The Democrats Search for “Illegal orders” May Be Found in the Caribbean, At Least They Hope So.
How are drug boats in the Caribbean, oil, democracy, illegal orders and regime change all related? Well, let me unravel the connection. It all centers on the country of Venezuela, and President Trump’s desire for regime change in that country. In addition, Democrats are convinced that Trump, in an effort to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro, will do something illegal, or maybe something impeachable in his maximum pressure campaign.
The socialist dictator Maduro is holding on to power but just barely. He stole the last election, and everyone, both in Venezuela and all over the world knows he is illegitimate. He, like his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, is an unrepentant socialist, who is destroying a rich country by squelching freedom and democracy, and by pushing bad economics. As if that weren’t bad enough, the Venezuelan government is helping to facilitate the narcotics trafficking enterprise, and they are profiting off the effort which is costing American lives. Trump doesn’t want drugs coming into the country, nor does he want a socialist running Venezuela.
So, in an effort to defend the country from drugs, and pressure Maduro, Trump has declared that the drug dealers are on par with terrorists and enemy combatants and therefore, according to the administration’s lawyers, they are fair game for strikes by the US military in international waters.
I think Trump has upped the attacks on the drug traffickers for two reasons: first to stop the drugs from entering our country and secondly to send a message to Maduro. The message is clear; your life is on the line as well, so you might want to resign and save your life while you still can.
Another reason Trump wants to get rid of Maduro deals with oil, and world politics. Venezuela is oil rich, and regime change is in America’s interest, because in addition to bringing back freedom and democracy, we need an ally in Caracas, one that is able to increase oil production. It seems that a socialist economy can’t maximize their resources. To paraphrase Milton Friedman, if the socialists were in charge of the Sahara Desert it wouldn’t be long before they ran out of sand. Well, if Maduro, and his socialist government is gone it may be possible for Venezuela to produce enough oil to replace Russia, which could help topple Putin. Europe could then buy their oil from Venezuela instead of Russia. It may be that bringing down Maduro will also have a side benefit of bringing down Putin.
When it comes to the military’s attack on the drug boats, the Trump administration doesn’t believe that they need congressional approval. For backup they would probably point to the Biden and Obama administration’s use of drone attacks. Obama, referring to his frequent use of drone attacks, admitted that he didn’t know when he first took office that he’d be “really good at killing people.”
There is even evidence that some American citizens were killed in one of Obama’s drone strikes. Did Democrats in Congress push for a congressional investigation? I doubt it. During the Biden administration there was a strike which mistakenly killed innocent people, including 7 children. Did Democrats demand an investigation?
But now Democrats are complaining about President Trump’s use of drone strikes on drug runners coming out of Venezuela. On September 2nd there was a strike off the coast of Venezuela, which according to the Washington Post took a second strike. This second strike killed all the people on board. The suggestion is that the Secretary of War (I do love the new name) ordered a second strike to kill the remaining survivors from the first strike. Some argue that this is a “war crime”, that is, it is unlawful to kill the wounded.
Even if the Washington Post’s account is accurate, Trump didn’t order the second strike. And the boat and the cargo were the target, not the people. While it is true that killing the wounded would be in violation of U.S. and international rules of war, the Pentagon went for a second strike to destroy the boat, and its drugs. Not the people on board.
My guess is that the sooner we learn about the details of the September 2nd attack the faster the charges of “war crimes” will die down.
David is the author of two books: Elections Have Consequences, A Cautionary Tale.
Norton’s Choice: An Inside Politics Exposé: Shephard, David: 9781892538802: Amazon.com: Books
6 comments
Why is Trump pardoning major drug traffickers who bring hundreds of tons of drugs into the US? What inside info do they have on him? How much are they paying him?
On President Donald Trump’s first full day in office this year, he pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted of creating the largest online black market for illegal drugs and other illicit goods of its time.
In the months since, he has granted clemency to others, including Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover and Baltimore drug kingpin Garnett Gilbert Smith. And last week, he pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for running his country as a vast “narco-state” that helped to move at least 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
Overall, Trump — who campaigned against America’s worsening drug crisis and promised to crack down on the illegal flow of deadly drugs coming across the border — has pardoned or granted clemency to at least 10 people for drug-related crimes since the beginning of his second term, according to a Washington Post analysis. He also granted pardons or commutations to almost 90 others for drug-related crimes during the four years of his first term, the analysis showed.
At the same time, Trump has threatened military action against Venezuela over accusations that the country’s government is supporting the drug trade and has pushed the Pentagon to conduct targeted strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean.
Or maybe it’s just that Trump doesn’t want to do anything to disrupt don Jr.s supply of coke?
Congress has not declared a war. Therefore, there are no war crimes.
Former Fox analysts and constitutional lawyer says different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT7XPXh6ras and I have to ask, are you truly defending similar actions done by Obama, also illegal and unconstitutional?
Well, isn’t this special!!
The Trump administration has just released the new national security policy and strategy of the United States. The short version is that the US is withdrawing from Europe and from all our international alliances and organizations by 2027; that we will align ourselves with Russia; and that we will permit no more immigration to ensure that the US remains white only.
This should make you MAGAts delighted and proud.
https://clearandpresentdanger.blog/trump-administration-tells-european-allies-the-u-s-is-withdrawing-from-europe-and-they-are-on-their-own/
Am guessing you haven’t paid any attention to Europe lately. The European autocrats are banning, fining and imprisoning those who favor freedom of speech. Strange you complain about white immigration – from countries like South Africa that are trying to kill whites as a matter of national policy.
According to Wikipedia, the USA currently has over 50,000,000 people who were not born in the United States, which is about 15% of our population or 1 in 6 people. China’s rate, by comparison is 0.1% of their population. The US, by far, has more immigrants (legal and illegal) than any other country in the world. We should only be allowing potential immigration for certain skills that we actually need, not mass immigration used to suppress wages. We will always need some immigration, but we don’t need as much as we have.