Pete Hegseth didn’t duck the hard questions — he laid out the Pentagon’s case for stopping cartel boats before a national audience and Fox Report guests pushed back on the predictable chorus of hand-wringing. The network segment made clear that the administration views these strikes as a necessary, tough-minded response to an invasion of poison headed for American communities.
This is not theoretical posturing: since early September the Pentagon has acknowledged a string of lethal strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, with the death toll mounting into the dozens as the campaign expanded. Americans watching their towns and families destroyed by illicit fentanyl have every right to demand action, and the administration has signaled it will use military means when lawful interdiction fails.
Secretary Hegseth has repeatedly posted footage and statements saying the vessels were known narco-trafficking threats and that the campaign is being run with intelligence and precision, drawing the same legal lines used against terrorist groups when our homeland is at stake. The imagery and messaging are meant to show resolve — to tell cartel bosses and their enablers that America will not stand by while our children are poisoned.
Of course the usual suspects in Congress and the media are demanding “transparency” as if transparency is more important than stopping the flow of lethal drugs. Bipartisan questions about briefings and legal justifications are legitimate, but they must not turn into a show trial that gives enemies a map of our tactics or handcuffs commanders in the field. The American people deserve both accountability and results — not theatrical objections that play well on cable morning shows.
Conservative Americans should be unapologetic in defending decisive action that protects lives and restores deterrence on the high seas. Senators and officials who back our forces — who trust the intelligence and the judgment of people on the ground — are on the right side of history; we need more leaders willing to call these criminal syndicates what they are and to treat them accordingly.
That does not mean oversight should be tossed aside, but oversight must be serious and sober, not a publicity stunt designed to play to soft-on-crime donors and coastal elites. Congress should demand classified briefings where appropriate, preserve operational security, and then pass laws that let our military and law enforcement finish what they’ve started: choke off the cartels’ ability to wage war on America and secure our southern approaches so hardworking families can breathe easier.
