On Friday, President Trump announced that the US military has destroyed a suspected drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean, the third such strike in a month's time, reports the New York Times. "On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility," Trump wrote on Truth Social, including a video that showed a boat getting tracked, then blown up, in what he claimed were international waters.
The president noted that the strike killed three "male narcoterrorists" who were on a "passage enroute to poison Americans." Trump also said that no US troops were injured during the strike. The Times notes that no further details were offered on the nationalities of those on the boat, or what criminal group they were allegedly a part of. The AP reports that it queried the Pentagon and White House, and that "the Pentagon deferred questions about the strike to the White House, which did not respond to a request for clarity about the origins of the vessel."
The first such strike, announced in early September, was said to have killed 11 on what Trump described as a drug-transporting speedboat operated by the Tren de Aragua gang. Another assault followed this past Monday, on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela. That attack killed three on board. The Times points out that suspected drug-trafficking operations on the water are typically busted up by the Coast Guard and Navy, with suspects being arrested for prosecution if drugs are found on board. Now, per the paper, Trump is considering drug trafficking as an attack against the US, which means he believes he can, in the name of self-defense, order the military to "summarily kill drug-running suspects as if they were combatants on a battlefield."
story continues below
The Trump administration has justified its actions as required to stop drugs from flowing into the US. But lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, as well as human rights groups, say the military shouldn't be used for law enforcement purposes, and that any such strikes require an OK from Congress. "Blowing up boats in the Caribbean without any legal authority risks dragging the United States into another war, and provoking attacks against American citizens," Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff said in a recent statement.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
