The Washington Post (Lean Left bias) reported last Friday that the US carried out a second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean after the first strike, on September 2, left two survivors. The report also alleged that the second strike was conducted to comply with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's order to "kill everybody." Hegseth called the report "fake news," saying it is "fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory." President Donald Trump also initially disputed the allegations. However, the White House has since confirmed that the second strike did take place, saying it was legally ordered by an admiral.
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Trump, when asked, said, "I wouldn't have wanted that – a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine." later he added that he would support releasing the footage “no problem.”
According to Karoline Levitt, “The strike conducted on September 2nd was conducted in self-defense to protect Americans in vital United States interests,”
The Wall Street Journal (Center) reported that “Adm. Frank ‘Mitch’ Bradley plans to say he and his legal adviser concluded the two survivors were attempting to continue their drug run, making them and the already-damaged vessel legitimate targets for another attack, two defense officials said.” The decision, according to some, may be punishable as a war crime.
Jonah Goldberg (Right bias) wrote in The Dispatch (Lean Right), “More importantly, the whole Caribbean strategy is constitutionally and legally dubious. As a matter of foreign policy, it looks more and more like a pretext for some kind of regime change gambit in Venezuela. If the administration has evidence that justifies its actions, they should share it with Congress and ask for permission to wage war. Even more important: Illegal orders cannot be justified.”
The Editorial Board of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Lean Left) said, “The boat strikes have been ghastly from the start. The U.S. military doesn’t even know who is being summarily killed. One man was a fisherman, according to his family. The legality is shaky at best, hinging on a secret U.S. Department of Justice memo that no one in the Trump administration has been willing to publicly defend. Even if the boats are carrying drugs, those on board should be arrested and prosecuted, not assassinated…How does Trump reconcile summarily executing alleged drug runners while pardoning the former president of Honduras, who was convicted last year of taking bribes from drug cartels in return for helping to move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the U.S.? What do the drone killings have to do with making America great, let alone making it more affordable, as Trump promised last year?”
A piece in the Washington Examiner (Lean Right) read, “Administration critics squeeze as much political juice as they can out of such incidents before congressional oversight has been able to discover the truth. They seize on the chance to depict administration actions in the darkest colors as quickly as possible, fearful that a true and acceptable account of events might emerge from sober and objective analysis of the facts… It seems clear that Bradley ordered the later missile hit entirely properly. But…isn’t it extraordinarily convenient for Trump’s opponents that a story should emerge to justify a clamor about war crimes only a week after bipartisan criticism has rained down on congressional Democrats for inciting members of the military to disobey orders from the officers commanding them and ultimately from the president?”
For the Boston Globe (Left) Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA) wrote, “Republicans and Democrats alike are calling for a congressional investigation, and an investigation is necessary to deal with what happened. However, the nation can’t wait for a deliberative congressional investigation that will move slower than what this moment needs,” adding “Our number one intelligence partner in the world, the United Kingdom, has reportedly pulled away from the United States over this very issue, indicating that it will no longer share intelligence about drug smuggling in a region where it has been an effective partner with the United States.” He concluded, “The best thing that can be done right now is to release the tape of the second strike. The administration has been releasing the tapes of all the other strikes, including the first one on this particular vessel. The American public should see what happened firsthand.”
