The Fog of Accountability
As Pete Hegseth ducks responsibility, the United States risks losing the moral ground that is the foundation of our national defense.
By Jeff Nesbit
The video footage, we’re told, is gruesome. A suspected drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela is struck by a missile, bursting into flames. The supposed threat is neutralized; the boat is dead in the water, sinking. Then, amid the smoke and debris, two survivors are spotted clinging to the wreckage.”
In a standard military engagement, this is the moment where the Law of Armed Conflict dictates a shift from neutralization to humanitarian obligation. Instead, a second strike was authorized. The survivors were killed.
This incident has ignited a firestorm in Washington, and for good reason. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed the controversy as merely the “fog of war,” a chaotic byproduct of the administration’s new “gloves off” approach to what it terms “narcoterrorists.”
But the facts emerging from Capitol Hill suggest this wasn’t the confusion of battle. It bears the hallmarks of a calculated decision to execute survivors—a war crime masquerading as strategy.
Hegseth’s defense at this week’s Cabinet meeting was a study in contradiction. He claimed to have watched the first strike live, only to leave the room because he had “things to do.”
“I did not personally see survivors,” Hegseth insisted, arguing that the commander on the ground, Adm. Frank Bradley, made the “correct decision” to sink the boat.
Hegseth’s reliance on the “fog of war” defense crumbles under even the slightest scrutiny. The “fog” usually describes split-second confusion during active combat -- friendly fire incidents or misidentifying a target in the heat of a firefight.
A “second strike” on men treading water, however, implies a pause. It implies assessment. It implies that a choice was made not to neutralize a threat but to ensure no witnesses remained.
When pressed on this, Hegseth lashed out at the media, accusing reporters of sitting in “air-conditioned offices” while planting fake stories.
It was a deflection that invited a sharp and necessary rebuke from long-time national security correspondent Barbara Starr, who reminded the secretary: “Close to every member of the press corps you despise has made multiple reporting trips to combat zones ... some reporters wounded, some killed.”
Starr’s response highlights the hollowness of Hegseth’s bluster: Questioning the legality of a kill order is not an act of weakness; it is a duty of a free press.
What we are witnessing is a command responsibility shell game. Hegseth and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt are eager to take credit for the tough-guy aesthetics of the “Department of War,” boasting about putting “narcoterrorists at the bottom of the ocean.”
Yet, when the grim reality of those policies surfaces, the blame is swiftly offloaded to uniformed commanders like Adm. Bradley.
Hegseth tweeted that Bradley is an “American hero” with his “100% support,” a statement that reads less like a commendation and more like a preemptive framing of the fall guy.
Conservative columnist George Will pierced through this political theater with characteristic precision, observing that “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seems to be a war criminal. Without a war. An interesting achievement.” Will’s assessment underscores that this is not a partisan squabble; it is a question of moral discipline.
Perhaps most alarming is the administration’s active concealment of these details from Congress. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), both members of the Armed Services Committee tasked with oversight, were briefed on the operation but not the second strike or the people who survived the first strike.
“The DoD owes the entire committee ... answers,” Kelly stated plainly. Even Republicans are signaling unease. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), who initially dismissed the reports as fake news, shifted his tone significantly after seeing more data: “If the mission was just to have a second strike to kill the survivors, that’s questionable.”
If the Defense Department can withhold “critical info” about potential war crimes in classified briefings, oversight becomes impossible, and the separation of powers dissolves.
Which brings us to the dangerous precedent of a “total war” on crime. By rebranding the Defense Department as the “Department of War” and labeling smugglers as “narcoterrorists,” the administration is attempting to bypass the constraints of both law enforcement and traditional military engagement.
Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) attempted to justify the strike by suggesting survivors might “run.” But you don’t “run” from a burning boat in the middle of the ocean.
The “fog of war” is a real and terrible phenomenon, but it is not a “get out of jail free” card for extrajudicial killings. Senate Democrats are right to demand investigations, but the immediate priority must be the release of the tapes that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) hesitated to review.
If the United States military loses the distinction between neutralizing a threat and liquidating human beings, we lose the moral ground that is the true foundation of our national defense.
Hegseth’s “gloves off” approach might effectively destroy supposed drug boats, but if left unchecked, it will just as effectively destroy the integrity of the chain of command.
Jeff Nesbit was the public affairs chief for five Cabinet departments or agencies under five presidents, and the communications director for a U.S. vice president.
The United States under the current regime is a lawless country. Bradley and Hegseth are both guilty of first degree murder since there is no war declared by Congress.
How are lower military service member supposed to disobey illegal orders to kill when even the highest military commander in charge of the operation doesn't have the balls to refuse to obey an obviously illegal order by a drunk put in charge of the "Department of War" by a convicted felon?
All 80 (as of yesterday, an even greater number) killings are murder. Like Duterte of the Philippines who simply murdered purported drug dealers, the Felon's administration is simply killing persons for purporting to smuggle drugs into the United States. This is morally reprehensible and violates laws of the United States and the international community.
The GOP Congress does nothing to stop this mass murder and the Courts are silent.