We've had this convo before, SF/SO pedantry aside, there seem to be a fair number of borderline or outright psychopaths among their ranks.*
Perhaps it's the nature of the missions, in addition to the particular psychology required of such operators.
If we want to be strictly legalistic about this, the killing of Bin Laden was legally kind of fishy in the sense that there was no declared war, but at least a facially valid AUMF. Although fishy, it was on a lot firmer ground than this.
In mild defense of this shit, there is apparently an OLC memo justifying all of this. It seems to bear most of the hallmarks of Trumpco legal work, that is, exceptionally shitty. And there is reason to believe that the legal advisors closer to the commanders have been purged in favor of Trump loyalists. It is probably hard to buck all this.
But the comparison between Holsey and Bradley is going to be hard to dodge.
*you say Socom was wrongly used. I assume you mean launching missiles from land doesn't seem to implicate any of the skills and strengths of various special operations units available. That seems to me a very valid point. Do you think it involves a different chain of command that is easier to manipulate?