Paul Rosenzweig in The Atlantic
Charter Member Paul Rosenzweig published a piece in The Atlantic, “Firing the ‘Conscience’ of the Military.” In it, he writes about Trump’s removal of the military’s top lawyers:
JAGs [Judge Advocates General] are the military’s lawyers. Like lawyers in civilian life, a significant portion of what JAGs do is prosaic …
But far more notable, they have a unique function in articulating the legal standards that are relevant to combat operations. They don’t command any troops, but they do guide the commanders on the legality of their operations. This can mean limiting the tactics that the troops can use or the weapons that they might employ. It means advising the troops’ on rules of engagement in a battle zone. It means attempting to ensure that unnecessary civilian casualties are avoided (think Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman in Eye in the Sky). It means, to cite one example with which I am familiar, that before U.S. CYBERCOM deploys a new cyberattack tool, the tool is reviewed to make sure that its deployment will be lawful under the laws of armed conflict.
Paul Rosenzweig served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, 2005-2009.
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