'The Fog of War'

Susan Estrich on Dec 4, 2025

The "fog of war" is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's latest explanation for what was going on with the second strike on the boat in the Caribbean. He told a Cabinet meeting, "I did not personally see survivors. The thing was on fire. It exploded, there's fire, there's smoke. This is called the fog of war."

Not exactly, according to military experts. The term has reportedly come to be used by military experts to describe the incomplete and imperfect information that officers and troops must process in the thick of battle. "Officers in training learn the term almost instantly," Professor Derek Grossman of USC told the New York Times. "That's part of warfighting, to adapt on the fly."

It is not a defense to war crimes.

Maybe I'm in a fog, too, but something about this administration's posture leaves me very confused. It seems that someone knew there were survivors and someone gave an order for a second strike, an order which, depending on what a full investigation shows, never should have been authorized, given, or followed.

Bipartisan lawmakers in both the House and Senate have vowed to get to the bottom of this. Make no mistake. This is serious stuff. These look very much like classic war crimes, with no extenuating circumstances that would mandate leaving no survivors. It will be a test of Republicans' loyalty to President Donald Trump, and Trump's to Hegseth.

This comes, of course, against the backdrop of growing criticism of this administration's undeclared war on Venezuela that has targeted boats in the area supposedly carrying drugs and has cost dozens of lives.

Who declared a war to be carried out by execution-style hits on these boats? Are we, as the first of what will surely be many such lawsuits filed claim, targeting innocent fishermen instead of drug traffickers?

And suppose we're really concerned with drugs flooding our country. What in the world is the Trump administration doing pardoning the ex-president of Honduras, who is credited with flooding America with cocaine?

Why him? Why now? We pardon the kingpin and execute two surviving crew members clinging to the side of the boat?

How do you explain that? What fog of what war?

A foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of small minds, but what do you call this? Our hypocritical drug war, subject to the exception that presidents we like can do no wrong. With Trump wielding the Pardon pen, every day is King's Day.

Maybe it's a reflection of the tough week he and Pete are having, but Trump has been off on especially crazy rants this week, which can only make you wonder. The craziest, perhaps, was his repurposing of a conspiracy video from the thoroughly discredited Alex Jones that had Michelle Obama stealing former President Joe Biden's autopen to grant last-minute pardons to key officials -- this among some 160 posts from the president on Monday night going strong until midnight. He may fall asleep in Cabinet meetings, but when the bile starts coming, there is no stopping him.

One of his other targets on Monday night was Senator Mark Kelly, the decorated veteran and astronaut, who was one of the six Democratic veterans who made the now infamous videotape telling military members that they have a duty not to follow unlawful orders. That is, of course, the law; nothing controversial about it.

When I first decided to write about the attacks on Kelly and the others, I wondered if I was taking it too seriously; clearly anyone could see that their speech was protected. That was before the president accused them of treason and Hegseth's Defense Department announced an investigation of Kelly. And that was before we knew about someone ordering a second strike. That was clearly on the president's mind. "Mark Kelly and the group of Unpatriotic Politicians were WRONG to do what they did, and they know it!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I hope the people looking at them are not duped into thinking that it's OK to openly and freely get others to disobey the President of the United States!"

Nobody is trying to get soldiers to disobey the President of the United States when he gives lawful orders. What they are trying to do is make sure that the orders that come from this administration are indeed lawful, and not simply a product of the "fog of war."

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