This is an opinion of Florida Man News Network. For the full sourced record on the war's cost and losses, read our report: Impeach Hegseth? Here's the Bill: $47.1 Billion, 18 Dead, 81 Aircraft
Removing Pete Hegseth from office is where accountability starts, not where it ends.
By Joseph Jackson | TAMPA (Nov. 5, 2026)
Next week, a Republican congressman with nothing left to lose will make the House answer a simple question: Should Pete Hegseth keep his job?
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger. He's leaving Congress in January. He plans to use his final weeks to force a vote on eight articles of impeachment against the secretary of defense. (Roll Call) Every member of the House should vote yes.
But impeachment can only take away Hegseth's office. It cannot take away his freedom, and it cannot bring back the people killed on his orders. That will take a courtroom. FMNN believes that's where this has to end.
The impeachment case is already made
Congress never authorized the war on Iran. Hegseth fought it anyway. By the Pentagon's own count, it has cost $47.1 billion, killed 18 American service members and injured more than 860. At least 81 U.S. aircraft have been lost or damaged. And along the way, the man running it kept telling the president and the public things that weren't true.
He said Iran had "no air defenses." Then Iran shot down an F-15E. In April he sent an official to Congress to say, under oath, that the war cost $25 billion. Officials told CBS the real number was closer to $50 billion, and the Pentagon's own figure has nearly doubled since. (CBS News)
Those are reasons to remove a cabinet secretary. But they aren't what should keep Pete Hegseth up at night.
The crimes
The boat. On Sept. 2, 2025, the U.S. military blew up a boat in the Caribbean that it said was carrying drugs. Two men survived the first strike and clung to the wreckage. Then a second strike killed them.
The Washington Post reported that the second strike was ordered to comply with a spoken directive from Hegseth to "kill everybody." When the story first broke, Hegseth called it fake news. (Common Dreams) Then the White House confirmed the second strike, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Hegseth had authorized the admiral who carried it out. (The Intercept) Hegseth says he didn't watch the second strike happen. (Michigan Advance) CNN reported it isn't clear whether he knew there were survivors. (Boston.com)
Legal experts don't treat this as a close call. Experts AP interviewed said a second strike on survivors would be a crime whether or not the United States is in an "armed conflict," as the administration claims. (AP via PBS) A group of former military lawyers said there were only two ways to describe it: war crimes, murder or both. (The Week) If there's no war, it's murder under ordinary federal law. If there is a war, killing helpless survivors is a war crime. Neither answer is "legal."
The chat. In March 2025, Hegseth posted the timing of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen in a Signal chat that, as it turned out, included a journalist. He also shared details in a separate chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, CNN reported. (CNN via KRDO) For months, Hegseth and his spokesman insisted none of it was classified.
The Pentagon's own inspector general disagreed. Its report found the information came from a document marked SECRET, that it could have endangered American troops if intercepted, that Hegseth broke military rules by using his personal phone for official business, and that his office broke federal law by not keeping the records. Hegseth refused to sit for an interview. He never handed over his phone. Then he declared it a "total exoneration." (CBS News, NBC News, ABC7)
Why "will be revealed" is the right phrase
FMNN won't call Hegseth a convicted criminal. He isn't one, and no prosecutor has charged him. But look at what he's done when investigators asked questions: no interview, no phone, a handful of messages. Ask yourself why.
In January, Democrats take the House with subpoena power. They've said Hegseth is near the top of their list. (See FMNN's "Lawyer Up" report.) The orders, the chat logs, the video of that second strike, the cost documents the Pentagon kept largely under wraps: all of it is within reach for the first time. Investigators who can compel testimony tend to find what was hidden.
What his defenders say
Hegseth's defenders make real arguments. They deserve real answers.
"We're at war with narco-terrorists." The administration says the boat crews belong to designated terrorist organizations. But no court has accepted that drug smuggling is an armed attack on the United States, and Congress never declared that war. Even if it were a war, the laws of war forbid killing people who are shipwrecked and out of the fight.
"He can declassify anything." That's true. The inspector general confirmed Hegseth has that power. But the report found no record that he actually used it, and the people in the chat were never told. Declassifying something only in your head isn't declassification.
"He's cleaning house at a bloated Pentagon." Hegseth points out that 197 general officers were removed under President Obama. Firing generals is his right. Firing the ones whose intelligence contradicted his story is a different matter.
"Trump has full confidence in him." Maybe. Reports say Trump is privately asking whether Hegseth should stay. Either way, the Constitution doesn't make one man's confidence the test.
"Trump will just pardon him." He might. A president can pardon federal crimes. That's exactly why impeachment matters: if the Senate convicts, it can also bar Hegseth from ever holding federal office again, and no pardon undoes that.
The law has a long memory
There is no statute of limitations on murder. Rep. Ted Lieu, a former Air Force lawyer, put it plainly: if this administration won't hold anyone accountable, a future one will. (Rep. Ted Lieu)
So here's FMNN's position, in order. Impeach Pete Hegseth next week. Convict him in the Senate and bar him from office. Let the new House investigators get every document, every message and every frame of video. And if the evidence shows what legal experts say it will, a future attorney general should bring the case to a grand jury.
Accountability takes time. It shouldn't take forever.
Call your representative before the vote the week of Nov. 9. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121.
Sources
AP via PBS NewsHour, what the law says about killing boat-strike survivors — https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-the-law-says-about-killing-survivors-of-a-boat-strike-according-to-experts
The Week, Congress seeks answers in "kill everybody" report — https://theweek.com/politics/war-crimes-hegseth-boat-strikes
Boston.com, Markey; CNN on whether Hegseth knew of survivors — https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/12/01/markey-calls-pete-hegseth-a-war-criminal-joining-bipartisan-reproach-after-report-that-u-s-forces-killed-boat-strike-survivors-in-carribean/
The Intercept, chain of command and Leavitt confirmation — https://theintercept.com/2025/12/02/hegseth-boat-strikes-war-crime-venezuela
Michigan Advance, Hegseth denies being present — https://michiganadvance.com/2025/12/02/repub/hegseth-denies-he-was-present-for-deadly-second-strike-on-alleged-caribbean-drug-boat/
Common Dreams, "fake news" denial and White House confirmation — https://www.commondreams.org/news/general-boat-strikes-war-crime
Rep. Ted Lieu, no statute of limitations — https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/top-democrat-former-jag-says-killing-shipwrecked-survivors-war-crime
CBS News, inspector general's Signal report — https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hegseths-signal-chat-pentagon-inspector-general-report
NBC News, inspector general report and "total exoneration" — https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna247023
ABC7/ABC News, inspector general findings — https://abc7.com/post/pentagon-ig-concluded-hegseth-risked-exposing-classified-info-signal-chat-sources/18246132/
CNN via KRDO, chat with wife, brother and lawyer — https://krdo.com/?p=1680211
Roll Call, Massie's vote plan — https://rollcall.com/2026/10/26/massie-vows-week-one-vote-in-lame-duck-to-impeach-hegseth/
CBS News, true cost closer to $50 billion — https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/iran-war-cost-closer-50-billion-us-officials/