Warnings of international law violation appear as Pete Hegseth calls troops to commit a war crime

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), ex-naval officer and astronaut, has strongly criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent call for “no quarter” for US enemies at a press briefing at the Pentagon. According to The Guardian, his warning is simple but damning. Such an order would violate international law if followed by troops. 

Kelly took to X to express his dismay. He stated, “‘No quarter’ isn’t some wanna be tough guy line – it means something. An order to give no quarter would mean to take no prisoners and kill them instead.” The senator emphasized that this would directly violate the law of armed conflict, making it an illegal order. It would put American service members at greater risk, adding that Hegseth “should know better than to throw around terms like this.”

According to a transcript of the briefing, Hegseth explicitly said, “We will keep pressing, keep pushing, keep advancing – no quarter, no mercy for our enemy.” Critics are quick to highlight that “no quarter” is far more than just a belligerent figure of speech. It implies that enemy combatants would not be taken prisoner but instead executed. This practice is considered a war crime under the Hague Convention of 1899.

No one has ever considered it honorable to kill a POW

An amendment to the convention, from 1907, specifically prohibits declaring that no quarter will be given, meaning it’s illegal to order that there be no survivors, threaten the adversary with it, or conduct hostilities on this basis. The International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) International Humanitarian Law Databases also states that under the statute of the International Criminal Court, “declaring that no quarter will be given” is a war crime in international armed conflicts.

Hegseth’s controversial statement came amid a broader briefing filled with aggressive statements. “We know the new so-called not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” Hegseth said, “He put out a statement yesterday. A weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement.” However, an Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that Khamenei’s injuries were light.

This isn’t the first time Kelly and Hegseth have clashed. In November, Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers appeared in a video urging troops to disobey unlawful military directives from President Trump’s administration. President Trump responded on social media, accusing the lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH.” Hegseth then called for Kelly’s demotion from his retired rank of captain. 

The Pentagon subsequently began investigating Kelly, citing a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defense secretary for possible court-martial. However, a judge ruled in February that he knew of no federal supreme court precedent to justify the Pentagon’s censure of a US senator, appearing skeptical of the government attorney’s arguments and asking if they weren’t “a bit of a stretch.”