Is the U.S. fighting a war without rules?

March 10, 2026·35 min·2 clips

Retired lieutenant colonel Daniel Mauer says Hegseth 'clearly has not read his Clausewitz' and accuses him of 'lack of maturity' in treating war like a video game.

A peaceful fleet review starts the episode in an oddly calm place. India hosted a 2026 naval training event with 74 countries and 18 foreign warships, including an Iranian frigate, and the ships took part unarmed. Meghna uses that calm scene to ask what happens when exercises turn into combat. The guest draws a clean line: rules of engagement are instructions from a nation, shaped by policy and mission; the laws of armed conflict are the legal floor underneath. Mission matters. In a dense city, commanders may need tighter limits to reduce civilian harm. In large scale combat, like a Russia versus Ukraine scale fight, the guest says the rules can become more permissive because tanks, aircraft carriers, jet fighters, submarines, infantry battalions, and other systems are in play. But more permissive does not mean the law disappears. Commanders still cannot issue rules that allow conduct that violates the rules of war. If an engagement rule falls below the law of armed conflict, the guest calls it an unlawful order. That is where JAG officers come in. They help write the rules before a campaign, sorting through objectives, weapons, threats, national policy, mission limits, and legal duties. Meghna keeps pressing for plain language, especially on the difference between Geneva Conventions standards and rules written for a specific force. The episode keeps one uncomfortable question on the table: when military necessity and civilian protection collide, who knows the rules well enough to stop a bad order?

As heard by us

A sober look at how war is governed, and how easily those rules are tested.

An American submarine sinking an Iranian warship in international waters gives the episode its sharp starting point: once force is underway, who still gets to draw the line?

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Why you'd press play

If you want to understand who sets the lines in wartime, start here.

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