Washington: US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says a second lethal strike on a suspected drug boat was the correct decision and was made in “the fog of war”, despite the attack now being at the centre of war crimes allegations against the US.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump reiterated his threat to imminently begin airstrikes on alleged drug cartel targets on land, as well as on the water.
Hegseth said he watched the initial September 2 strike live – it being the first of 21 hits on alleged drug boats off the waters of South America to date – but then left to attend meetings, and did not witness any survivors.
He said he was informed one or two hours later that the commander in charge of the operation, Admiral Mitch Bradley, decided to strike again, reportedly killing two men who survived the initial attack.
“[He] made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat,” Hegseth said. “It was the right call, we have his back.”
Under US law and international laws of armed conflict, it is illegal to fire upon survivors left shipwrecked by an initial attack. The Department of War’s own manual says this would be “dishonourable and inhumane”.
Committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have commenced investigations into what happened, with multiple politicians on both sides of the aisle saying that if the facts are as alleged, it would constitute a war crime.
But, sitting beside Trump at a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), Hegseth invoked “fog of war” – a term often used to describe the uncertainty of military operations, where decisions must be made using imperfect information.
“I did not personally see survivors,” Hegseth said. “The thing was on fire, it exploded … there’s smoke. This is called the fog of war. This is what you in the press don’t understand.
“You sit in your air-conditioned offices, you’re up on Capitol Hill, and you nitpick, you plant fake stories … and then you want to throw up really irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the judgment that they made.”
Hegseth said Trump had authorised the military to do what was necessary to eliminate the threat from drug traffickers, which could be “dark and difficult things in the dead of night on behalf of the American people”.
While defending and praising Bradley over the decision, Hegseth’s comments represent a clear and deliberate repudiation of suggestions that he, as war secretary, had directly authorised a second strike on the survivors.
Trump, who earlier told reporters he would not have wanted a second strike, now says he views the attack as a holistic mission, and it did not matter if there were multiple strikes. “I want those boats taken out,” he said.
“We’re going to start doing those strikes on land, too. The land is much easier. We know the routes they take, we know everything about them.
“We know where they live, and we’re going to start that very soon.”
Trump said such operations would not be limited to Venezuela, home of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang.
“I hear the country of Colombia is making cocaine. They have cocaine manufacturing plants, and then they sell us their cocaine, and we appreciate that very much,” Trump said.
“But anybody that’s doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack. Not just Venezuela.”
Trump’s final cabinet meeting of the year included an on-camera session that lasted for more than two hours as each secretary spoke about their portfolio and effusively praised the president’s leadership.
It ended on a darker note as Trump repeated his intention to crack down on migration from countries such as Somalia following the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, allegedly at the hands of an Afghan refugee.
“They contribute nothing, the welfare is like 88 per cent,” Trump said of Somalians. “I don’t want ’em in our country, I’ll be honest with you. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks,” he claimed.
The president again insulted Somalia-born, hijab-wearing Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar. He has previously suggested she should be deported.
“We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage, she’s garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump said.
“These are people that do nothing but complain. They come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch – we don’t want ’em in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via Twitter or email.
