Not a War Crime — Something Far Worse

On September 2, 2025, U.S. forces struck a suspected drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean Sea — a vessel the government claimed was carrying narcotics and tied to “narco-terrorist” operations. The initial strike reportedly killed eleven people. Two survivors clung to the wreckage, but according to Washington Post reporting, Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everybody” aboard the vessel. A second strike was launched, this time aimed directly at the debris and the survivors. Both men were killed.

For the first time in a long time, the press corps is acting like a press corps, and they’ve collectively labeled the incident a war crime.

But here’s the thing:
It isn’t a war crime. Because we’re not at war.

Republicans have tried to revive their old post-9/11 rhetoric — we’re at war with terrorists — only now downgraded to we’re at war with drug smugglers. Cute. Catchy. Completely meaningless under international law. You don’t declare war on just the “bad people.” You declare war on states. And since no such declaration exists, Hegseth’s actions fall outside the war-crime framework entirely.

The Real Fork in the Road

This incident is either:

• An act of war,
or
• A straight-up murder.

There is no third category where this becomes routine U.S. drug-interdiction policy.

If the people on that boat were Venezuelan citizens, then the United States initiated hostilities against Venezuela — giving Venezuela the legal right to retaliate under international law.

If Venezuela does not recognize them as its citizens or the vessel as carrying its flag, then the U.S. killed a group of human beings with no legal cover whatsoever.

The former is a crime against civilization.
The latter is a crime against humanity.
Either way, you don’t get to slap the “narco-terrorist” sticker on the aftermath and walk away clean.

The Real Horror Show

Hegseth’s alleged order — “kill everybody” — obliterates every justification the administration might try to float.

There was:
no exigency,
no attempt to detain,
no claim of imminent threat.

We also now know there were at least 45 minutes between the initial strike and the second, lethal volley — enough time for a call to be placed to the Judge Advocate General’s Office. You don’t watch two men cling to debris for nearly an hour and then claim “fog of war.”

And the whispered excuse that the survivors might “upright the vessel” and summon reinforcements? Let’s be serious:
The vessel was blown the fuck up, not bobbing sideways. Nobody was uprighting anything.

Even if they tried, there is no principle — legal or moral — that says attempting to put pieces back in the game automatically executes the internationally recognized blow up everybody clause.

And if they had managed to call their associates, those associates would almost certainly respond:
“Dude, your boat just got vaporized, sorry, our Klingo/Romulan Cloaking Device is not yet operative; we’re going to have to pass.”

Drug-running crews do not have a sacred “No Man Left Behind” naval doctrine. There is no imaginary Cartel Coast Guard assembling a rescue flotilla for two men drifting on splinters.

This wasn’t combat.
This was an execution.

No Hiding Behind “Narco-Terrorism”

The U.S. cannot dodge responsibility by inventing a magic enemy class. “Narco-terrorist” is not a legal category. You don’t get to manufacture a new label and grant yourself battlefield powers normally reserved for actual, declared wars.

If that worked, every dictator on Earth could kill whoever they want simply by renaming the target group.

That’s not law.
That’s authoritarian improv.

And Here’s the Ugly Part No One Wants to Say Out Loud

Everything about this operation looks like a seat-of-the-pants, improvisational, destroy-the-evidence maneuver:

• Kill everyone.
• Eliminate survivors.
• Eliminate witnesses.
• Leave behind only the story approved by Hegseth’s imaginary Department of War.

If that was the motive — and the facts overwhelmingly point in that direction — then this wasn’t a battlefield incident gone wrong.
It was a cover-up executed in real time, one missile at a time.