The Trump administration disputes The Washington Post's report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instructed U.S. forces to "kill everybody" on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean last September, which allegedly resulted in a second missile strike that blew apart two survivors of the initial attack who "were clinging to the smoldering wreck." But even President Donald Trump seems to agree that such an order would be problematic, and so do the Republican legislators who have promised to investigate the incident. If the Post report is accurate, a group of former military lawyers says, "the giving and the execution of these orders" would "constitute war crimes, murder, or both."

Although that much seems clear, attempts to apply the law of war in these circumstances are complicated by the

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