The New Yorker:

A second Trump Administration could give impunity to American soldiers who commit atrocities.

By Parker Yesko

On November 10, 2019, just before Veterans Day, Fox News aired an hour-long special, “Modern Warriors,” featuring one of its political commentators and hosts, Pete Hegseth, along with four men who had served in U.S. Special Operations units. The group sat around a table in what appeared to be the wine cellar of a fancy Manhattan restaurant. They rested their tattooed forearms on the white tablecloth, sipped glasses of red wine, and talked about killing bad guys. Hegseth introduced to viewers a Navy seal named Eddie Gallagher, who’d recently beaten a rap for, as Hegseth put it, “mistreating an isis terrorist” in Iraq in 2017. Hegseth called Gallagher a “war hero.”

In fact, Gallagher had been tried for murder (and a raft of other crimes). His alleged victim was a seventeen-year-old named Khaled Jamal Abdullah, who had been captured by American troops in Mosul and killed while gravely injured. Gallagher’s own platoon had turned him in, describing him, according to a video obtained by the New York Times, as “freaking evil” and “perfectly O.K. with killing anybody that was moving.” They reported that Gallagher had stabbed the teen in the neck and had also, in separate incidents, shot civilians including an old man and a young girl. The evidence against Gallagher included a video of him kneeling next to Abdullah shortly before his death, and photos of him posing with Abdullah’s corpse. The seal later texted one to a friend, writing, “Got him with my hunting knife.” Gallagher was acquitted of the murder after another seal, who’d been granted immunity, took the stand at Gallagher’s trial and unexpectedly confessed to killing Abdullah himself. Gallagher was convicted of just one minor charge.

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