The Bunker appears originally at the Project on Government Oversight and is republished here with permission.
It’s becoming a one-man show
As though he were Zeus unleashing lightning bolts, President Donald Trump announced on September 19 the unilateral destruction of a third boat in the Caribbean suspected of carrying illegal drugs destined for the U.S. It followed similar strikes announced September 2 and September 15. Trump declared the attacks had killed 17 “narcoterrorists.”
What’s peculiar about these attacks is that they’re being revealed by the president himself, on his Truth Social account. Even more strikingly, each includes video purporting to be of the U.S. attack, something that in the past had been part of the Pentagon’s remit. In fact, news of the attacks appears to be MIA from the Pentagon’s purported news website. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth simply retweeted Trump’s post on the most recent attack nine minutes later.
These are plainly extra-judicial killings carried out “on my Orders,” as Trump said in all three posts (perhaps he thinks capitalizing “Orders” makes them legal). The Missileer-in-Chief provided no evidence that those killed were running drugs, nor any information about the units and weapons involved in the U.S. strikes. It’s all part of the Trump administration’s continuing slide into unilateral “trust me” authoritarianism. It’s making even Pentagon lawyers nervous.
But U.S. military intelligence, as with anything that breathes lethality, is hardly infallible. Like the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the imminent U.S. victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan, the fraudulent Gulf of Tonkin attack that got us into Vietnam, and the dimming light at the end of the tunnel that keeps us there, it is good to be skeptical of any intelligence generated by the U.S. government. That’s not cynicism; it’s common sense. Deadly mistakes happen too often in war. Just ask the seven Afghan kids killed by that errant 2021 U.S. missile attack. Apparently, a military costing $1 trillion a year can no longer afford to halt suspected drug smugglers at sea and board their vessels to see if they’re carrying contraband.
The Bunker, of course, holds no brief for drug smugglers. But he does support the rules of war. “The administration claimed authority to kill on suspicion alone,” retired Navy captain Jon Duffy wrote after the initial strike. “International law does not permit such action.” A pair of Democratic lawmakers is seeking to force a congressional vote to halt such attacks. Good luck with that. It’s surely doomed, given how much pusillanimous slack lawmakers have cut presidents to wage war since World War II.
There is a growing and disturbing insularity in and around this Department of Defense. Its leaders disdain sharing information with the citizenry. They’re more interested in sidelining those who refuse to salute, whether it’s outsiders, a West Point professor, or books. The Pentagon, never perfect, is becoming increasingly brittle and disconnected from those in whose name it is supposedly serving. This is not going to end well.
Turning reporters into a steno pool
Apparently, Hegseth wants reporters covering the Pentagon to behave as lickspittlely as he does to President Trump.
Ain’t gonna happen.
Nothing highlights Hegseth’s out-of-his-depth-underwater-altimeter like his inane September 18 order barring Pentagon pen-pushers from reporting anything not preapproved for release by the Defense Department. It’s an unworkable solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Hegseth’s action only highlights his ignorance of how the press works, how the Pentagon works, and how the First Amendment works.
“The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do,” Hegseth said. “The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.”
That might happen — some reporters might actually stay away if these new rules stick — but it’s not going to make much difference. That’s because most embarrassing reporting on the U.S. military doesn’t come from reporters inside the Pentagon. Vietnam’s My Lai massacre and the Pentagon (“Sure we lied”) Papers, and Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal come quickly to mind as stories broken by reporters beyond the walls of the five-sided puzzle palace.
This is just the latest clash between Hegseth and the press. He’s booted news organizations that have covered the building for decades from their Pentagon offices, dramatically cut back on press briefings, and even before this most recent edict curtailed reporters’ access (PDF) inside the building.
The Bunker spent nearly 40 years armed only with a Pentagon press pass, gathering string for stories and getting to know military and civilian defense officials. It was a two-way street that served the military, the press, and the American public. Hegseth is turning it into a cul-de-sacrilege.
Beards get the boot
In his continuing campaign promoting style over substance, Secretary of Whiskers Pete Hegseth has ordered new restrictions on military beards. Troops with skin conditions irritated by regularly shaving will have to go barefaced within a year or else face the end of their military career. “The Department must remain vigilant in maintaining the grooming standards which underpin the warrior ethos,” Hegseth wrote (PDF) in an August memo released September 15.
Troops suffering from pseudofolliculitis barbae — “razor bumps,” where freshly-shaven hair curls back into the skin and causes irritation — have been able to get waivers to allow them to avoid close shaves. But under the new rules, they’ll have one year to come up with medical treatments that may allow them to shave or, um, face expulsion. Unlike the U.S. military, razor bumps are not color-blind: the condition affects about 45% of Black service members, but only around 3% of white ones.
Yet with increasing Pentagon concern (PDF) over the prospect of war in the Arctic, Hegseth may want to consider freezing, or at least trimming, his new regulation. It seems beards offer “significant protection against frostbite injury to the face,” Military Medicine reported September 4. They “provide a lethality advantage to male soldiers operating in the cold, enhancing military exploitation of extreme cold environments.”
Here’s what has caught The Bunker’s eye recently
The U.S. military has remained largely mum as the Trump administration has run roughshod over legal norms, at least in part because of the wholesale firing of its top lawyers, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote September 19.
The Navy’s former #2 officer, a retired four-star admiral, was sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted on corruption charges for agreeing to “exchange a military contract for a lucrative postretirement job,” Michael Kunzelman of the Associated Press reported September 16.
Beijing, which recently unveiled its own nuclear triad of ICBMs, bombers, and missile-launching submarines, is flexing its atomic muscles as a warning to the U.S., Brian Spegele reported September 18 in the Wall Street Journal. Alas, it’s a safe bet Washington will take the bait, along with the hook, the line, and the sinker.
Thanks for dropping anchor at The Bunker this week. Once again, there’s no Bunker next week — see you October 8. If you like what you’re reading, spread the word! Forward this to a friend so they can subscribe here.
