{"id":17440,"date":"2025-12-02T06:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=17440"},"modified":"2025-12-03T07:03:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T15:03:20","slug":"pete-hegseths-caribbean-lawlessness-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=17440","title":{"rendered":"“Pete Hegseth\u2019s Caribbean lawlessness”, The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editorial Board<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If boat strikes are needed to stop drugs, why is Trump pardoning the former president of Honduras?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

December 1, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth leaves a Venezuela briefing at the Capitol on Nov. 5. (Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. military\u2019s summary killing of more than 80 people suspected of transporting drugs in the waters around South America rests on a\u00a0shaky legal foundation<\/a>. Transporting drugs is a crime, not an act of war. Suspected criminals \u2014 even the guilty \u2014 ought to be apprehended when possible, not shot on sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. military\u2019s summary killing of more than 80 people suspected of transporting drugs in the waters around South America rests on a shaky legal foundation<\/a>. Transporting drugs is a crime, not an act of war. Suspected criminals \u2014 even the guilty \u2014 ought to be apprehended when possible, not shot on sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best of The Post\u2019s opinions and commentary, in your inbox every morning<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Post reported<\/a>\u00a0Friday that the military is not just bombing the small boats, but in at least one instance intentionally killed shipwrecked survivors. After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly gave a spoken order to kill everyone on board a boat in September, the Special Operations commander overseeing the mission ordered a second strike that killed two men clinging to the wreckage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revelation ought to prompt a recognition that these killings were rotten from the start. It seems to at least be puncturing the complacency of several congressional Republicans who have previously bit their tongues about the attacks. The leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services committees are promising inquiries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hegseth has responded with his trademark bluster, including making light of the situation with a children\u2019s book meme<\/a> and insisting he\u2019s done nothing wrong. President Donald Trump said Sunday that Hegseth told him he did not give the order. \u201cI believe him, 100 percent,\u201d the president said. On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the strikes were \u201cconducted in self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What danger did the shipwrecked men pose? Without a second strike, they probably would have drowned. They plainly posed no immediate threat. Such flagrantly immoral behavior helps explain why the United Kingdom, America\u2019s closet ally, suspended intelligence sharing<\/a> for the boat strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress has oversight powers to get to the bottom of this. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine\u00a0called senior lawmakers<\/a>\u00a0over the weekend to discuss the mission\u2019s \u201cintent and legality,” his office said Monday. Private calls are insufficient. There should be public hearings to probe the entire bombing campaign, not just the September strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress hasn\u2019t authorized the use of military force against drug traffickers, but the Justice Department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel prepared a classified memo <\/a>saying the killings are legal under the president\u2019s inherent authority. If the reasoning is strong, why not make it public?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond legality, Congress deserves to hear more about the strategic implications of this campaign. The U.S. has limited resources and faces threats in many theaters. How many missiles is the Pentagon using for target practice on speedboats that could be easily stopped by the Coast Guard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration insists the strikes are necessary to stop the flow of drugs into the United States. If that\u2019s the paramount concern, Trump would not have\u00a0announced plans last Friday to pardon<\/a>\u00a0former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, who was\u00a0sentenced<\/a>\u00a0last year to 45 years in prison for helping move at least 400 tons of cocaine into this country. Perhaps Trump thinks he can negotiate with drug kingpins but not their mules. Either way, he has to act within the law. Good for Congress for belatedly getting on the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial Board If boat strikes are needed to stop drugs, why is Trump pardoning the former president of Honduras? December 1, 2025 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth leaves a Venezuela briefing at the Capitol on Nov. 5. (Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post) The U.S. military\u2019s summary killing of more than 80 people suspected of transporting drugs in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17441,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17440\/revisions\/17441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}