these things. How you be able to effectively lead a military in which one of the principal elements is discipline, respect for lawful authority?"
The senator also demanded Hegseth answer for a derogatory term he used to describe Army lawyers in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, or JAGs, whom he called "jagoffs" in his book "War on Warriors."
"No infantrymen like Army lawyers," Hegseth wrote at the time.
Hegseth first refused to elaborate when asked, but, pressed a second time by Reed, offered the term referred to "a JAG officer who puts his or her own priorities in front of the warfighters, their promotions, their medals, in front of having the backs of those are making the tough calls on the front lines."
Reed replied sarcastically, "Interesting."
Hegseth acknowledged that the Uniform Code of Military Justice is formed by "laws ... set by Congress" when Sen. Elissa Slotkin asked if he'd seek to change them.
Slotkin noted Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, was a "JAG officer for most of his life."
Hegseth said he was only "speaking about particular JAG officers I've had to deal with" in his earlier writing.
