The "Seditious Six" -- Donald Trump's absurd but catchy term for members of Congress who made a video reminding military personnel to refuse illegal orders -- should have waited a week or so for their rollout.

Until after The Washington Post reported on the Sept. 2 attack on a Venezuelan alleged drug-trafficking boat.

A video that initially seemed offensive to those it sought to instruct -- our men and women in uniform don't need to be told that which they already know and which their oaths of service require of them -- takes on new meaning if U.S. forces, allegedly acting on "kill everyone" orders from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, carried out a follow-up attack on a "narco" boat with the intention of killing two shipwrecked survivors clinging to debris.

Such an attack would be a clear-cut violation of the laws of warfare, including the Geneva Conventions and our own Department of Defense Laws of Warfare Manual, both of which prohibit the targeting of persons who are "hors de combat" ("out of the fight").

As CNN legal analyst Eli Honig points out, the DOD Manual specifically cites attacks upon "shipwrecked" and "helpless" combatants as an example of an illegal act, using the phrase "dishonorable and inhumane" in reference to such (page 239).

At the time of writing, President Trump, Hegseth and assorted........

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