Boat survivors signalled for help. So we killed them.

For over an hour, two shirtless and wounded men floated in the open ocean next to the wreckage of a burning boat. They sometimes clung to debris or clambered onto an overturned fragment of the broken vessel. Then the United States Navy killed them.

Everyone appears to agree on that much.

Following a briefing from Special Operations Command Admiral Mitch Bradley and a review of videos showing the missile strikes on September 2, it is clear that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is, at best, a war criminal. Bradley is, at best, a war criminal. Several of those down the chain of command from Bradley who executed this order may also be war criminals. A better term is simply murderers.

But before anything can happen, Republicans have to admit that murder is a bad thing, even if it's done to make Donald Trump happy. And it's not at all clear that's going to happen.

At this point, the number of excuses given for the "double tap attack" is truly amazing.

The men were attempting to radio for reinforcements, according to a briefing from Pentagon officials. Except they didn't have a radio.

The survivors were trying to climb back onto the boat and load it with drugs, according to a Republican source. Except the boat had been "split in half" by the initial strike, and what was left was a piece barely large enough to float. It had no motors, no sail, and the only direction it was going was down.

The two men were "actively continuing their drug mission" against the United States, said Bradley. Except for the part where they didn't have a boat, or drugs, and the United States was 1,300 miles away.

Finally, multiple people have agreed that the men were either waving for help or actively trying to surrender.

A new detail about the survivors of a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean further complicates the military’s explanations for launching the follow-up attack that killed them. Multiple people who have seen video of the attacks say the survivors climbed on the overturned hull and waved to something overhead, a gesture interpreted as an attempt to surrender, beckoning rescue or trying to signal other alleged drug traffickers.

If they were signalling other alleged drug traffickers, they were out of luck, because military reports show there were no other boats in sight at the time of the attack. But then, these men were definitely out of luck, because instead of life jackets, we sent them an explosion.

Despite expressions of concern from some Republicans, it is clearer than ever that, should Trump carry through on his daydream of shooting someone on Fifth Avenue, plenty of Republicans will be there to mop up the blood and explain why the victim had it coming.

"I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight. The first strike, the second strike, and the third and fourth strike on September 2 were entirely lawful and needful and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do." – Sen. Tom Cotton

The only thing wrong with Cotton's statement is everything. According to others who viewed the video, the men were clinging to, or attempting to climb onto, a fragment of a torn-apart boat. If the boat had been intact, there was no way it could have been flipped back over, because it was a 39' long motorboat, not a kayak or small sailboat. Two men could not have flipped the boat (if there had been a boat left to flip), they couldn't "stay in the fight" because they were never in a fight, and their boat was never "bound for the United States" even before it was attacked. The boat was never capable of coming within a thousand miles of the United States.

But if Cotton's statement is disgusting, those reportedly delivered by Bradley and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine, are plain old bullshit.

A U.S. official tells "PBS News Hour" that Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley and chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine told lawmakers in classified briefings that the first strike killed nine people and that, after the first strike, the boat was still seaworthy, the men on board still had drugs and communications, which meant they were still combatants, and a rescue boat was approaching.

Every word of this description is simply a lie, and if Caine is repeating this lie, then he needs to pay for it along with Hegseth and Bradley.

These were survivors of a shipwreck caused by a military attack. They had no weapons, no way of reaching the United States, and no means of causing even one member of the military the slightest bit of harm. There are very specific rules for how such survivors are to be treated. There are no circumstances under which it is legally acceptable to fire on such survivors. None.

This is literally the textbook example of a war crime.

It's ridiculous to talk about these men signalling for "reinforcements" in a situation where the people being attacked were not fighting. It's ridiculous to talk about "their attack on the United States" when the boat could not have reached the nearest point of the U.S. without being refueled dozens of times. It's utterly sickening to use injured men signaling for assistance as an excuse for murder.

On top of anything else, it's ridiculous to ponder the legality of the "second strike" when there was never, not for a moment, anything legal about the first strike in this whole Trump-sanctioned snuff film.

According to Republicans and the Pentagon officials left after Hegseth culled everyone concerned about the rules of war, the threat that these two men might climb back onto the smoldering wreckage, or signal for a rescue, or maybe strap a ton of cocaine to their bodies and swim to Miami was so great that the only choice was to kill them. Two men struggling to stay alive on a smoking wreck were such a threat that the United States Navy had no choice but to launch a missile at them. Sorry, make that another missile.

On September 2, Trump announced the military had attacked a small boat in the southern Caribbean, killing 11 people. According to Trump, all those on board the boat were "narcoterrorists." In a social media post the same day, he claimed that the men were members of "Tren de Aragua," a crime syndicate based in Venezuela. Trump claimed that "the terrorists were at sea in international waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States."

According to Venezuelan media, the boat originated from the fishing village of San Juan de Unare, a location reported to act as a port for drug boats. No other evidence has been provided that this boat was carrying drugs meant for the U.S., or that those operating it were members of any cartel.

After being overflown by a U.S. military aircraft and given a warning, the small vessel reportedly turned around and was headed back to Venezuela. That's when Hegseth and Bradley gave their orders to destroy the boat.

On November 28, The Washington Post reported that there had been a second strike on the boat after survivors were identified from the first attack. The Post also reported that Hegseth had given an order to "kill them all." Hegseth denied the story completely, saying the "entire narrative is completely false." Since then, almost every word of the Post story has been confirmed. However, in briefings, Bradley has provided cover for Hegseth by saying that there was no specific order to kill everyone.

Democrats are calling for a full investigation, and at the moment, some Republicans appear to be with them. But we've seen this story before. In the wake of some horrific action by Trump, they may initially shy away and pretend to be upset. But if the MAGA base stays in line, Republicans will hurry back to the butt-kissing queue. Two days from now, shooting shipwreck survivors will be exactly what they, along with George Washington and Jesus, have always supported.

Any real investigation of the illegal basis for this whole "war" and the criminal acts carried out in these attacks will probably have to wait at least until Democrats gain majorities in Congress.

Though the men dying right now for Republican amusement would probably be pleased if we could speed that up.