Debrief of shipwreck attack by Ranking Member of House Armed Services Adam Smith: "The idea is supposed to be that if they could get assistance, they could get back 'in the fight,' ...But Smith said the officials confirmed...they have no recording of these communications." 1/
2/ “Smith said the video shows two men, sitting without shirts, atop a portion of a capsized boat that was still above water. ... ... He called it a 'highly questionable decision that these two people on that obviously incapacitated vessel were still in any kind of fight.'”
3/ Rep. Smith: “The broader assumption that they were operating off of was that the drugs could still conceivably be on that boat, even though you could not see them ... and it was still conceivable that these two people were going to continue on their mission.”
4/ Rep. Smith said that Hegseth’s declared mission “was, ‘Destroy the drugs, kill all 11 people on board.’” Rep. Smith: “It is not that inaccurate to say that the rules of engagement from Hegseth were, ‘Kill all 11 people on that boat.’”
5/ Rep. Smith: “They have an unbelievably broad definition of what ‘the fight’ is.”
6/ source: interview with @GregTSargent https://newrepublic.com/articl...