Key members of Congress have seen with their own eyes how the U.S. military deliberately killed two men who survived a missile attack on their small boat.

What the video showed was either a war crime or simple murder. Whether that got through to the politicians depended largely on whether they were Democrats or Republicans.

America is supposed to be better than that.

From interviews with lawmakers who were in the secret briefing, it appears Republicans are once again forming a circle of denial around President Donald Trump and his morbidly unfit defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the attack was “righteous” and “highly lawful and lethal.”

‘Clearly illegal’

“The video we saw today showed two shipwrecked individuals who had no means to move, much less pose an immediate threat, and yet they were killed by the United States military,” said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, in a joint statement with Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. “This was wrong.”

The Defense Department’s Law of War Manual is clear on this: “The wounded, sick and shipwrecked must be respected and protected at all times,” it explains. “This means that they should not be knowingly attacked, fired upon, or unnecessarily interfered with … For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.”

But the focus on whether Hegseth or a subordinate should be held responsible for the second strike misses the big questions.

What “war” justified the first strike, let alone the second? What “war” permits continued lethal attacks on civilian vessels in waters far from our shores?

There have been at least 22 such attacks, with 87 deaths.

Glaring hypocrisy

Trump claims that Latin American drug smugglers are in armed conflict with the U.S., so they can be killed without arrest or trial. Yet, he also pardoned one of the worst drug kingpins ever brought to justice in the U.S. Our government accused former President Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras of “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”

Amid such glaring hypocrisy, nothing Trump says about illegal drugs deserves belief.

Outside the Trump regime, no serious legal or military experts accept that the alleged smugglers are anything but conventional criminals.

No, this is a “war” Trump declared on his own, despite the Constitution’s requirement that only the Congress can declare war.

The Coast Guard’s role

This “war” satisfies no condition under which a president may defend the U.S. from attack without involving Congress. There’s nothing about this “war” any different from the established, proper policy of having the Coast Guard intercept drug-smuggling vessels, seize their cargoes as evidence and arrest their crews for trial in U.S. courts.

If this is not a war as the rest of the world understands it, then the killings at sea — all of them, not just that second lethal strike — are plain, simple murder.

Either way, Hegseth should have to answer for it. The impeachment resolution filed against him in the House should be taken seriously. Nothing can likely come of it while Trump’s party still rules there, but the question of how a candidate would vote should be central to the congressional elections of 2026.

Another issue, verified by the acting Pentagon inspector general, is that Hegseth violated security protocols by sharing details of a pending military operation on the messaging app Signal.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Hegseth forced the unexplained resignation in October of the four-star admiral, Alvin Holsey, barely a year into his leadership of Southern Command, which supposedly is in charge of the drug war. Citing anonymous Pentagon sources, the paper said Holsey objected to the lethal attacks.

Pointing the finger

The official Pentagon line is to pin the blame for the second strike on Adm. Frank Bradley, who directed the operation. He should have to answer for it, of course.

But so should Hegseth — the man in charge.

Trump is plainly spoiling for a real war with Venezuela, and threatens to attack supposed smugglers on that nation’s sovereign soil. Why? Does he fancy extracting a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, comparable to what he has demanded of some private corporations? Is he just pushing boundaries to see what Congress will let him get away with?

How dimly the rest of the world views such conduct is evident at The Hague. The International Criminal Court is holding Rodrigo Duterte, the former Philippine president, for trial on charges of crimes against humanity involving extrajudicial killings in his own war on drugs.

Our president’s extrajudicial killings are at sea, targeting foreign nationals. Don’t be surprised if they eventually occur on U.S. soil.

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