It will take more time before the public gets a fairly well-focused wide shot picture of the now infamous September 2 attack on suspected drug runners off the coast of Venezuela. Although testimony was taken from the Admiral who managed the operation from the WH Situation Room was classified and behind closed doors details are starting to emerge. There’s still a lot we don’t know, and perhaps some things we’ll never know but it seems the original orders were to sink the boat and kill everyone aboard.
Yes, you read that right. The Washington Post published a stunning article this morning which as I said brings more focus into that attack. Both the first missile strike and the second when it became clear there were survivors. There’s still a ton we don’t know but while most people (including me) want to see the video of the second strike (which qualifies as either murder or a war crime – depends on some hair splitting technicalities) it’s been my belief too little attention has been given to the original order to sink that boat. The WaPo provides a bit more than we knew. It’s buried in a detailed analysis but it boils down to what’s stated in the headline – an order was given to sink the boat (and cargo) AND to kill everyone on board:
Ahead of the Sept. 2 mission, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given an order to U.S. forces to kill the passengers, sink the boat and destroy the drugs, three people familiar with the operation said. It appeared to Bradley that none of those objectives had been achieved, the admiral would later recount for lawmakers.
In actuality a good chunk of the summer involved crafting a legal justification for not just this but all the subsequent (and ongoing) attacks on suspected drug smugglers – from Venezuela. That’s actually a second topic I’ll try to cover later. I want to keep focus on this particular strike and those orders. Think about it – Hegseth issued what I call a ‘kill em all and let god sort em out’ order.
People as experienced as JCS Chair Caine, and Admiral Bradley (a SEAL with plenty of operational experience) who at the time was in charge of getting the mission done knew damn well they were in questionable territory. THEY had the kinds of careers and credentials that allowed them to openly question the legality of such an order. They also have their own JAG Counsel, again lawyers with far more experience and knowledge than the early 30s unqualified Trump suckup who heads the White House Office of Legal Counsel who seem to have drafted the ‘legal justification’ for the policy of attacking these boats.
Neither one raised an objection. The person who at the time was between Caine and Bradley in the uniformed chain of command did in fact raise questions. And was forced into retirement. So yes, this ole jarhead grunt has a huge problem with Caine and Bradley. Down at the level of the troops who actually carry out this or any attack you might and often do question the legality as well as the morality of your orders.
However it’s instilled in you that while you have an obligation not to follow illegal orders you also need to trust your superiors in the chain of command. Trust that THEY have your back, and will hash it all out with the civilian leaders they answer to AND more importantly that by the time lethal orders make it down to you that they are justified and legal. Sometimes the dumbest of E-1s (the lowest enlisted rank) knows an order is illegal – such as grab that nice looking woman in the group of civilians in the ville and hold her down while the CO rapes her. Or say go hut to hut and kill everyone, even babies.
For something like this, those actually firing the missiles would have a default position of ‘these missile are expensive and using them on this kind of boat is overkill but there are commanders a lot higher up who’ve gone over all the legalities’ will do what they are told. However, even THEY would have known the rules about shipwrecked survivors so that second missile strike was something they too knew damn well was an illegal order.
The WaPo article is a bit of a read but I urge you to do so before it goes behind their paywall. If it hasn’t already. It’s all too easy to imagine Stephen Miller running to Trump with it and urging him to call Bezos to tell him to bury the thing behind the paywall to keep people from reading it. Because of that, and knowing sometimes people thing I did into too much detail and don’t wrap up articles quickly enough I feel compelled to add more from the WaPo article.
Let’s start with the fact that the administration is in full cover-up mode regarding video of the second strike. Like all but Politizoom’s conservative lurkers (and I’ll bet even some of them want to see it) I want to see the video of those two guys on wreckage that was described as about the size of a dining room table and the missile blowing them up. However I ALSO want to see the WHOLE video – from the seconds before the first strike to all the video (and audio of discussions at sea and communications inside and/or with the Situation Room through that fateful half-hour or so between missile strikes.
The linked article indicates there were in fact “what do we do now?” discussions. No doubt because the DOD Manual spells out clearly why survivors of an attack at sea are to be treated differently than on land. Everyone knew that even in a declared war killing them was a war crime. Hell, we EXECUTED Japanese sailors and commanders after WWII who’d been proven guilty of killing our sailors in the water instead of rescuing them! Yet for all that the WaPo tells us Admiral Bradley justified his decision (well, he say’s HE’s the one who made the call) to order the second missile attack. And it goes back to the original order to sink the boat and cargo and kill anyone on board that or any boats in the future.
The linked article repeats what many of the limited number of those on Capitol Hill who’ve seen the footage have said. It was a couple of guys struggling to get/stay on top of a piece of wreckage hoping for help. At least one is said to have waved both arms when they realized some type of aircraft was overhead.
They were by common sense standards shipwrecked and unable to fight even if they had the will to do so and weapons to use. Seeing them struggling to stay on top of that piece of flotsam Bradley reportedly turned to legal advisors in the room. They told him the men were at that point “shipwrecked”, out of the fight and therefore not legal targets. Bradley disagreed and ordered the second strike and THIS is where the ‘Where in the hell was Hegseth’ questions really become important. He claims to have left after the first strike. We’ll see if that holds up. However even if he did Admiral Bradley could have contacted him and told him the situation and what the legal advisors were telling him.
THESE are hugely important details. Questions that should be answered and it’s also where Bradley and Caine became rather less than willing to be communicative. What we do know is that Bradley ordered the second missile strike instead of following the law and DOD Manual and attempting a rescue. Again I note AFTER he’d been advised the two men were no longer legal targets:
The Admiral decided that definition did not apply, these people said. Instead, what Bradley explained to lawmakers left some with the impression that there was a prevailing lack of certainty — about the existence of any drugs beneath the wreckage and whether the survivors had a means to call for help or intended to surrender — when he concluded that further action was warranted.
He ordered a second strike, killing both men. Moments earlier, the video feed had shown them waving their arms and looking skyward, people who saw the footage said. It was unclear, they added, why they were doing so.
The linked article describes this as the most consequential time in Admiral Bradley’s 30 year career. That might be an overstatement since he’s a SEAL at not only took direct part in SpecOp missions but commanded them. His own butt has literally been on the line and he survived. However it is I think fair to say what had been up to that point a distinguished career will be defined by those 30 minutes. All that service and sacrifice, almost all of it honorable succumbed to ETTD.
This is already longer than I wanted and I’m infamous for long-winded articles that cause people’s eyes to glaze over. So I’ll try to wrap this up by IMPLORING you to set aside five to ten minutes to read the full WaPo article. It’s an informative and comprehensive look at what we know so far, and it’s a lot more than you see in some brief segment on TV. The last point I’ll make is something that comes up near the end of the linked article. MOST of the drugs that come out of this region wind up in Europe or east Africa. Also, FENTANYL has been the Trump administration’s boogeyman. Almost all of it is smuggled across our ‘most secure in history’ (according to the GOP and Trump) southern border.
In central America including Venezuela COCAINE is the main drug made and sent to other countries! So, once again we get back to the supposed legality of this and other strikes. Again, that’s a long subject in and of itself best discussed in a separate piece. For now let’s concentrate on on the Sept. 2 attack on a boat out in the ocean and subsequent strikes. And that while a follow up strike (as I wrote earlier this week it was NOT a ‘double tap’ but two separate strikes) took place killing (murdering) two survivors I’ve seen reports that this isn’t the only strike where there were survivors. And since then they’ve been pulled from the water. We’ll see if that turns out to be true but if it is it makes what happened on Sept. 2 that much worse.
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you would think they would want a big ole pile of drugs ti show on tv. i think the fact that they want to destroy everything proves they aren’t certain there’s anything on the boat. and i keep hearing about peopke still in the fight or not. there was no fight. the people on the boats never shot at anyone. and has anyone considered these are people just trying to get out of venezuela? and gas anybody actually been on a small boat? running something like that from venezuela to the us is like riding a gocart from miami to new york on i 95, but without gas stations.