Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about Trump, Heggseth, Boats, and Choices.

There's been a pretty important development in Trump's boat campaign down south,

and it's pretty clear we're going to have to talk about the laws governing

this because I'm watching the news try and wow. The information coming out is either convoluted

or in some cases just plain wrong. It's actually very, very simple, but people are overcomplicating it.

If you missed it, news has come out that suggests that during the September 2nd operation

as part of the Trump administration's campaign, the United States double-tapped a boat.

That means they struck it twice. Now, to clear something up,

there is nothing inherently unlawful about a double-tap strike. However, the reporting suggests

the boat was struck. Survivors were visibly clinging to the wrecked ship, and it was struck again.

Further, the reporting is saying that this was done to comply with an order from Hexeth to take

everybody on the boat out. Hexeth has basically said this was fake news. Okay, so most experts will tell you this whole campaign is legally sketchy to begin with.

But using the framing established by Trump when he declared the U.S. was in a non-international

armed conflict, there really isn't a way for the actions described in the reporting

to be lawful. To understand how this works, we need to throw away terms completely before reintroducing

them. Two terms that are showing up in coverage. Combatant and POW status. Throw out everything you know or you've heard about

these terms. They don't have the same application in non-international armed conflict as they would

in a normal conflict. Trump has designated them unlawful combatants. That means they don't fit certain criteria,

like openly carrying arms, having a fixed insignia, a commander, and so on. All that really means

in a practical sense is that they can be prosecuted for participation in a

conflict and they don't get POW status. A far better, less loaded term is unprivileged combatant.

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