{"id":1250,"date":"2025-12-07T02:07:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T02:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=1250"},"modified":"2025-12-07T02:07:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T02:07:26","slug":"hegseth-likens-strikes-on-alleged-drug-boats-to-post-9-11-war-on-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=1250","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth likens strikes on alleged drug boats to post-9\/11 war on terror"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended strikes on alleged drug cartel boats during remarks Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, saying President Donald Trump has the power to take military action \u201cas he sees fit\u201d to defend the nation.<\/p>\n

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Hegseth dismissed criticism of\u00a0the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people and now face\u00a0intense scrutiny\u00a0over concerns that they violated international law. Saying the strikes are justified to protect Americans, Hegseth likened the fight to the war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re working for a designated terrorist organization and you bring drugs to this country in a boat, we will find you and we will sink you. Let there be no doubt about it,\u201d Hegseth said during his keynote address at the Reagan National Defense Forum. \u201cPresident Trump can and will take decisive military action as he sees fit to defend our nation\u2019s interests. Let no country on earth doubt that for a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most recent strike brings the death toll of the campaign to at least 87 people. Lawmakers have sought more answers about the attacks and their legal justification, and whether U.S. forces were ordered to launch a follow-up strike following a September attack\u00a0even after the Pentagon knew of survivors.<\/p>\n

Though Hegseth compared the alleged drug smugglers to Al-Qaida terrorists, experts have\u00a0noted significant differences between the two foes\u00a0and the efforts to combat them.<\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s remarks came after the Trump administration\u00a0released\u00a0its\u00a0new national security strategy, one that paints European allies as weak and aims to reassert America\u2019s dominance in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

During the speech, Hegseth also discussed the need to check China\u2019s rise through strength instead of conflict. He repeated Trump\u2019s vow to resume nuclear testing on an equal basis as China and Russia \u2014\u00a0a goal that has alarmed many nuclear arms experts. China and Russia haven\u2019t conducted explosive tests in decades, though the\u00a0Kremlin said it would follow the U.S.\u00a0if Trump restarted tests.<\/p>\n

The speech was delivered at the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in California, an event which brings together top national security experts from around the country. Hegseth used the visit to argue that Trump is Reagan\u2019s \u201ctrue and rightful heir\u201d when it comes to muscular foreign policy.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Hegseth criticized Republican leaders in the years since Reagan for supporting wars in the Middle East and democracy-building efforts that didn\u2019t work. He also blasted those who have argued that climate change poses serious challenges to military readiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe war department will not be distracted by democracy building, interventionism, undefined wars, regime change, climate change, woke moralizing and feckless nation building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Hegseth #likens #strikes #alleged #drug #boats #post911 #war #terror<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[1141,1142,1027,1138,1139,1136,1143,1140,1145,1137,1144],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}