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US airstrike survivors clung to boat wreckage for an hour before second deadly attack, video shows
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
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Huh, I hadn't thought of that implication but I see what you mean. I guess it's always been kind of misleading though, because it's not about the delay between strikes, it's about shooting a target that's already been neutralized to try to kill survivors.
Seems like the specific phrase might have orginated from a 2003 order the army gave to troops in Iraq (arc), which would explain the minimizing language (while we're on the subject - blowing someone up with a missile isn't exactly a "tap," either), but then groups like Amnesty International ran with it to talk about how the Bush and Obama and Trump administrations would all drone strike targets a second time to kill medical responders.
Yeah, as far as I know, the real origin of the term is for shooting targets (or people), so you are literally double tapping the trigger. That way, if the first round doesn't hit (or doesn't kill), the second will.
The uncertainty piece is key, though. If they fired a missile and werent sure if it hit by the time they launched the second, they could accurately call that a double-tap. That's what hegseth seems to be trying to push, especially with his reference to "fog of war".
The moment you know the first shot destroyed the target, it ceases to be a double-tap.
I just don't like how they are trying to absolve themselves through language they know will be misinterpreted, and then the media just parrots it with no issue.
P.s., to be clear, whether it is a double tap doesn't change much to me because the first missile was already a war crime.
Not killing just survivors, a double tap is about killing the people who try to rescue the wounded. It is using the wounded as a trap to lure out anyone willing to help them and kill them too.
EDIT: There's a source for this - I am incorrect. Potentially a homonym situation.
Original: I would like a source on that.
To be crass, you double tap an enemy who is wounded as you're advancing past them so you don't need to waste time or resources securing or treating them.
If you're far enough away that they're wounded and their buddy is rushing over, well, they should've done the first rule of care under fire - return fire. Not my fault if they forgot to call time out. That's not a double tap.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_tap_strike
You seem to be confusing a war crime with a paintball match.
Well, you have a source and I'm clearly in the wrong here. I have heard double tap used in infantry tactics, unfortunately not for paintball though I have played. Shooting an already out player is a no-no in paintball too. But, potentially the usage in infantry tactics was a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters on the legality of the, even from that snippet, much more reprehensible 'double tap strike.'
I'll keep this information in mind, specifically in this case.