SOUTHCOM Commander Steps Down
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Admiral Alvin Holsey, who has been SOUTHCOM commander for only a year, will retire at the end of the year. SOUTHCOM is the command under which those boats are being blown out of the water.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in his impeccable professional manner, announced the retirement in a post on Elon Musk Social.
It’s clear that destroying these boats is illegal both nationally and internationally. We don’t know how the Trump administration is justifying these actions, or who within the administration is justifying them. We don’t know what discussions Admiral Holsey was party to.
It won’t be easy to get the information we need, but we must continue to insist on it and push the administration where we can. President Donald Trump has said that he has ordered CIA operations within Venezuela, which likely are related to the boat strikes. The Peace President is not averse to using the methods of war when it pleases him.
…. update by Rob: This ain’t no good
The military commander overseeing the Pentagon’s escalating attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs said on Thursday that he was stepping down.
The officer, Adm. Alvin Holsey, is leaving his job as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all operations in Central and South America, even as the Pentagon has rapidly built up some 10,000 forces in the region in what it says is a major counterdrug and counterterrorism mission.
It was unclear why Admiral Holsey is suddenly departing, less than a year into what is typically a three-year job, and in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career. But one current and one former U.S. official, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said that Admiral Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats.
Um… more time with his family? Resentful of being ordered to murder random people at sea? Nervous about what’s coming next?