Hmmm.

One of the arguments defense officials have been quietly pushing in response to heavy criticism of the killing of the two survivors in a second strike on 2 September, is that they were legitimate targets because they appeared to be radioing for help or backup.

But Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the GOP chair of the Senate intelligence committee, admitted to CNN this morning that he didn’t see evidence of the men on the boat trying to use a radio to call for help.

He went on to defend the second strike, saying:

They were clearly not incapacitated. They were not distressed.

They were trying to get the boat back up and to continue their mission of spreading these drugs all across America.

That’s what they were doing and that’s why Admiral Bradley ordered the second strike.

They were not distressed?

Whether you interpret that as the ordinary “unhappy” meaning or the narrower meaning of in distress/in trouble/in danger – how can you possibly think they weren’t it?