US troops from the 101st Airbourne Division work out of the battle command center of the Division Main Headquarters in Mosel, Iraq, in May 2003. Lynsey Addario/Getty Images/File

The controversy over who gave the order for a second strike that apparently killed people clinging to an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean has raised important questions about how and where such life-and-death decisions are made.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that he left the secure room where he’d been watching a live feed of the September attack and said he didn’t see survivors on digital images of the smoldering boat. “This is called the fog of war,” Hegseth told reporters.

Alongside President Donald Trump at a Cabinet meeting, Hegseth simultaneously didn’t take any direct re

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