Are We At War With Narco-Terrorists?

Since September, the U.S. military has been striking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that the Trump administration claims are transporting drugs to the mainland. The administration also claims destroying the boats and killing the crews are warranted because we are at war with "narco-terrorists."

The first boat to be struck, on September 2, left two survivors with the remains of the boat. They were killed in a subsequent attack, intended to kill them. Was killing them a war crime or murder, since they posed no imminent threat to the military or U.S. mainland?

Regardless of the legal determination, my view is that killing them and the crews of the other boats is immoral, which prompted letters to Senator Britt and Representative Rogers.

I am writing to express my horror and disgust at the Trump administration’s policy of attacking boats in international waters, boats it claims are ferrying drugs into the U.S.

The location of these strikes belies the claim that they threaten the U.S. and warrant such a severe response. The Coast Guard’s longstanding interdiction process of disabling a boat and arresting the crew could be adopted by the military, yet that wouldn’t create the machismo, reality TV show of force to glorify the administration’s fake narrative.

These strikes are counter to the American values of presumed innocence and due process. The administration’s justification for a double-tap strike on September 2, to kill the remaining two crew members floating in the ocean with the shell of their boat, is absurd. Located so close to the coast of Venezuela, they posed no threat to the U.S. mainland or our military. The action was explicitly counter to the DoD Law of War Manual. making it a war crime or murder. Regardless of the legal definition, it was immoral.

If we are indeed at war with “narco-terrorists,” Congress should formally declare war. That Republicans in Congress remain mum, except for Senator Rand Paul, reflects the party’s lack of integrity, placing fealty to the president over their oath to the U.S. Constitution.

During my 72-year lifespan, the Trump presidency poses the worst challenge to the American democracy, and Congress is failing the Constitutional test.