On Strike
“What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service. You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel who were killed by the United States.” So said House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes after hearing second strike testimony from Adm. Frank ‘Mitch’ Bradley. The Navy admiral “told lawmakers Thursday that there was no ‘kill them all’ order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth but grave questions and concerns remain as Congress scrutinizes an attack that killed two survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters near Venezuela.” Admiral says there was no ‘kill them all’ order in boat attack, but video alarms lawmakers.
+ The immediate reaction to the testimony seemed split between those who saw two struggling people clinging to a sinking boat vs those who believed that the two survivors represented a danger to American and we still trying, somehow, to continue their drug trafficking mission. While the second strike debate is important, it’s critical that we don’t lose site of the much bigger question: Were any of these strikes legal or justified in the first place? The whole second strike debate presupposes that these were legitimate targets in the first place. The notion that they were put Admiral Bradley and other military leaders in a difficult spot where poor decisions were bound to be made. Meanwhile, some leaders who didn’t want to be put in a position of carrying out such a mission are no longer employed by the US government. Hegseth asked top admiral to resign after months of discord. “Adm. Alvin Holsey had initial concerns about the legality of lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, according to former officials aware of the discussions. Not long after, Hegseth announced that Holsey would be retiring.”
+ Here’s my take: “If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief. There’s a standard, there’s an ethos, there’s a belief that we are above what so many things that our enemies or others would do.” Oh wait, that wasn’t my take. That was Pete Hegseth in 2016.
