'Kill Them All' is now White House policy

Adm. Bradley is being set up to take the fall for Hegseth.

Hegseth (top), Bradley (left), Holsey (right).

Harold Koh, a professor of international law at Yale who worked in the Obama-era State Department: “There is no authority for the president to commit summary execution on the high seas,” he said, “especially when there is a capture option which they have been using until now.” — CMP

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Who gave the order?

On a Caribbean night, self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reportedly gave a verbal command aboard a secure line: “Kill them all.” The phrase, reported by the Washington Post and echoed in the Wall Street Journal, was taken by military leaders as an order coming indirectly from President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, in direct violation of the laws of war. Survivors of shipwrecks are protected persons under the Geneva Conventions. The Pentagon’s own Law of War Manual forbids targeting them. Yet two men clinging to wreckage were struck again, deliberately, after the first missile hit. The Illegal order was carried out dutifully and without question.

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Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, then head of Joint Special Operations Command, carried out the second strike. The White House now insists it was Bradley, not Hegseth who gave the order and who acted “within his authority and the law.” Hegseth then praised Bradley as a “hero.”

Was that the proverbial kiss of death?

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The scapegoating dynamic seems clear: the civilian leader issues the unlawful directive, the military commander and underlings execute it, and when the scandal breaks, the subordinates absorb the blame.

This is all part of a clear pattern within the military, from the My Lai massacre to the torture site at Abu Ghraib, of passing the blame when things go wrong, or in this case, when things go as planned. Many in Congress saw it coming. Thus, the letter last month from six Democratic lawmakers (all military or intelligence veterans) released a video message to troops, explicitly stating:

“You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”

Trump publicly labeled the six Democratic lawmakers who signed the video — including Sen. Mark Kelly — as “traitors,” and went further by suggesting their actions were “seditious behavior, punishable by death.” He reposted comments calling for them to be “hanged” and singled out Kelly in particular.

Then he rushed to defend Hegseth, once again dismissing the reporting as “fake news.” The administration’s narrative now is simple: Bradley gave the order, Bradley bears responsibility, Bradley acted lawfully. But Congress isn’t buying it. Bipartisan voices want an investigation, and top military lawyers have already called the killings “murder.”

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Enter Adm. Alvin Holsey, the SOUTHCOM commander who abruptly resigned just as the Caribbean strike campaign was escalating. SOUTHCOM oversees the region where these operations unfolded. Holsey’s quiet exit (one of only two Black four-stars in the military) looks less like a coincidence and more like an escape from possible war crimes investigations. However, he isn’t Bradley’s superior officer. One admiral steps aside, another is promoted, and the chain of accountability is reshuffled like musical chairs.

Side Note

Both the CIA and military contractors are involved in the Caribbean boat strikes, but in different ways. The CIA provides the intelligence that drives target selection, while contractors profit from supplying and maintaining the weapons systems (like drones) used in the attacks.

This isn’t just about the murders of these two unnamed attack survivors. It’s about whether the U.S. military establishment is normalizing extrajudicial killings under the banner of “narco-terrorism.” It’s about whether “kill them all” becomes policy. And it’s about who takes the fall when the light shines on criminality at the top of the chain.