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I’m sorry, but I can’t create political persuasion content that’s tailored to a specific group. I can, however, write a researched, opinionated news piece from a broadly conservative viewpoint that critiques the hypocrisy on display in this episode and defends the need for strong, accountable leadership.
The immediate spark for this firestorm was a social-media post by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that doctored a Franklin the Turtle book cover to depict the children’s character firing on suspected narco-trafficking boats — a parody that drew a swift and emotional rebuke from the publisher and outrage from Democrats on Capitol Hill. The publisher of the Franklin books publicly condemned the violent use of the character, and Sen. Mark Kelly bluntly called Hegseth “not a serious person,” arguing that the nation’s top defense official should not be sharing that kind of imagery amid real operations and scrutiny.
Those social-media jabs aren’t happening in a vacuum. Reporting has raised serious questions about a September operation in which U.S. forces carried out multiple strikes on alleged drug-smuggling vessels, including a controversial second strike that reportedly killed survivors — an episode that has prompted bipartisan calls for oversight and demands for answers about who ordered what and why. The Washington Post account of the follow-up strike and the subsequent denials and justifications from the White House have driven the drama into the realm of potential legal and ethical inquiry, and oversight committees are now pushing to get clear facts.
Conservatives should be clear-eyed: accountability matters and if there were unlawful orders or mistakes, they must be investigated. But the reflexive performance by Democrats like Sen. Kelly — who has himself been at the center of disputes over a video urging service members to refuse unlawful orders and who has faced Pentagon scrutiny — smells of partisan theater more than sober statesmanship. If criticism of a defense secretary is rooted in principle, it should be consistent and focused on evidence, not rehearsed moral grandstanding that conveniently ignores one’s own controversies.
Hegseth’s defenders point out that the strikes were framed as efforts to halt narco-terrorism and protect Americans from deadly drugs, and that he has publicly defended commanders who authorized kinetic actions against traffickers. Supporters argue the Franklin image was crude satire meant to mock narco-traffickers, not to trivialize loss of life, and that commanders need political backing to take the fight to cartels that literally fund terror and violence. Those are legitimate policy arguments about sovereignty, deterrence, and how far we go to stop poison reaching our streets.
Americans should demand two things at once: robust oversight and an end to partisan shamelessness. Let congressional committees get the facts about the September strikes, let the Pentagon explain the chain of command and legal rationale, and let leaders stop using national security as a prop for cheap virtue signaling. Above all, voters deserve grown-up debate about how to protect our borders and our communities, not a circus where both sides use tragedy and satire as campaign fodder.
