How Sullivan helped undermine military discipline
- Rich Moniak
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
By Rich Moniak
Once again, Sen. Dan Sullivan put his foot in his mouth while auditioning to be a full-fledged sycophant in the service of President Donald Trump. The latest episode began when six Democratic lawmakers released a short video that was intended to remind military officers of their obligation not to follow illegal orders. He accused them of “sowing confusion and politicizing the ranks” of our military “in a way that risks undermining military discipline, lethality and readiness.”
The day after Sullivan’s statement was published, the Washington Post broke a story that validated the Democrats’ concern. And by voting to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last January, he helped pave the way for illegal orders to be given and followed.
Anybody paying attention to Trump’s phony war against a Venezuelan “narco-terrorist organization” knows this story by now. Multiple sources inside the Pentagon told Washington Post reporters that in early September Hegseth ordered the Joint Special Operations Command to “kill everybody” onboard a boat that was allegedly being used to transport drugs.
The first missile they launched ignited “a blaze from bow to stern,” the Post learned. “For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.” A second missile was fired and “both men were blown apart in the water.”
Because they and the other 20 crews killed in such attacks posed no imminent threat to the United States, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) believes it’s a violation of the Geneva Conventions which the U.S. adopted by treaty. Many legal experts agree. If we were really at war, killing the two survivors would constitute a war crime. If not, it’s extrajudicial murder.
Hegseth had bragged about watching the attack live as it happened. But on Saturday he dismissed the Post story about the second strike as “fake news.”
It wasn’t. By Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued it was justified "to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated." Later, Trump said it shouldn’t have happened.
Hegseth now says he “didn’t stick around for the hour and two hours” to witness what the Post said occurred in “minutes.” And that it was “the right call” made by the admiral in charge of the mission who “had complete authority” to issue the order.
The truth is Hegseth has questioned whether U.S. military should be bound by the Geneva Convention.
“Should we follow” it, he asks in his 2024 book titled "The War on Warriors," or would we be “better off in winning our wars according to our own rules?"
By his rules, two U.S. soldiers who were convicted by a military jury for the war crime of killing unarmed men in Afghanistan weren’t guilty. While co-hosting a Fox News program in 2019, he successfully lobbied Trump to pardon them.
Hegseth’s contempt for the laws of war was one of the main reasons why conservative columnist George Will believed he wasn’t among the top 10,000 people qualified to serve as defense secretary.
The military leadership understood that. They must have been supremely disappointed to witness a Marine colonel like Sullivan vote to confirm a such a misfit.
Barely two months into his tenure, Hegseth proved his critics were right. In a Signal chat, he shared sensitive information about a pending military strike in Yemen. After an eight-month investigation, the inspector general determined that using his personal cellphone and an unapproved commercially available messaging app could have compromised the mission and caused harm to military personnel.
Sullivan should have known that Hegseth’s lack of respect for rules would cause confusion and undermine discipline in the ranks. But then again, look who he endorsed to be the Commander-in-Chief.
Military officers must wonder whether Trump is aligned with U.S. interests in defending Ukraine or with Putin’s ambition to conquer the country.
Or why he would wage an undeclared war against alleged drug smugglers then pardon the former president of Honduras who was convicted of running a drug trafficking scheme that delivered 500 tons of cocaine to America.
Sullivan, however, should stop acting indifferent or confused about his legislative duty to serve as a check against the misuse and abuse of power by the executive branch.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.
