U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has vocally defended against these claims. He even demanded that he never ordered anyone to “kill everyone” after recent hot pursuits and military attacks on Haitian boats in the Caribbean sea. On Friday evening, he was forced to take to social media and publicly rebut the allegations. He called them “fake news” and cavalierly opined that the strikes were justified, legally, under U.S. law and international law.
In a post on X.com, status 1994552598142038358, Hegseth expressed his apoplexy. He blustered and bullied his way through, lambasting press reports that hinted he may be leading troops in unlawful military offenses. He underlined that these stories just damage the diligent efforts of U.S. armed forces members. They’re doing the hard work every day down range in operations to interdict drug traffickers and protect our national security.
Our military strikes are responsible for the deaths of at least 80 civilians. They intercepted over 22 of these boats, most of which arrived from Venezuela. The U.S. government is increasing political pressure on the Venezuelan government. Their goal is to hurt the country’s purported support for drug trafficking organizations.
Hegseth criticized what he termed “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.” He emphasized that the operational intent of these strikes is to eliminate the threat posed by drug traffickers, stating, “The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people.” In fact, every trafficker we kill is a member of or affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.
Hegseth is indeed correct to point out how illegal and unjustified many of the strikes are. There is almost universal criticism of his actions by both current and former U.S. officials, military law experts and others. There have been allegations that targeting individuals is illegal. Unlike traffickers and organized crime figures, these folks aren’t committing—or at least aren’t getting caught committing—narcotics trafficking or RICO-type offenses. An Associated Press report highlighted that many of those killed were “not narco-terrorists or leaders of a cartel or gang.”
Further, a high-ranking U.S. military lawyer expressed incredulity at the legality of Hegseth’s position on the strikes. But immediately after the confrontation, the attorney himself was arrested. This would point to some sort of internal military dissent over the operation’s legality.
The ongoing strikes are an element of a broader U.S. government strategy to interrupt drug trafficking from Venezuela. This trafficking has recently been recognized as an increasing menace to American society. Yet throughout the film, Hegseth fervently argues the use of these operations are completely legal and needed. Look for greater calls for the ramifications of these military steps to be heard in the public debate and congressional oversight.