Just as the Epstein scandal was temporarily disappearing from the daily news, The Washington Post reported a more horrific story. Self-dubbed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is reported to have ordered a second strike on an already-destroyed suspected drug smuggling boat to kill two survivors. If the story is accurate, the United States may have committed a war crime.
Those of us familiar with the history of the Vietnam War will remember the Mai Lai Massacre, where between 347 and 504 unarmed Vietnamese adults and children were killed. The Hegseth incident is, of course, much smaller, but the legal issue is the same. An illegal order was given resulting in unarmed people being killed.
Much is being written about who gave what order. Donald Trump, unsurprisingly, says he knew nothing about it and that Pete Hegseth denies giving the order. No surprises here, but if Trump and Hegseth are lying, it may not protect them from accountability. The bipartisan leadership of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have announced investigations.
A phrase featured on The X-Files television series comes to mind: The truth is out there.
Legal pundits are pouring over details of the attack that killed the two survivors. The issues are complex, but, assuming that the account is true, the answer is simple: Murder.
Among the issues involved is the legitimacy of characterizing Venezuelan boats suspected of smuggling dangerous narcotics as an attack on the United States. Another issue is why; after releasing video footage of the first attack on the suspected drug boat, the Department of Defense did not release the second or report that a second strike had been carried out. Was there a coverup? If there was a coverup, does that prove that whoever ordered it knew an illegal order had been given and executed?
Also, if Hegseth did not give the order, who did? And are Hegseth, Trump, or others responsible or was someone else insubordinate? Is someone going to be thrown under the bus? (As of this writing, the betting is on US Special Operations Command commander Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley.)
I won’t review the Law of War or the U.S. Code of Military Justice, but the law is clear that killing civilians who pose no threat to U.S. military members, even in a war zone, is murder. Read 18 U.S.C. § 2441-War Crimes and judge for yourself.
In coming weeks, articles of Impeachment will likely be filed in the U.S. House of Representatives against President Trump, Secretary Hegseth, and others. The coming House and Senate Committee investigations, which the President is unlikely to be able to stop, could not only assign responsibility for what appears to be a horrific war crime, but also document a coverup likely to put Watergate to shame.
When I started work on this week’s column, I was going to write about accountability and the absence of it in the age of Trump. If the Post reporting is accurate, and many in Congress, including Republicans, believe it is, accountability may finally come to Donald J. Trump.
J.E. Dean writes on politics, government, goldendoodles, and other subjects. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean is an advocate for democracy and the rule of law.
