One of Pete Hegseth's first actions after taking charge at the Pentagon was to fire top lawyers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force'senior officers who the defense secretary said functioned as 'roadblocks' to the president's orders. The former National Guardsman has a history of hostility toward military lawyers and the legal restraints they impose on the use of military might. They are known as judge advocates general. Hegseth calls them 'jagoffs.' This week, Hegseth proposed a 'ruthless' overhaul of how the military's thousands of lawyers in uniform, and their civilian counterparts, are organized, part of his campaign to move from, as he has called it, 'tepid legality' to 'maximum lethality.' JAGs serve a vital oversight function on issues such as whether drone strikes are aimed at legally justified targets and whether to prosecute adultery. 'In some circumstances, the delivery of legal services across the Military Departments has become marked by duplication of effort, ambiguous...
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