AP NewsBy KONSTANTIN TOROPINDecember 2, 2025Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday cited the “fog of war” in defending a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-carrying boat in the Caribbean Sea in early September.During a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Hegseth said he did not see any survivors in the water, saying the vessel “exploded in fire, smoke, you can’t see anything. ... This is called the fog of war.”Hegseth also said he “didn’t stick around” for the remainder of the Sept. 2 mission following the initial strike and the admiral in charge “made the right call” in ordering the second hit, which he “had complete authority to do.”Lawmakers have opened investigations following a Washington Post report that Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everybody” on the boat, the first vessel hit in the Trump administration’s counterdrug campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that has grown to over 20 known strikes and more than 80 dead.
The "fog of war " had plenty of time to clear!
While several legal experts have told The Associated Press they believed the second strike violated peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict, the Pentagon’s own manual on the laws of armed conflict also specifically cites striking survivors of a sunken ship as being patently illegal.
The Guardian reported that from one to two hours were between the first strike and the second strike! There was no "fog of war" this was premeditated.
He said that he “watched that first strike” but ultimately did not “stick around for the hour or two hours” after. “So I moved on to my next meeting,” the defense secretary said. “A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the which he had the complete authority to do.” Hegseth went on to say that decorated US Navy admiral Frank Bradley made the “right call” as he described the unfolding events to reporters.
I see two courts-martial in the future. If the Democrats take control of Congress.
No comments:
Post a Comment