America has been engaged in fighting a War on Drugs since at least the 1980’s. We finally have a president who fights the tyranny of the ‘War on Drugs’ as the war that it is.
First Lady Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” to drugs campaign was a part of that effort. But the reference to a ‘War on Drugs’ has been much more of a metaphorical description than the necessary accounting of the actual combat that is required to win this War. The result is that not much progress has been made to truly lessen illegal drug use or block the flow of these dangerous narcotics into America. Until President Trump.
President Trump has ordered that clearly identified high speed boats, full of narco-terrorists and carrying illegal drugs toward the United States be struck and destroyed. The controversy the last few days has been regarding two survivors of a Sept. 2nd U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean who were killed in follow up attacks after they were seen still aboard the damaged vessel.
U.S. military policy is that the “wounded, sick or shipwrecked must be respected and protected at all times.” In other words, not killing someone who is “out of combat.” However, Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the commander who gave the order for the second strike, has testified that the survivors were not considered to be shipwrecked. They were still combatants. This is what happens in war.
The drug runners remained alongside the damaged boat next to clear packages of narcotics and Bradley determined the men were “continuing with their mission” by attempting to continue their drug run, making them and the already-damaged vessel legitimate targets for another attack.
This decision does not constitute a war crime. Yet, critics have argued that if the boat was incapacitated and the drug runners could not threaten the U.S., they meet the definition of “unable to fight” and should not have been killed. However, Bradley has testified that he believed other enemy vessels were in the area and that the “survivors” were communicating via radio with others in the drug-smuggling network. If so, the second strike would be justifiable.
Trump has stated “I support the decision to knock out the boats and whoever is piloting those boats” because “they are guilty of trying to kill people in our country,” he said. “You’re going to find that this is war.”
Focusing on presidential powers, which Trump unquestionably possesses as Commander in Chief, and the rights of the accused, which are wholly inapplicable because the individuals at issue are designated narco-terrorists, is incorrect. This analysis completely “ignores the risk illicit drugs pose to the American public,” said Hudson Institute President John Walters, who led the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the George W. Bush administration.
“It’s no longer a policing action,” Walters said. “This is now a matter of national security. The threat has reached that level. The president has designated it as such, and lethal force can be applied by military forces against this threat to protect American lives.”
Not having a military background, I would not presume to possess knowledge of the rules of war and military strategy. What I do possess is personal knowledge of the grave and irreparable damage that illegal drugs have done to this country. They are ruining, and ending, lives daily. American citizens, regardless of age, race, or socio-economic background, can fall prey to the deadly attraction such narcotics present. Families, and the fabric of our national culture, are ripped apart.
That is why I have little regard for how political enemies of President Trump, sitting in cool, quiet, comfortable rooms, miles from the danger and fog of war, second-guess a military operation and the decisions surrounding it made in real time.
We finally have a president who is directly and forcefully addressing the drug epidemic. If incapacitated survivors were killed here, that is unfortunate, but it is what happens in war. These deaths are certainly no more tragic than the American killing fields that have buried hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens during this drug scourge.
The War on Drugs is no less a war than any other America has ever fought, and it won’t be conducted without mistakes. However, the alternative is to continue this wasteland of illegal drugs we witness every day and the economic and humanitarian disaster it has caused in our country.
Shreveport attorney, Royal Alexander, worked in D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 8 years for two different Members of Congress from Louisiana.