Boat strike briefings help Hegseth
Days after a Washington Post report raised questions about the September strike Following the US military’s investigation of a boat suspected of drug smuggling in the Caribbean, lawmakers in Congress have vowed to investigate further.
This was a rare moment of bipartisan concern about a controversial action by the Trump administration; It has led to speculation that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was narrowly confirmed for the job in January, may be on shaky ground.
“Members are very concerned,” Republican Congressman Mike Turner said in a television interview Thursday morning. He added that his colleagues have questioned the accuracy of the information provided to them by the Trump administration.
But on Thursday afternoon, after senior members of Congress reviewed the footage and briefed the admiral in charge of the operation, familiar partisan divisions began to re-emerge.
Republicans defended the boat raid operation and praised Hegseth.
Democrats condemned what they saw and called for further investigation.
At the heart of the divide is a fundamental disagreement over the legality and morality of the Trump administration’s ongoing anti-narcotics military campaign in the Caribbean; this included the decision to designate narcotics traffickers as “terrorist organizations” and use lethal force against civilians without outside legal oversight.
Since the first September attack, the United States has carried out 21 similar attacks that resulted in more than 80 deaths.
The Post reported last Friday that the United States launched two attacks on the boat in question, and the second killed two survivors of the first attack who were clinging to “burning debris” in the water.
The newspaper also stated that Hegseth had ordered “all of them to be killed” before the attack. In comments on Tuesday, the secretary said she witnessed the first attack but left the room before the second attack took place.
After being briefed by Despite Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and Admiral Frank Bradley, who oversaw the operation and ordered the second strike, none of the congressional lawmakers said they had heard evidence that Hegseth had actually issued a “kill everyone” order.
But that’s where the consensus ended.
Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said he found the video of the second attack “deeply disturbing.”
“The fact is that we killed two men who were in deep distress and had neither the means nor a clear intention to continue their mission,” he told reporters after the briefing.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas opposed this, calling the strikes “perfectly legal and necessary.”
“I saw two survivors try to turn over a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States so they could stay in the fight,” he said.
For now, these differing statements by partisan lawmakers and the original Washington Post reports are all the American public can base their conclusions on.
However, this may change. Donald Trump said he supported the release of video of the second attack, as the Pentagon has done for many of its Caribbean operations in recent months.
If the video is as disturbing as some Democrats say it is, it could change public opinion that has been similarly divided along partisan lines.
But on Thursday evening, Hegseth’s seemingly tenuous position looked more secure, especially after the inspector general report left him largely unscathed.
It found it put military personnel and targets at risk. discussing Private information via an unsecured app – the so-called Signalgate controversy that dominated headlines earlier in the year.
However, as a result, he did not transmit the confidential information because he says that he declassified this information.
For now, two potentially damaging stories have been neutralized. But it may not be long before Hegseth is back in the spotlight.
