Letters to the Editor | Dec. 3, 2025

A recent report in the Washington Post reveals that before a Sept. 2 strike on a boat suspected of smuggling drugs, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the military to “kill them all” — a reference to the vessel’s crew. After an initial ordnance strike, two survivors were spotted clinging to wreckage. In order to comply with Hegseth’s order, an officer ordered a second missile strike on them. His blind obedience violated the standards of humane treatment of combatants during armed conflict that are clearly spelled out under the Geneva Conventions. People need to realize this incident won’t be a one-off if they don’t start condemning such tactics.

The conventions provide that all shipwrecked sailors, civilian or military, are to be protected, and all attempts on their lives are prohibited. The opposing party must treat them humanely and not willfully deny them medical care. It requires a party to the conflict to search for and care for those who are shipwrecked. Our country violated those rules on Sept. 2.

This incident is a stain on the Navy that no twisted excuse can erase. The report should silence the hand-wringers upset with the members of Congress who reminded military members about their duty to obey only lawful orders. The indifference to legality — or even basic humanity — that has been shown by both Hegseth and President Donald Trump necessitated that reminder. As a Navy veteran, I never thought my country would stoop to launching a missile at shipwrecked souls. Hegseth and those following his sick orders proved me wrong and made the U.S. Navy little better than the so-called narco-terrorists it is combating.

Stewart Speck, Wynnewood, speckstewart@gmail.com

We can’t say we weren’t warned. Anyone who remembered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s full-throated support of Eddie Gallagher’s tactics as a Navy SEAL platoon leader in Afghanistan was aware of Hegseth’s depraved mindset about “war-fighting.” Gallagher, you may remember, was brought to trial for murder and torture of an Afghan ISIS fighter, and was magically acquitted by a surprise admission of guilt by one of his platoon members (Gallagher later admitted to killing the POW in his charge by performing “medical“ procedures on him). Hegseth, then a Fox News talking head, lobbied Donald Trump to grant clemency to Gallagher for the crime of taking a picture with the corpse. Trump pardoned the SEAL. No wonder it’s not difficult for anyone to believe Hegseth ordered the summary execution of survivors of a boat bombing who were holding on for dear life to wreckage in the open sea. Our “war” secretary sees the mission of his department as being, in his own words, to “kill people and break things.”

What have we come to? Are our service members given license to act as sadistic thugs in war? What will happen to our own troops if they become POWs of an enemy in some future military action? God help them — and God help us all.

PM Procacci, West Palm Beach, Fla.

I would love to ask each of our politicians and government officials how they believe they will be remembered once their time on this earth is at an end. Would you be remembered as an American patriot who put our country ahead of your own party and personal interests?

Would you expect thousands of people from all corners of the political spectrum to show love, respect, and admiration while mourning your loss, as was shown to John McCain, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Dick Cheney? Or would your passing be greeted with relief, or maybe not even noticed?

Your time on this earth is limited, but history will remember you for eternity. Once you are gone, the only footprint you will have left is your legacy. Is the desire for power and wealth worth leaving behind a tarnished legacy for eternity? How do you want to be remembered?

As an American patriot, or as a complicit part of a dark era in American history? The choice is yours; there is still time to write another chapter in your own personal history.

Fred Shapiro, Margate

I’ve worked with an international team for several years now — and this time of year is always an opportunity for me to explain our American culture around Thanksgiving. Describing the celebration of football, food, and Friday shopping that necessitates the last Thursday in November off from work must seem like Bob Cratchit asking Ebenezer Scrooge for a full day off in A Christmas Carol. So I’ve resorted to this description: parades and food.

Turkey leftovers. Turkey soup. Turkey sandwiches. Lots of them.

In terms of parades, there is nothing like Philadelphia’s. I still remember the Gimbel’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, even though it ended when I was only 7.

Philadelphians don’t know how lucky they are to have the best Thanksgiving Day parade around — and that’s not to mention the Mummers on New Year’s Day.

Michael Leibrandt, Abington

I found Jonathan Zimmerman’s recent column — about how we should stop referring to Donald Trump as a “fascist” — both aggravating and naive.

Mr. Zimmerman essentially wants us to “play nice” with Trump. Just like the spineless German politicians did with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. How did that turn out?

Has Mr. Zimmerman read the nefarious, hate-riddled treatise called Project 2025?

Or has he heard Trump call for the elimination of Democratic lawmakers? By elimination, I mean death.

Or has he heard Trump refer to journalists as ugly, pigs, etc.?

And the list of outrageous statements by Trump goes on and on and on — unabated and sadly often not refuted by the mainstream press.

Donald Trump is — by his own actions — a fascist. He is, in practice, the orange Hitler.

Europe learned a very sobering lesson in the 1930s: You can’t appease a tyrant! You must confront him on his own terms. He understands nothing else.

Stephen R. Gring, Ocean City, N.J., University of Pennsylvania, Class of 1979

In his recent column, Jonathan Zimmerman argues that in order to defeat Donald Trump, we must stop calling him names. The name Mr. Zimmerman suggests we stop using is fascist. He then goes on to say he does see elements of fascism in Trump’s MAGA movement: the relentless denunciation of perceived enemies, the Big Lie about elections, and his misguided belief that he is a strongman who alone can save us. But Mr. Zimmerman thinks it’s an enormous mistake to imagine all his supporters as fascists.

When you support a fascist, you are, in fact, a fascist. Not calling an evil by its name does not defeat it. It just denies reality. And that won’t make it go away.

Barry Berg, Langhorne

If you are not yet afraid of the damage our current president is doing by appeasing his buddy Vladimir Putin, just watch 2000 Meters to Andriivka. Just five minutes in, and my stomach was in a knot, while the Russian devil destroyed these young men’s lives. Ukrainian men in hopeless positions, with broken arms and legs, begging their fellow soldiers to leave them behind in a burned-out, desolate wasteland. Meanwhile, a French army chief is warning its citizens that they must be ready for war, and that they must accept they may lose their children when they enlist in the military and head to the battlefield. Russia cannot be given one inch of Ukrainian territory. If we don’t support Ukraine and win this war, we are truly doomed — and we may end up losing our children, as well.

Beth Logue, Philadelphia

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