US Military Social Media Post Raises Questions in Disturbing Details

In a social media post about the operation involving missile strikes that have killed dozens of people in the Caribbean Sea, a U.S. military account showed no American flags, but a large cross was clearly visible.

The Jerusalem Cross, as the ornate design is known, is considered by many to be a simple profession of Christian faith. Some use it to specifically celebrate the domination of Muslims by the Christian Crusades almost a millennium ago. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was not allowed work security at President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration because he has a large Jerusalem cross tattooed on his chest, like News themezone previously reported.

Hegseth, recounting that experience, described the Jerusalem Cross as “only a Christian symbol.”

The United States Southern Command, which oversees US military activity in South America and the Caribbean, published an image on Monday featuring that Christian symbol.

US Southern Command/Twitter

Southern Command has been behind a series of at least 22 attacks (resulting in some 87 killings) in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean, according to a News tally from last week. The attacks are part of what the government calls Operation Southern Spear.

“U.S. military forces are deployed to the #SOUTHCOM area of ​​responsibility in support of #OpSouthernSpear, @DeptofWar-led operations, and @POTUS priorities to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and protect the homeland,” the SouthCom post on X read. Similar versions were shared on Facebook and Instagram.

“The graphic was an illustration of service members in a ready position during Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR,” Col. Emanuel Ortiz, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command, told News themezone in an email. “There is no other communication intent for this image.”

The government alleges that the ships it targets are bringing drugs into the United States, a claim for which it has provided no concrete evidence, and that the alleged drug traffickers are actually members of a designated terrorist group. This, the administration says, makes them easy prey for military strikes, unlike Coast Guard drug interdiction, which typically involves no lethal force at all.

In addition to killing suspected drug traffickers on the grounds that they are actually militant terrorists, the administration is receiving additional criticism for the so-called “double tap” attack that involved killing survivors of an initial attack with even more fire. Hegseth has defended that attack.