Is This Why the Trump Administration Was So Triggered?
Experts say Pete Hegseth's verbal order to leave no survivors is a war crime
At first glance, Democrats reminding military members of their duty to refuse illegal orders shouldn’t have sparked such a furious reaction. That duty is written into military policy. It’s on a plaque at West Point. And it became central after World War 2, when Nazis insisted they were “only following orders.”
It’s also foundational to the U.S. military. From the beginning, American service members have sworn an oath to the Constitution — not to a leader.
(I wrote more about that here.)
But the Trump administration’s response was outright rage. “How dare you accuse us of issuing illegal orders?” Even though Democrats never said that. They didn’t even mention Trump’s name. Yet the reaction was, “How dare you tell soldiers to disobey Trump?”
Which raises a question: Why did that message hit such a nerve? Did they react that way because they already knew some of their orders were illegal? Or at the very least, that some of their orders could be ruled illegal? Is this why the Judge Advocates General were decimated?
Because now we have an allegation that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave one of the clearest illegal orders there is: to kill apparently defenseless people.
(Yes, he wants to call himself “War Secretary,” but unless Congress changes the name, he’s Secretary of Defense.)
On September 2, off the coast of Trinidad, the U.S. military blew up what it called a “narcoterrorist” boat — the first strike in this campaign. No attempt was made to stop or board the vessel. No effort to confirm whether it carried drugs. And from an intelligence standpoint, capturing people would have been far more valuable.
Instead, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation, Hegseth gave a spoken directive.
“The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said.
A missile hit the boat and set it on fire. Commanders watched the live drone feed. When the smoke cleared, they saw survivors clinging to the wreckage.
The Special Operations commander then ordered a second strike to fulfill Hegseth’s command, according to two people familiar with the matter. Two men in the water were blown apart.
Some current and former U.S. officials — and multiple law-of-war experts — say the Pentagon’s campaign, which has now killed more than eighty people, is unlawful and could expose those directly involved to future prosecution.
The commander on the scene later claimed he ordered the second strike to clear out the wreckage because it could be a navigation hazard. Experts say that’s absurd — the debris was too small to pose any real threat.
He also claimed the two survivors might have called in other “narcoterrorists,” so they had to be taken out. Experts dismiss that argument as well. And many lawmakers, after being briefed, began to suspect the Pentagon wasn’t leveling with them about what happened.
There’s an old joke:
A man storms into a bar, face red with rage, slams his fist on the counter, and shouts, “Give me a double whiskey!”
The bartender pours the drink and asks, “Rough day?”
“You have no idea,” the man bellows. “I just got home to find my back door kicked in. My TV is gone, my jewelry is gone, my laptop is gone! Whoever did this is nothing but a dirty, rotten, stupid, thieving asshole!”
Suddenly, a guy at a table in the back jumps up, knocks over his chair, and screams, “Hey! Watch your mouth! I am NOT stupid!”
When Democrats — including Senator Mark Kelly — released their message reminding service members to follow only lawful orders, they didn’t mention Trump, didn’t accuse him of anything.
But the administration and its allies reacted like the guy in that joke.
And now, it turns out, I didn’t know the half of it.
Late Friday, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that they intend to conduct “vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”
Even Republicans are responding in a rare break with the Trump administration.