Retired Navy Admiral BLASTS Pentagon Silence on “Double-Tap” Strike: “Show the Video”
Retired four-star Admiral James Stavridis is sharply criticizing the Pentagon’s handling of a controversial U.S. “double-tap” strike in the Caribbean, warning that the operation raises serious legal and strategic questions that the administration has yet to answer. The September 2 drone strike hit a suspected drug-running boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing 11 people in the initial blast.
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What has triggered a political firestorm is the second strike that followed, which was ordered after survivors were visibly floating in the water and clinging to debris. Human-rights experts say that could violate international law, and lawmakers are demanding to see the video. So far, the Pentagon has not released it.
Stavridis, the former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and now a senior military analyst for CNN, said on-air this week that the U.S. public deserves transparency, warning that trust is at risk when lethal operations are kept behind closed doors. He argued that even suspected criminals have the right to surrender, saying that if the people in the water had been U.S. service members, the military would expect their lives to be protected.
He also questioned why the administration deployed more than 20,000 U.S. troops and dozens of warships to the Caribbean if the strategy behind the campaign is unclear. Lawmakers were briefed that the targeted boat wasn’t heading for the United States but for Suriname, where drugs would be transferred to a larger vessel, raising new questions about the urgency and justification presented to the public.
Members of Congress from both parties are pressing for a full investigation, and several have warned that the second strike may violate long-standing laws of war. As pressure builds, Stavridis’s voice is becoming central to the debate, and his call for a bipartisan review is adding momentum to demands for accountability. With the video still unreleased and questions continuing to pile up, the controversy surrounding the strike is only intensifying.