By Gloria Ogbonna
During an appearance Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s America Reports, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) delivered strong criticism over allegations that Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of shipwrecked individuals, calling such an action “clearly illegal” and urging full transparency from the administration.
Host John Roberts pressed the senator on whether a second video, which the president previously said he would be fine with releasing, should be made public. Paul responded firmly, insisting there should be no hesitation. He argued that if Americans saw footage of “people clinging to wreckage, struggling to survive,” public opinion would quickly turn against Hegseth and any officials who supported the decision.
According to Paul, military law and long-standing U.S. wartime principles make such an order indefensible. He emphasized that the U.S. military’s rules of engagement exist not only to uphold humanitarian standards but also to protect American service members. “If our pilots eject from a plane, we expect enemy forces not to shoot them as they descend by parachute,” he said.
“If we destroy an enemy vessel and survivors are in the water, we don’t execute them. We don’t pull alongside, aim a pistol, and kill defenseless people. That is not who we are, and no one in our military would consider that acceptable.”
Paul stressed that the distance from which a missile is fired doesn’t make an unlawful action any less wrong. He argued that the situation becomes even more troubling when questions remain unanswered about who these individuals were and whether they posed any legitimate threat.
He challenged the narrative that these unarmed people could be considered combatants or part of an armed conflict.
“These are often small motorboats thousands of miles from our shores,” he noted. “There’s no solid evidence they were heading to the United States, and the claim that they were drug smugglers hasn’t been proven.
Even if they were carrying drugs, they might have been traveling between neighboring islands.” He suggested that labeling such encounters as acts of war is both unprecedented and unreasonable, pushing the boundaries of logic and public trust.
Paul concluded by saying that many Americans, applying simple common sense, would find the entire situation deeply troubling—and that releasing the footage is the first step toward accountability and clarity.
Source Breitbrat
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