The Secretary of State went on television and refused to rule out striking civilian targets. "A head for an eye," Marco Rubio said — boasting about sending a country back to the Stone Age. At the same time, the Pentagon has cancelled press briefings, killed reporter embeds with combat units, and gone dark on casualty numbers. Paul Rieckhoff joins Katy Tur on MS Now to lay out what that combination actually means: an administration waging war without the accountability the Constitution demands, and military families left in the dark about whether their people are coming home.
Paul draws on his own time as an infantry rifle platoon leader in Iraq to explain why the laws of war exist in the first place — they protect our troops when they're captured, they hold the line against retaliation on our allies, and they're the difference between a professional military and a political weapon. He also breaks down the president parading a Gold Star family at a Georgia rally, the New York Times reporting on strikes against Iranian escape routes, and why the erosion of the wall between the troops and the politicians is the exact mistake America made before Vietnam. This one is short, sharp, and essential.
In this episode
- Rubio's "a head for an eye" line — and what refusing to rule out civilian strikes actually signals to the world
- Why killing Pentagon press briefings and embed programs is a national security failure, not a media story
- The MAGA machine parading a Gold Star family at a political rally — and why separating the troops from the politics matters
- Hegseth diminishing traumatic brain injuries as "just headaches" — and the generation of veterans who'll pay for it
- New reporting on US strikes hitting Iranian bridges civilians were using as escape routes
- The strategic case for the laws of war: they protect our troops when they're captured
- How boasting about war crimes invites retaliation on American allies and infrastructure in the Gulf
- The courts and the New York Times doing the accountability work the Pentagon refuses to do
- Where's the Secretary of Veterans Affairs while a whole new generation of wounded is being created?
