The Democrats contend the White House decision to single out Adm. Frank Bradley as the person who ordered a "double-tap" strike against suspected drug runners in the Caribbean Sea is part of a broader pattern of conduct by President Trump and other top officials to push policies of dubious legality, only to distance themselves from the fallout when the actions are exposed.
This administration has a long history of asking people to do things that are reckless or lawless, and then throwing them under the bus and shifting blame," Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said. "And there's no doubt that that seems to be what's happening here."
The White House acknowledged this week that, as part of Trump's war on drug trafficking from Latin America, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had authorized a Sept. 2 attack on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean Sea. When two survivors were detected clinging to the battered vessel after the initial strike, Bradley, who was heading the operation from Fort Bragg, N.C., ordered a second, killing both suspects.
The details of the operation were first reported by The Washington Post on Friday.
The operation is sounding alarm bells on Capitol Hill, where Democrats — and even some Republicans — are questioning the legality of killing adversaries after they'd been immobilized. Indeed, the episode appears to violate the Defense Department's own manual detailing the laws of war, which specifies — under the heading of "Clearly Illegal Orders to Commit Law of War Violations" — that "orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal."
"I served on active duty as a JAG [judge advocate general] for four years, and then an additional 21 years in the reserves, and let me be very clear: Killing shipwrecked survivors is a war crime," Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) told reporters Tuesday in the Capitol.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, cited a practical reason for the outcry over the operation: Americans don't want U.S. troops to be killed in a similar situation.
"Not only is this a violation of the rules of our own military justice system and the conduct of war, but it's one of those principles that we observe also in our own self-interest," he said. "God forbid that one of our troops is in harm's way or in a situation where they're clinging to a boat in the water. We want them to be taken prisoner.
"We always have to remember: What goes around, comes around."
Hegseth, after initially denying the Post report as "fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory," shifted gears this week to defend the operation. But he emphasized that, while he watched the first strike live, he "didn't stick around" to see the second strike ordered. Still, he defended Bradley's decision and vowed to support him from any blowback.
The administration's support for Bradley has done little to quiet the concerns from Democrats, who say Hegseth's initial order to "kill everybody" put Bradley in the thorny position of either violating the laws of war or disobeying the secretary of Defense.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
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