Retired Lt. General Says Missing U.S. Aviator Would Be ‘Killed on the Spot’ if Iranians Apply Hegseth’s ‘No Quarter’ Rule

Ret. U.S. Army Lt. General Russell Honoré said that if Iran were to apply Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s “no quarter” attitude, the American aviator missing in Iran would be “killed on the spot” if found.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down a U.S. F-15 fighter jet on Friday over Iran. One of the two crew members was rescued, but another is missing in action. Later, it was reported that Iran also shot down an A-10 Warthog, whose lone pilot was rescued.

After the shootdowns, Honoré noted on social media some remarks made by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

“We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies,” Hegseth said during a March 13 news conference. “No quarter” is broadly understood to mean “no prisoners.” Killing captured or surrendering soldiers is a war crime.

In his post, Honoré called Hegseth’s comments “reckless and outrageous, and why it may be what gets these pilots tortured or killed.”

Hours later, the retired lieutenant general appeared on CNN and elaborated:

It’s a direct relationship. And the concern we had at the time the secretary of defense made that statement that we will give “no quarter” is a violation of our rules of war that we have trained our soldiers on. And it was practiced when we shot the Iranian warship off the Indian Ocean. We gave no quarter. We did not provide assistance to the survivors…

So the secretary of defense’s language and his rhetoric about giving no quarter would have direct impact on our airman that’s on the ground somewhere in Iran right now trying to survive, that, if he’s caught, if the Iranians were to use the secretary of defense’s rule, that aviator will end up being treated very bad or even killed on the spot because that’s the way that’s translated: give no quarter to the injured or those who no longer can fight.

Watch above via CNN.

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