Republican Rep. Rich McCormick told viewers that a classified briefing will explain why a second strike on a Venezuela-linked drug vessel was necessary, and he’s absolutely right to insist some facts must remain secret for national security. The follow-up attack on Sept. 2 has become a political feeding frenzy, but this is not a schoolyard spat — it involves narcoterrorists who traffic fentanyl and death into our communities.
Lawmakers will hear directly from Navy Vice Adm. Frank Bradley in a classified setting, the very place where commanders can present the intelligence and legal reasoning that the public can’t be shown without risking lives and future operations. Conservatives should demand that Congress review the facts behind closed doors before the left-wing mob and partisan reporters try to crucify career officers on headlines and leaks.
Make no mistake: the administration’s campaign against narco-trafficking is precisely the sort of tough, proactive policy Americans voted for — and McCormick has correctly pointed out that these strikes are driven by real, corroborated intelligence, not wishful thinking. We cannot let the same people who excuse open borders and a soft-on-crime culture dictate our military rules of engagement when American lives are on the line.
The predictable chorus of hand-wringers is already demanding resignations and calling actions “war crimes” without waiting for the full, classified accounting that will show context and threat assessments. That’s exactly the problem with our media and opposition: they rush to indict when the story feeds their narrative, but they refuse to let professionals present the evidence that justifies difficult battlefield decisions.
There are legitimate legal and moral standards that govern conduct in combat, and those standards are why briefings like the one Bradley will give are classified — to protect sources, methods, and cooperating partners while giving Congress the necessary oversight. If Democrats and the press were serious about accountability, they would insist on a full, in-camera review of the intelligence and legal memos instead of leaking partial stories aimed at political damage.
We should also remember to stand with our warriors. Secretary Hegseth and others have publicly backed Admiral Bradley, and conservatives must not surrender our military leadership to a media trial by rumor. The cartels and narco-terrorists are the real criminals here; undermining the commanders who hunt them only makes America weaker and crime-ridden streets safer for traffickers.
Hardworking Americans want safe neighborhoods and secure borders, not press-driven paralysis and legal theater that lets the cartels regroup. Let Congress get the classified answers, let the professionals explain what they had to do, and let the nation judge after the facts are presented — not by the leaking class and their allies in the political opposition who would rather protect crime than confront it.
