Regardless of how you view the attacks on the alleged “drug boats” as acts of war or attacks on civilians, Hegseth committed a crime and must be brought to justice.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laughs during a Cabinet meeting hosted by President Donald Trump on December 2, 2025.
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Pete Hegseth is a killer. He meets all the legal requirements to be a killer. He should be charged with murder for his role in the killing of unarmed civilians on boats in the Caribbean.
Hegseth claims the killings are authorized because the United States is “at war” with… drug cartels and “narco-terrorists.” Since September, under the leadership of Hegseth, the US military held 21 strikes (that we know of) on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. These attacks killed approximately 83 civilians. The term “civilians” is important because these people are not combatants. They are not waging war against the United States.
For a certain breed of morally retarded MAGA sycophants, the administration's claims that these 83 victims were involved in the illegal drug trade is sufficient justification for their deaths. But that's not how the law works. The government cannot kill people unless they pose an immediate threat of violence. He can't just label someone a “narco-terrorist” (whatever the hell that means) and summarily execute them.
The entire operation to attack the boat is an assassination plot carried out by the US government. Each of these deaths is an execution without trial. You don't have to go to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to bring Hegseth to justice. This guy orders attacks on unarmed civilians he deems a threat, without trial or jury. His actions are criminal by any definition of “criminal law.” The Department of Justice should charge him with crimes under ordinary federal murder statuteand the Department of Justice must prosecute all people who wish to carry out its illegal, deadly orders.
Hegseth and many other MAGA Republicans, including President Trump, seem to think that calling it a “war” absolves Hegseth and the military of any responsibility. This is also incorrect. First of all, we are not fighting. Secondly, even if there were, there is no evidence that these victim boats are participants in this purely hypothetical, undeclared war. And third, even if we were at war, and even if there was evidence that the men on those boats were combatants, there are laws of war that should prevent such attacks.
September 2, according to the message from Washington PostHegseth ordered a second strike on the survivors of one of his boat's strikes. Hegseth allegedly said, “Kill everyone,” when he authorized the second strike. Hegseth denies he said that (he and the White House now claim Admiral Frank Bradley ordered the second strike… because with these cowards the money always stops somewhere else), but he also tweeted Elon Musk: “As we've said from the beginning and in every statement, these high-impact strikes are specifically designed to be 'deadly, kinetic strikes.' The stated intent is to stop the use of deadly drugs, destroy drug trafficking vessels, and destroy the narco-terrorists poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a designated terrorist organization.”
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This doesn't sound like denial to me. Hegseth actually suggested that since the strikes were intended to kill, any person who survived the attack could still be killed in a secondary sweep.
Again, that's not how the laws of war work. This war crime kill defenseless people, even in a theater of war, after they have laid down their arms. George Washington University law professor Laura Dickinson spoke about this With Time magazineand her quote expresses it clearly: “In armed conflict, the willful killing of a protected person—a civilian or a person who is out of action because he has laid down his arms or has been shipwrecked at sea—is a war crime.”
It all comes down to this: if we don't fight, Hegseth is a murderer; if we are in the Hegseth war still murderer. Hegseth and MAGA continue to try to find excuses that allow them to kill 83 defenseless people without evidence and I am telling you that the laws are specifically designed to prevent this from being ok.
Having established that the law considers Hegseth's actions to be murder, the next obvious question is: what is the law going to do about it? The immediate way to hold Hegseth accountable for his extrajudicial killings would be for Congress to impeach him and remove him from office. Politicians from both parties have talked about congressional oversight of the boat strike operation, but with Mike Johnson leading the House of Representatives, I can't imagine those hearings going anywhere. However, with the midterm elections approaching, if Democrats retake the House of Representatives, impeaching Hegseth should be a priority for the Democratic caucus. He's killing people, and removing him from office may be the only way to get him to stop.
In a normal country, the Ministry of Justice would also intervene. But in our country, the Department of Justice is run by the same fascists who glorify murder. Unfortunately, we cannot expect the Department of Justice, led by Pam Bondi, to enforce the law.
Outside the US, Hegseth could face prosecution at the International Criminal Court, which is responsible for prosecuting war criminals. The problem is that the US is not a party to the ICC. The US signed but never ratifiedRome Statute“, which established the court. This decision was made by the George W. Bush administration, but subsequent administrations refused to sign it, not wanting to expose Americans to the risk of an international court. We have one hell of a “greatest democracy in the world” here. I would vote for a Democrat, any Democrat, who believed that perhaps the United States should be a party to international treaties. That said, if I were Hegseth's lawyer, I would advise him not to travel to any law-abiding country.
Another option would be to use international tort law. The family of Alejandro Carranza, a Colombian fisherman who was a victim of Hegseth's strikes, filed a formal complaint v. United States, in which Hegseth is named as guilty, under the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a treaty under which the U.S. is party. Unfortunately, this commission doesn't have the power to impose penalties on offenders – for example, fines or, most necessary, imprisonment.
Domestically, the Uniform Code of Military Justice will be more effective when it comes to holding Hegseth accountable. Again, even in actual wars, killing unarmed civilians is a crime. I have some hope that the military will do something to rein in Hegseth, because while Hegseth is primarily responsible for these murders, his orders put other military personnel at risk. Hegseth may be politically protected (for now), but every military member involved in the murder of unarmed civilians (I'm looking at you under the bus, Admiral Bradley) could also be charged with a crime.
In fact, these military courts are my best bet for bringing Hegseth and all his willing subordinates to justice – once there is a change in our regime. This is exactly what happens (at least sometimes, in rare cases) when crimes are committed. A regime that sanctions war crimes never exercises self-control. We will have to wait until this regime leaves power.
When people like Senator Mark Kelly remind soldiers that they should not obey illegal orders, they are trying to help these soldiers. They're trying save these subordinates. They try to remind them that “I was just following orders” is not a legal defense. Of course, I would like to hold the commanders accountable. But each person is also responsible for his own actions. If you're ordered to kill a defenseless man clinging to the wreckage of a boat you just blew up, and you do it, you too might end up on trial, even when all the political appointees who ordered you to do it are back at their jobs at Fox News.
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Pete Hegseth is putting everyone in the US military in a terrible position, including himself.
He's a killer. The law may not be able to do anything about it now, but the law has a long memory. Murder has no statute of limitations.
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