Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday bashed former President Joe Biden‘s perceived weak handling of drug trafficking in defense of kinetic strikes against Caribbean drug boats.
The Department of War has come under criticism following a report from the Washington Post that Hegseth gave a verbal order to “kill everyone” in a Sept. 2 strike against an alleged drug trafficking boat, resulting in a second strike that killed two survivors clinging onto the wreckage. The DOW vehemently denied the story, saying the whole narrative was “fabricated.”
In a Friday post on X, Hegseth denounced the “fake news… delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”
“As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization,” Hegseth said.
The Secretary of War then turned his ire on the Biden administration, contrasting the incumbent administration’s aggressive approach with its predecessor’s perceived lax approach.
“The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people — including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans — to flood our communities with drugs and violence. The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them,” he said.
“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict—and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” Hegseth added.
The report in question alleged that Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, who was overseeing the Joint Special Operations Command mission, ordered a follow-up strike to kill the two surviving alleged drug traffickers in line with Hegseth’s spoken directive. The logic followed that the survivors could send out a signal for other drug traffickers to come pick them up if they were left alive. The report also said that the live drone footage of the aftermath of the strike increased observers’ confidence that the vessel was trafficking drugs.
Hegseth’s stress that the strikes were approved by “the best” military and civilian lawyers was likely a response to the report’s allegation that the follow-up strike constituted a war crime and could open up Hegseth and other officials to prosecution.
The report also claimed that the directive changed sometime after the Sept. 2 strike to focus on recovering survivors.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also defended the strikes after the report came out, saying the operation was in defense of the U.S.
US FORMALLY DESIGNATES CARTEL LINKED TO MADURO AS FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION
“The United States is under attack from organized, criminal narco-terrorists in our hemisphere – and the president is responding in the defense of our country,” he told reporters.
Trump has pursued a unilateral and militarized approach in combating drug cartels, aiming to stop the flow of fentanyl and other drugs through force. This contrasts sharply with the Biden administration’s preference for diplomacy and targeted sanctions. Trump has also connected the issue with illegal immigration, shutting down the border, while Biden largely declined to mix the two issues.
