Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s actions are war-crimes and the implications are extremely serious. WaPo reported that on September 2, 2025, U.S. forces struck a boat off Trinidad suspected of drug trafficking. The initial missile strike reportedly left two survivors clinging to the wreckage. According to people “with direct knowledge of the operation,” Hegseth gave a verbal order that the strike force should “kill everybody” aboard the vessel. After the second strike, the two survivors were killed. Under customary and international law (as well as U.S. legal norms), non-combatants or people who no longer pose an immediate threat shouldn’t be executed. Killing survivors after an initial strike (especially when they may no longer pose any danger) raises serious war-crime violations.
You might ask, “Why is this a war crime? They were drug smugglers.” Because even drug smugglers (or anyone labeled a criminal) cannot legally be executed once they are no longer a threat.
International law, U.S. military law, and the laws of armed conflict all share the same core rule: You cannot intentionally kill people who are surrendering, incapacitated, shipwrecked, detained, or no longer posing an immediate threat.
It doesn’t matter what crime they committed. It doesn’t matter if they’re suspected drug smugglers, pirates, cartel members, or anyone else. This is a foundational rule of the Geneva Conventions and customary humanitarian law.
At that point, those survivors were effectively hors de combat, a legal term meaning out of the fight. Under the law, you must not kill them. You may interdict, arrest, or capture them. You CANNOT execute them.
And even though Trump has tried to frame this as a “war” on drugs, the United States is not at war with Trinidad, nor with drug-smuggling vessels in Caribbean waters.
Under the laws of war: Intentionally killing shipwrecked, incapacitated survivors can constitute a war-crimes violation.
Under non-war (peacetime) law: Killing unarmed, incapacitated individuals who pose no threat can constitute unlawful homicide, what would simply be called murder.
Thank you for those willing to speak out against such a horrible war crime. They know war crimes are unacceptable and never to be carried out in the name of the United States.
Source