Pete Hegseth trades military legitimacy for a public spectacle
By Adele Rutherford · Reporting from Atlanta ·
Pete Hegseth's plan to livestream Nidal Hasan's execution reduces a judicial sentence to political theater, while Archbishop Timothy Broglio weakens the rule of law by shifting the burden onto soldiers.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is wrong. By ordering the livestream of Nidal Hasan's execution, he is treating a judicial sentence as a public relations exercise. A court-martial is a legal process designed to restore order, not a tool for political theater. Hegseth claims the public needs to understand that there are "serious consequences" for such crimes. But the record shows that the consequence is already the death penalty. Adding a broadcast does not change the law. It only changes the nature of the act from justice to a spectacle.
A judicial sentence is not a press release
The facts are stark. Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas. He is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3. According to CBS News, this would be the first U.S. military execution of an American since 1961. It would also be the first military use of a firing squad.
Hegseth's decision to make this public is a departure from nearly a century of American practice. The last large-scale public execution in the U.S. was the hanging of Rainey Bethea in Kentucky before a crowd. By returning to this model, Hegseth is not demonstrating strength. He is imitating the tactics of dictators.
The Fort Hood shooting created a deep moral conflict for the military. Archbishop Timothy Broglio knows this pain. He presided over the funeral of Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in the 2009 attack. Yet, Broglio argues that broadcasting the execution of a man in a wheelchair does not reflect the dignity of the human person. He asks if the military wants to "imitate the terrorists of this world."
The cost of a religious accommodation
Archbishop Broglio has stipulated that Catholic soldiers assigned to the firing squad should ask to be excused. He describes the duty as "contrary to the teachings of the church." This position aligns with Pope Leo XIV. The Pope stated that the death penalty is "inadmissible" because it attacks the dignity of the person.
The Iraq War highlighted the tension between military duty and religious conviction. Broglio is now asking soldiers to navigate that tension in a domestic setting. While his moral stance is clear, his method is procedurally weak. By telling soldiers to "ask to be excused," he places the burden of a constitutional conflict on the lowest-ranking people in the chain of command. He is asking subordinates to challenge a lawful order based on a doctrinal shift.
This creates a precarious situation for the service member. If the Pentagon denies the request, the soldier faces a choice between their faith and their duty. Broglio warns of "moral injury" to these soldiers. However, the most significant injury here is to the process. When religious accommodation is used to avoid a judicial sentence, the rule of law becomes optional.
The precedent of the ideological execution
This is the mechanism of the Trial of the Major War Criminals. In that parallel, the state used formal judicial processes to execute high-profile ideological adversaries to establish a legal precedent. Hegseth is attempting the same thing. He wants to use Hasan's death to send a message to future terrorists.
But the military is not a courtroom for ideology. It is a hierarchy of discipline. The crime was heinous. But the purpose of a sentence is to satisfy the law, not to serve as a recruiting tool or a warning. As Speaker Mike Johnson noted to CBS News, such a video could actually become a tool for future terrorists.
Politico reports that other Catholic leaders have also spoken out against the livestream. They recognize that legitimacy is a capital stock. It spends fast and refills slowly. When the state turns an execution into a broadcast, it spends that stock for a momentary political win.
The Pentagon is trading the quiet dignity of the law for the loud approval of a crowd. By turning a firing squad into a media event, the administration is abandoning the passive virtues of the judiciary. They are replacing the rule of law with the rule of the image.
The decision to livestream this execution is a failure of leadership. It degrades the military's reputation and places an unfair moral burden on the soldiers tasked with the execution. Pete Hegseth is not upholding the law; he is using the law to create a performance. This is not justice. It is barbarism with a government seal.
Sources
- Politico: Archbishop of the US military says Catholic soldiers should not serve on firing squad
- CBS News: Military's archbishop criticizes plan to livestream execution: "Do we really want to imitate the terrorists?"
- ABC News: Archbishop of US military says Catholic soldiers should not serve on firing squad