LOS ANGELES (OC)).–President Donald Trump has taken the symbolic drug war literally, going after Venezuela and Columbia as if the sovereign states were in military conflict with the United States. Trump has ordered unprecedented extrajudicial attacks on Venezuelan vessels in the Gulf of Mexico suspected of narotrafficking to the U.S., in what Trump calls killing American citizens. But any American citizen that decides to use drugs is entirely on their own volition, not held at the barrel of a gun. After accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of promoting drug cartels inside his country, Trump has now turned his ire onto Columbian President Gustavo Petro. Trump accused Petro of doing “nothing to stop” cocaine production in Columbia, essentially endorsing the country’s No. 1 cash crop. Trump warned Petro to clean up Columbia’s drug cartels “or the United States will close them up for him , and it won’t be done nicely,” Trump said.
Petro accused Trump of political assassination bombing vessels in international waters without knowing whether or not the ships actually carried drugs. Trump is on unprecedented ground legally, actually bombing ships in the open seas, when there’s no proof they were carrying drugs. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) condemned Trump strikes on vessels in international waters saying of the boats interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard only 25% carried narcotics. “U.S. government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on X. “The Columbian boat was adrift and had a distress signal on, with one engine up. We await explanations from the U.S. government,” Petro said. Petro claims that at least one Columbian national was killed with Trump’s aerial strikes on fishing boats. Trump said on Truth Social that the Pentagon struck a submarine carrying drugs to the U.S.
Trump’s attacks on vessels in territorial or international waters can’t go on indefinitely because the White House is on shaky legal grounds. “It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating toward the United Staes on a well-known transit route,” Trump said on Truth Social. “U.S. intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fetanyl and other illegal narcotics,” Trump said, not questioning whether or not carrying drugs aboard any vessel warranted a lethal strike. Whether a vessels carries illicit drugs or not, what statute in the Internal Court of Justice on the high seas gives any country the right to use lethal force on a non-combatant vessels. Ships carrying drugs are not running guns-or-ammo to revolutionaries trying to overthrow foreign governments. They’re engaged in narcotrafficking, not military combat.
Trump finds himself on flimsy legal ground ordering the Pentagon to use lethal force on vessels suspected of narcotrafficking. Debating the merits of the drug war is different that ordering the Pentagon to use lethal force to attack vessels in the open seas. Selling drugs in the U.S. certainly has consequences but does it rise to the level of a military attack on a sovereign nations? When looking at the drug trade, there’s always a voluntary element to individuals who decide to buy and use drugs. Trump acts like the captain-and-crew on boats carrying illicit drugs are comparable to enemy combatants actually using lethal force against the U.S. or its allies. Columbia President Petro condemned the practice. “We are gla he is alive, and he will prosecuted according to the law,” Petro said.
Trump needs to rethink his war on drugs, realizing that it’s not armed conflict but a more complex social problem involving U.S. citizens with an insatiable need for drugs. Killing up to 29 people in targeted bombings of vessels on the open seas violates about every maritime convention imaginable. When the U.S. gets sued in the International Court of Justice they’ll have a very weak case that narcotrafficking is comparable to armed conflict. Whether or not U.S. citizens die from illicit drug deaths doesn’t mean the White House has a green light to treat possible drug traffickers like enemy combatants. Trump’s legal team seems like they’re extrapolating terrorism laws that permitted former President George W. Bush to treat terrorists like enemy combatants, bypassing the Geneva Convention. Trump has carried W’s policies to the nth degree.
Time for Trump to reevaluate his drug war, realizing that as onerous as narcotrafficking might be, it’s not armed conflict, whatever Trump thinks should happen to drug dealers. Targeting ships in territorial waters or open seas violates the sovereignty of foreign national whether they’re involved in drug trafficking or not. Trump can’t play judge, jury and executioners when there are laws on the books for the open seas. Any war on drugs must take into account that drug trafficking is not armed conflict, regardless of how end users might kill themselves using drugs. Personal choice is still at the heart of any decision by anyone using dangerous drugs. It’s not up to Trump to targets ships-at-sea suspected to ferrying narcotics to the United States. Trump would spend his time more wisely convincing U.S. citizens that drug use is a deadly personal choice.
About the Author John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma
