In the Caribbean, Hegseth's summary executions

Kaine says murders have occurred; ACLU seeks memo justifying the attacks on boats suspected in drug smuggling

Will it surprise anyone to learn that Pete Hegseth’s missile attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea likely resulted in the deaths of innocent men? And will any American citizen capable of critical thinking be shocked to learn that Trump’s claims about the effectiveness of the strikes are exaggerations and probably lies?

No, and of course no: When it comes to the Trump regime, no allegation of lawlessness strains credulity.

As of July 1, there had been 66 boat strikes with an estimated death toll of 221, according to the Pentagon. But Secretary Hegseth and the defense establishment has not provided the justification for the attacks, claiming the legal opinion it received is classified.

So, we don’t know what criteria is used to determine if the Trump regime has good, verifiable reasons to target the boats. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights have gone to court to make public the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion that the Trump administration is using to justify its campaign of lethal strikes on civilian boats.

The president can’t use the military to target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence. But the Trump regime claims we’re at war with narcoterrorists, and anything goes to keep cocaine from being smuggled into the country — even if that means summary execution from the sky.

Last September, when the military was first used to blow up the boats, the whole operation looked performative — an attempt to to demonstrate some macho, authoritarian concept of presidential power.

The Trump regime decided that using the Coast Guard to stop marine drug trafficking — boarding boats, seizing contraband — was too old-fashioned, too slow; better to fire Hellfire missiles first and ask questions later. Hegseth, who came to the defense secretariat from television, probably thought the optics — videos of long boats exploding — would carry the day.

But the Trumpian belief that Americans are stupid — or that we’re easily distracted by things that blow up — doesn’t hold here. Polls showed wide opposition to the boat strikes almost from the start. There are two reasons for that:

1. A majority does not believe anything Trump or his cabinet members say about anything, from the “peace negotiations” with Iran to the cause of the Reflecting Pool problems.

2. Most Americans understand that the outright killing of citizens, even those suspected of criminality, is a crime.

Now there’s growing evidence that Hegseth has had the U.S. military engaged in an illegal operation with zero effect on the problem it was intended to solve.

Based on what he learned as a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat, recently concluded that Trump and Hegseth have the U.S. military engaged in murder.

“A careful review of the available evidence suggests that the United States has killed individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Kaine wrote in a letter to Trump. “They are murder victims.”

Kaine’s review found that Trump’s directive for the operation, the OLC legal opinion and other documents “makes clear that the United States is engaged in violent and fatal attacks against people far beyond those whom the OLC opinion claimed could be lawfully targeted.”

In addition, Kaine wrote, even the Drug Enforcement Administration reports that Hegseth’s boat attacks “had no effect on the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.” The Washington Post did some good reporting on this, undercutting Trump’s brag that “drugs coming in by ocean, sea, by water was cut 97%.”

Of course, another problem is the type of drug supposedly being stopped from entering the country by boat. Cocaine might be in general use, but it’s not the cause of most overdose deaths. That would be fentanyl, according to the CDC. That synthetic opioid has been the leading cause of ODs for years now, and most of the illegal fentanyl enters the country over land from Mexico, not by sea from South America.

Additionally, overdose deaths have finally been in decline these last few years, before Trump took office again.

Of course, drug addiction remains a problem, but working against it with Hellfire missiles makes little sense. Those who actually have life-destroying addictions create the demand for drugs. They need help, and public funds are better spent on them than on drone attacks in the Caribbean.

“People across the country, politicians across the aisle, and the families of victims have been demanding answers as to how our government is justifying the cold-blooded murder of civilians,” said Jeffrey Stein, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “The Trump administration has murdered over 210 civilians with no sound legal or moral basis. At a minimum, the administration must disclose to the American people why it thinks this killing spree is lawful.”

A killing spree funded by American taxpayers.

Did you ever think a president and defense secretary would be accused of using our country’s military this way — as a police force that makes no arrests, gathers no evidence for trial and, instead, kills suspects outright?

No. I didn’t either. But, when it comes to the Trump regime, no allegation of lawlessness strains credulity.