The hand-wringers and pearl-clutchers are in full meltdown because on September 2nd, Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, ordered the United States Navy to attack an alleged drug smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela. Two survivors clinging to the gunwales of their sinking skiff were blown to pieces by a second missile, despite Article 118 of the Unified Code of Military Justice specifically prohibiting “firing upon the shipwrecked,” likening it to “murder.”
Oh, boo-hoo! Who has time for quaint niceties like the rule of law, due process, evidence, and trials? That might have been okay in America 1.0, but in the Age of Trump, we don’t have time for nitpicky things like jurisprudence. We’ve got to rid this country of illicit drugs, no matter how much we love to snort them.
With the Supreme Court green-lighting Donald Trump (and all future presidents, assuming we have future presidents) to do pretty much anything he wants, Mr. Trump is busy cleansing the oceans of Panga Boats, the multi-engined skiffs commonly used by drug runners, human traffickers, and the always-dangerous commercial fishermen of Central and South America. So far, twenty attacks have killed 87 people with zero evidence provided to the public or Congress.
Of course, President Trump is also a compassionate man. He recently pardoned the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was cruelly sentenced to 45 years by that nasty Joe Biden simply for helping to import 400 tons of cocaine into America and saying, “I want to stuff the drugs up the Gringos’ noses.”
Hegseth claims we know exactly who and what was aboard the boats we’ve destroyed. Is it possible he’s right? Yes. But the hand-wringers say it’s also possible some of these boats might have been simply ferrying passengers. Some had as many as 10 or more people aboard, and smugglers usually employ small crews to allow more space for drugs.
It’s also possible we’ve been killing fishermen who use Panga boats because of their high bows, which help cut through rivers and rough seas in deeper water. A suit has recently been filed by the family of 42-year-old father of four, Alejandro Medina, a fisherman from Santa Marta, Colombia, who was killed on September 15th by U.S. Forces.
Congress is rattled over this one. The War Secretary has changed his story three times. First, it never happened and The Washington Post made it all up. Then, it did happen, but he had nothing to do with it. Admiral Bradley made the call. Now, Hegseth says he was watching a live stream when it happened but left before the second missile killed the two survivors. It’s all “fog of war” stuff the fake, lunatic-Left media isn’t manly enough to understand.
The pearl-clutchers are stuck in the past, blubbering over things like the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War or the Waffen-SS slaughtering 84 American soldiers captured in Malmedy, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. But the President insists everything is nice and “legal-like,” and he’s doing a great job, and every real American loves him. And don’t worry about his increasingly frequent public naps; being awesome 24/7 is exhausting.
So, where do we go from here? Likely nowhere. If we’ve learned anything after a decade of the politician edition of Donald J. Trump, he will likely breeze past this little dustup with his base once again defending the indefensible. After all, he orchestrated the January 6th attempt to overturn a national election and literally bulldozed a third of the White House to build a gigantic dance hall to wine and dine Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Mohammed bin Salman, and Red State America is okay with it. So, this too shall pass.
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And who knows? After a few more boats are obliterated, instant executions might become normalized in the New and Improved America 2.0. Why target drugs on their way to America when we have so many drugs already here? Every day we see perpetrators on TV tossing drugs out the window as they flee from police on our freeways. What a hassle! It’s time to put missiles on LAPD helicopters and blow up the drug dealers right here at home. A few shell craters on the I-5 are a small price to pay for a drug-free America. Who’s with me?!
Sure, some innocent people might get killed, but we need bold, manly action like instantaneous executions to clean up the mess Biden left us. What’s good for Venezuela will be even better for us at home. Fortunately, we finally have a president who isn’t letting that dusty old United States Constitution and Bill of Rights and 249 years of traditions get in the way of making America great again.
Doug McIntyre’s column appears Sundays. Reach him at: Doug@DougMcIntyre.com.