Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing bipartisan scrutiny after he reportedly ordered U.S. forces to “kill everybody” in a strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug-trafficking boat. If those reports are accurate, critics say, Hegseth and the servicemembers who carried out the attack may be guilty of war crimes.
The initial Sept. 2 attack on a Venezuelan boat left two survivors “clinging to the smoldering wreck,” said The Washington Post. A Special Forces commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s order, and those survivors were “blown apart in the water.” Hegseth’s alleged instruction to kill all the occupants of the boat, even if they could no longer fight, would be an “order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime,” said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer now at Georgetown Law, to the Post. But other officials said Hegseth’s order “did not specifically address” what should happen if there were survivors after the strike, said The New York Times. That could leave the mission commander, Admiral Frank M. Bradley, “exposed” to consequences.
Defending Americans or murder?
Hegseth’s alleged order is a “war crime that endangers every American in uniform,” said former Green Beret Karl K. Schneider at PennLive. Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions mandates that combatants who are “out of the fight due to wounds, surrender, or shipwreck” must be treated humanely. Targeting survivors of an attack is “not combat; it is murder.” That strikes at the “moral authority” of the United States. “America must not commit war crimes.”
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“This is a very serious matter,” said Andrew C. McCarthy at the National Review. And Hegseth knows it. After the Sept. 2 attack, Hegseth and his commanders changed protocols to emphasize the rescue of survivors. That is why the survivors of an October strike were “repatriated to their native countries.” The defense secretary “knows he can’t justify killing boat operators who survive attacks.”
“Why is Hegseth being attacked for defending Americans?” asked Nicole Russell at USA Today. President Donald Trump was elected to “take drug cartels, terrorism and illegal immigration seriously.” If Hegseth has committed a war crime, it should be investigated, but we should “trust Hegseth to issue lawful commands.” And polls show that most Republicans believe the benefits of taking on cartels “outweigh the risks.”
A defiant tone
The civilian boat crews were “not at war with the United States,” said Fred Kaplan at Slate. Which means that the real question is not whether Hegseth committed war crimes but “whether he’s a criminal, plain and simple.” While a Fox News host, Hegseth crusaded on behalf of veterans accused of war crimes. As defense secretary, he fired top Pentagon lawyers who provide a buffer against illegal orders. Hegseth is a “thug — and proud of it.”
The Post’s report “sent shock waves throughout Washington,” said The Hill, and top lawmakers from both parties vowed inquiries. But Hegseth “struck a defiant tone” to reporters at a presidential Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said Axios. The sinking of “narcoterrorists” boats has “only just begun,” he said.
