Hegseth: 'Killing Survivors Just Good Business'
Hegseth doubled down, saying he'd have made the 'same call' as the admiral who ordered the murder of unarmed people after their boats were hit off the Venezuelan coast. (Bloomberg, Dec 6, 2025). This isn't a lapse; it's policy. This dehumanization, framing entire populations as 'drug-runners' to justify extra-judicial killings, echoes decades of US interventionism across Latin America, from the
Iran-Contra affair to present-day sanctions that choke economies and create the very conditions exploited by cartels. We fund 'counter-narcotics' operations—a euphemism for destabilization and resource control—then feign shock when those operations involve war crimes. When does 'war on drugs' become just 'war on people'? Hegseth's 'logic' is chillingly simple: eliminate witnesses, eliminate
problems. How many more 'threats' will justify jettisoning international law? One might wonder if human rights even register with these arbiters of 'justice.'