General Discussion

Bradley, then the head of Joint Special Operations Command, was on a secure conference call after a missile obliterated a suspected drug vessel speeding across the Caribbean. SEAL Team Six, one of the elite units under his command, provided intelligence and targeting for the operation.

As the smoke cleared and survivors were spotted clinging to the wreckage, Bradley, according to The Washington Post, ordered a second “double tap” strike to finish them off.

Eight decades earlier, the same sequence, carried out with cruder weapons, sealed Eck’s fate and that of several of his men.

The Peleus case, now included in naval warfare law textbooks, stands for two simple legal principles: killing shipwrecked survivors is a manifestly unlawful act, and following an illegal order to do so is no defense. Enshrined in 1945, it has gained new urgency as Congress signals it will investigate the legality of the Pentagon’s campaign against suspected drug traffickers.