Trump administration officials are today justifying the follow-up strike on a drug-running vessel on September 2 that killed surviving crew members by asserting that the mission’s purpose was to ensure the vessel’s complete destruction—an action the Pentagon had internally authorized as legally permissible. It was not to kill survivors. The first strike had not completely disabled the vessel, so a second strike was necessary.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing on Monday that Admiral Frank Bradley ordered the second strike specifically to sink the boat. I missed that press conference. “Admiral Bradley acted fully within his authority and the law by directing the engagement to ensure the vessel was destroyed and the threat to the United States was eliminated,” Leavitt said. War Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed that account for the first time at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, saying the second strike “sank the boat and eliminated the threat.”
By framing the strikes as targeting the vessels themselves—language that mirrors a classified Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo authorizing the attacks—officials place the operation that led to the double-tap of the drug boat on its strongest possible legal footing amid mounting questions about the incident. According to three lawyers with direct knowledge of the matter, the Guardian is reporting today, the memo concludes that the United States may lawfully use lethal force against unflagged vessels transporting cocaine because drug cartels use the proceeds to finance violence.
The memo argues that cartels are engaged in a so-called “armed conflict” with regional allies and that, under the doctrine of collective self-defense, the US is permitted to destroy the cocaine shipments to cut off the cartels’ funding for weapons and operations. The memo asserts that the likelihood of deaths among those on board does not, by itself, render the vessels illegitimate military targets. The legal analysis is buttressed by intelligence findings contained in a classified “statement of facts” annex to the OLC opinion, as well as a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) dated July 25 authorizing the use of military force against drug cartels. Although the documents are classified (to avoid alerting the enemy to intelligence sources, operations, and tactics), sources say they include detailed information, e.g., estimates that each drug-running boat carries roughly $50 million worth of cocaine. One can see by the images and video the Pentagon has released that these are drug-running vessels.
Yesterday’s Pentagon press secretary, Kingsley Wilson, addressed this issue (see above). Wilson also pointed out that the Washington Post article condemning the action was based on anonymous sources and that the Pentagon had corrected the article before it was published by the Post. The Post ran with the story anyway. The Post’s claims were, surprisingly, debunked by the New York Times.
There really isn’t anything here. But that doesn’t mean that the story is no longer interesting. On what grounds is the White House basing its legal authority to conduct these operations? This is where it gets interesting. Readers may recall that the Obama administration carried out a wide range of lethal operations that rested on the same legal foundations now invoked by Trump to justify maritime strikes on drug-running vessels. Obama authorized hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, countries with which the United States was not formally at war, on the theory that the 2001 AUMF extended to “associated forces” of terrorist groups and that the president possessed inherent Article II authority to neutralize imminent threats abroad.
What’s the AUMF? The AUMF, or Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001, is a law passed by Congress just three days after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the nation. It has been the primary legal foundation for many US military actions ever since. You may believe that extrajudicial action is wrong, and you have a right to that opinion, but one’s moral viewpoint does not make a law illegal. If Democrats don’t like the law, they should try to change it. However, the AUMF was passed with overwhelming support from both parties. In the Senate: 98 yeas, 0 nays, 2 not voting. In the House: 420 yeas, 1 nay, 10 not voting. (The lone “nay” was from Barbara Lee, a Democrat from California.) That means that Democrats are responsible for the law that Obama used to carry out extrajudicial killings.
Actions by the Obama administration involved extrajudicial killings not only to kill noncitizens, but also US citizens, and did so routinely without judicial oversight or host-nation consent. Moreover, the Obama administration expanded maritime interdiction under Operation Martillo, in which US forces boarded, disabled, and, yes, even used lethal force against stateless vessels engaged in narcotics trafficking. The reality is that Obama pushed the AUMF much farther than Trump has—much farther. Where was the hysteria then? I said something about it back in the day, especially concerning the extrajudicial execution of US citizens (including a teenager), but I heard nothing from Democrats. They adored Obama (still do). And they loved his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton (still do), who was all in on extrajudicial killings. Many of them fell prostrate on the pavement when she lost the presidential campaign to Trump. (TDS can be traced to this moment.)
The hysteria we’re seeing on the left today ostensibly moves from the claim that attacks on drug-trafficking boats linked to Venezuela constitute illegal extrajudicial killings. Yet Trump’s actions are based on the same conceptual framework underpinning Obama-era counterterrorism and counternarcotics operations: collective self-defense, broad AUMF interpretations, and the “unwilling or unable” doctrine to justify force against non-state actors operating from hostile or ineffective states. Therefore, Trump’s actions are not illegal. So why are Democrats calling on Hegseth to resign? Why are the Seditious Six using these incidents to justify their video encouraging military personnel to disobey Trump’s orders? Their party joined Republicans in passing the AUMF. They supported Obama throughout his presidency. They did not repeal the law under Biden. The hysteria is not because Democrats are principled, but because all this is part of a color revolution aiming to derail the will of the people.
The difference in perception lies not in the underlying legal theories but in political alignment and public framing. It is purely partisan. Obama’s actions were cast as legitimate acts of counterterrorism, whereas the Trump administration’s maritime actions have been portrayed as aggressive counternarcotics strikes with geopolitical implications without legal foundation. Complete propaganda. Some even go so far as to absurdly call his actions “war crimes,” saying that when Democrats get back in power, they will hold Trump and administration officials accountable. I have no doubt they will try (they impeached the man twice for nothing and pursued lawfare against him and his associates under Biden). Yet, both administrations relied on expansive executive authority of the identical sort (only Obama pushed it further) to use lethal force outside traditional battlefields against networks viewed as national security threats.
Not that I think the facts will have any effect on TDS sufferers, but at least the rational among us have the facts on our side. This is why it is so important to ensure Democrats don’t return to power in 2027. The project of managed decline of the American Republic is bad enough with Democrats out of power. If they regain power, they will accelerate the project. They explicitly tell us that this is the plan. Electing Trump did not erase the globalist threat to the American Republic. Democrats and the Establishment still possess the power to dismantle the nation. The rot is inside the system. Republicans need to focus like a laser beam on this. They need to articulate a compelling narrative to counter the forces arrayed against the people.
The economy is struggling thanks to years of globalist policies. I understand that many Americans are suffering higher prices and all the rest of it. This is why Democrats are resurrecting James Carville’s “It’s the economy, stupid,” slogan. To the extent that this is true, however, the economic situation is due to Democratic and RINO financial and monetary policies. But even more than the economy, something greater is at stake: the future of democratic republicanism. Americans faced economic hardship in the past, but when the future of the country is under threat, they historically pull together and defend America from those who seek to harm it, foreign or domestic. To be sure, nationalism and patriotism are at a low ebb due to decades of indoctrinating our youth with anti-American sentiment. Yet there are adults in this country who can come off the sidelines and stand in the breach.
freedom and reason 