Posted on 11/30/2025 6:35:06 PM PST by RandFan
An explosive Washington Post report, the subject of so much discussion the past two days, says that, in the first missile strike the Trump Defense Department carried out against operatives of a boat suspected of transporting narcotics on the high seas off Venezuela, two survivors were rendered shipwrecked. As they clung to the wreckage, the U.S. commander ordered a second strike, which killed them.
If this happened as described in the Post report, it was, at best, a war crime under federal law. I say “at best” because, as regular readers know, I believe the attacks on these suspected drug boats — without congressional authorization, under circumstances in which the boat operators pose no military threat to the United States, and given that narcotics trafficking is defined in federal law as a crime rather than as terrorist activity, much less an act of war — are lawless and therefore that the killings are not legitimate under the law or armed conflict. (See my Saturday column, with links to prior posts on this subject.)
Nevertheless, even if we stipulate arguendo that the administration has a colorable claim that our forces are in an armed conflict with non-state actors (i.e., suspected members of drug cartels that the administration has dubiously designated as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs)), the laws of war do not permit the killing of combatants who have been rendered hors de combat (out of the fighting) — including by shipwreck.
To reiterate, I don’t accept that the ship operators are enemy combatants — even if one overlooks that the administration has not proven that they are drug traffickers or members of designated FTOs. There is no armed conflict. They may be criminals (if it is proven that they are importing illegal narcotics), but they are not combatants.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
“ National Review is Democrat?”
Yes they are no matter how much they claim not to be.
L
Most Zot-worthy person on FR.
We KNOW exactly what Van Hollen would do.
Yes.
For a couple of decades now.
National Review started going off the rails when Bill Buckley started smoking marijuana on the high seas.
Now, here we are ... National Review is running interference for fentanyl and cocaine smugglers.
A plague upon them!
Yes, but China has a long memory, and they are still salty about such things.
Nothing?
What are you and national review going to do about it?
Answer: Not much, after your mouths stayed shut about the Iran bombings or blowing up Yemen boats & infrastructures.
“See you at the Hague”😀
“ National Review is Democrat?”
****************
They’re urban college educated “girly boys” from the east coast.
Yeah, they’re democrats in “conservative clothing.”
“I don’t accept that the ship operators are enemy combatants”
Nobody cares what you don’t accept.
Show me the broken Statue name and number.
“It’s a war crime.”
Rand is clown crime, who is due to be tried by the “International Clown Court of Justice” in the Hague
“Vaporize drug smugglers.”
.
...make a Democrat mad...
Wait, what?
“An explosive Washington Post report,”
So it is a lie. Really, how is anyone here believing a damn thing the WaPo reports. When is the next story on Russian Collusion or Fauci’s heroics going to be printed?
National Review? Not a shock they would say this under Trump. It may be true. It also may be true that the most guilty party is our main enemy, China, is using drugs to war against us, in a cowardly manner.
Covid wasn't revenge enough?
So if they just left them to die on their own in the water, it would have been ok. We don’t have to rescue them after the boats destroyed.
Its not a war crime.
They are not soldiers. They are criminals. Like pirates.
Oh, they will get revenge for that if they can, but Japan didn’t sell opium in China. Japan will be harder, because China was never able to project it’s power beyond their borders. Dumping fentanyl into the U.S. is easier. Also, let’s face it, the U.S. is more fertile ground for the drugs than Japan.
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