This is an article written and submitted as a guest column
to the Waco “Tribune-Herald” newspaper 12-5-2025. I am on the board of contributors for that
newspaper. We will see if they use it. It is reproduced here, word-for-word as submitted, because I think this argument needs to be
made as public as possible, as soon as
possible.
-----
About the Drug Boat Strikes
I see a lot of emphasis in the news media and among members
of Congress, on the “second strike to
kill survivors” incident, and not very
much emphasis on whether it is legal at all, for our military to strike drug-smuggling
boats in the first place! I have to
disagree strongly with that emphasis. Here
is why:
After the 9-11 attack,
then-President George W. Bush immediately made war upon the terrorist
group and its armies that did that attack upon us (Al Qaida). Congress enacted a war powers act that gave
him continuing authorization to do so,
and he quickly expanded this to include the Taliban, and later Iraq (although the reasons for
going into Iraq have since proved false).
After that, the enemy became ISIS. There are many of these groups that still try
to attack us today with the terrorist armies that they operate. Many of them (but not all today) are proxy
terrorist armies operated by Iran.
These were, and are, all terrorist organizations that operated
their own armies. These armies are
assigned targets to attack, with
military style weapons (to include missiles and explosives, beyond just guns), just like the military armies operated by
many countries. Israel faces similar
terrorist armies in the form of Hamas and Hezbollah, and some others.
All of this is long well-known! The asymmetric warfare aspect of dealing with
a terrorist army versus a proper national army,
does not diminish the truth that these really are armies, operated by those terrorist organizations. They have the characteristics of
armies!
President Trump has used that same war powers act to start
military operations against the drug running cartels in and around Venezuela, and other places, without any further authorization from
Congress. He and his administration
merely made the public claim that these are “narco-terrorists” that we will
wage war upon, and he threatens to
expand this war into the interior of Venezuela.
And maybe even places like
Columbia and Mexico.
The label “narco-terrorists” merely means designating these
drug running organizations as “terrorists”.
Not all terrorist groups operate armies!
One has to presume that the war powers act intended that all terrorist
groups can have war waged upon them, to
justify the current military actions against drug runners. But, that
is not what the war powers act was intended to authorize! It authorized action against terrorist
armies, not all terrorists!
As his “justification”,
President Trump and his administration point to the large drug death
tolls as the “attack” upon the US, by
these “narco-terrorists”. Yes, there are a lot of drug overdose deaths, especially in the years since these evildoers
starting making fentanyl. There has
always been a large death toll due to drug overdose, be it heroin,
methamphetamine, or any of the
others. And yes, it is worse with fentanyl.
But, no, these cartels and other drug-running
organizations are essentially just civilian criminal organizations and
enterprises, like the Mafia and many
others. They are quite fundamentally
civilian organizations! Their operating
groups might have guns with which they kill people, but they lack the missiles and
explosives. They do not have specific
targets to go and kill or destroy. Their
only purpose is to profit from selling illegal drugs! They do not match the characteristics
of a terrorist group-operated army!
Therefore, they are
not “hostile armies” in any sense of that word!
They are but a lethal civilian criminal threat! Under US law,
under international law, and
under the US Uniform Code of Military Justice,
these are civilians! And under
those laws, for our military to go and
deliberately kill them on sight, is the deliberate
killing of civilians! And under
those same laws, such deliberate
killing of civilians is murder, not
a legal military operation! The legal
seriousness of such a crime ranks right up there with “war crimes”.
The orders to go and do any of these boat strikes are
therefore illegal orders! They should
never have been obeyed by anyone in our military! We are all informed of that obligation not to
obey illegal orders, upon joining up, and we have been, since Vietnam. I certainly was so instructed, when I entered the Navy 56 years ago.
Now you know why I so strongly disagree with the reporting
emphasis that mostly ignores these more generalized considerations about the
drug boat strikes! And why I am so terribly
disappointed by the admiral who carried these lethal strikes out.
President Trump has been firing or otherwise “cashiering”
all the high-ranking military officers who might oppose whatever he does, which is why I am unsurprised about what that
admiral did. This weeding-out opposition
among the officer class is beginning to have definite effect, and in a way that is not just wrong, but truly evil!
If I have in any way persuaded you, then do please contact your federal
representation about this. I have been
doing so repeatedly, for some months
now. They are the ones who have to stop
this. That is why you “hired” them, with your vote!
-----
End of article as submitted
Boat about to be struck
-----
About the only thing that I might add, concerns the application of the Uniform Code
of Military Justice. That code says, among many other things, that deliberately killing civilians is a
crime, and that the order to do so is
illegal and should not be obeyed. Military personnel actually have a legal obligation
not to obey illegal orders!
This restriction and the corresponding justice were not done
correctly, regarding the My Lai massacre
in Vietnam, some 5+ decades ago. Several service people were
investigated, and a few tried by court
martial, over this incident. It was never very clear to the public exactly
who ordered the massacre of the civilians,
when they entered the village and unexpectedly found no Viet Cong.
Only one was convicted (William Calley), and he was quite low on the totem pole from
whence the order must have come.
And, be aware that there were
many such incidents during that war that never really made the news. This one was publicized because a reporter
was able to take pictures afterward of the slain civilians, which included women, children,
and very old people. The culture
of the military to comply with the prohibition on deliberately killing
civilians was then, and apparently still
is today, quite imperfect.
In the case of the boat strikes, the illegal order to kill civilians came from
very high up: straight from the White
House and his Secretary of Defense, to
that admiral and his staff. It goes down
the totem pole to the commanders at sea who actually sent the planes with the
missiles. This kind of murder so very
clearly rates courts-martial for the service members, and criminal prosecution for the
civilians.
Based on his remarks and behavior, Donald Trump is apparently the one that told
the military to do all these killings at sea.
At Nuremberg, we preferred to go after the higher-ranking
Nazis who actually gave the orders to commit the war crimes, more so than the field troops who carried
them out. It is so very clear that it is Trump and his
“top dogs” that should be brought to justice.
That definitely includes at least Pete Hegseth.
See how wrong it was for the Supreme Court to grant immunity
to President Trump for any crimes he commits while in office as the
President? They were not anticipating
murder. That egregious error committed
by the court majority, prevents trying
Trump for the 80+ murders he has so far ordered, whether now,
or after he is out of office! And that is just plain wrong!
I do hope somebody out there knows how to get this posted
article in front of the Supreme Court.
They certainly need to correct their very egregious error! And
the Navy chain of command needs to see this,
too, and they need to stop
obeying these illegal orders from Trump and Hegseth. That goes for the other branches, too!
-----
Search code 07122025
Search keywords bad
government
-----
No comments:
Post a Comment