Those who execute military orders carry all the risk

As Mark Kelly and Pete Hegseth square off, service members are left to resolve the ambiguity created far above them

- JON DUFFY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

MARK KELLY has pushed back against efforts by Trump officials to intimidate him.

(J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE Associated Press)

THE DISPUTE between Sen. Mark Kelly and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is being told as a simple morality play. On one side, the claim that Kelly crossed a line and deserves punishment. On the other, the insistence that Kelly is a hero beyond reproach and that the administration's response is villainy. Both frames are comforting. Both are wrong.

What matters most here is not who appeared righteous or reckless in the moment, but what happens when legality is left unresolved. In this case, junior service members are being placed in the position of exercising legal and moral judgment without meaningful authority, clarity or institutional backing. Those who make decisions remain insulated from consequence; those who execute them carry the risk.

The episode began with a short video released late last year by Kelly and several other members of Congress — all veterans of the U.S. military or intelligence community — reminding service members of their duty to refuse unlawful orders, a principle firmly embedded in U.S. military law. The video was a response to recent U.S. boat strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that raised serious unresolved legal questions under both domestic and international law — questions that warranted a clear, public accounting from the Department of Defense.

That accounting never came. Instead, Hegseth labeled the video “seditious” and moved to censure Kelly, a retired Navy captain, triggering a review that could strip him of his rank and pension. Rather than lead, Hegseth escalated — a clear signal about how dissent would be handled.