Donald Trump has distributed a memo to congress stating the US is at war with drug cartels, by which he means Venezuela.
Trump has not stated which groups the US is at war with, nor has he explained how it would identify members of those groups before targeting them, because it is not at war with any cartel. The aim is to keep this “war” as nebulous as possible so Trump can kill whoever he likes.
Here is an excerpt from the memo that was sent to several congressional committees:
Based upon the cumulative effects of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of United States and friendly foreign nations, the president determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organisations.
The president directed the Department of War to conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict.
Needless to say, you cannot declare war against civilians, only against a state or an armed group with state-like charatcteristics. Trump is trying to get around this problem by labelling the so-called drug cartels “terrorists”.
If you didn’t know, “terrorist” is the label we place on anyone we want to jail or kill. In this case, Trump wants to kill because he isn’t talking about due process here.
As lawmakers keep pointing out, you can’t just kill civilians on foreign soil without due process, no matter what you think they’re doing. Trump has so far blown up some fishing boats that clearly weren’t capable of reaching US shores. The attacks killed 17 people and Trump has not presented a shred of evidence that they were drug smugglers. Trump simply used the “unlawful combatants” excuse that the US uses when it is acting unlawfully.
The US navy could have captured those vessels and confiscated their drug haul, but it didn’t because the drugs didn’t exist. Trump knew they weren’t drug boats because this “war” is not about drugs, it’s about provoking Venezuela into responding. Trump was recorded bragging:
“If you try to poison our people, we will blow you out of existence, ‘cause that’s the only language they really understand. That’s why you don’t see any more boats on the ocean. You don’t see any boats around Venezuela, there’s nothing.”
What Trump is talking about here is fishing boats. He has terrorised fishermen into no longer pursuing their livelihood. He has spread hunger and fear by illegally blowing up vessels belonging to another country. That’s not just an act of war, it’s an act of terrorism.
Trump is a terrorist.
Now terrorist Trump wants to strike the Venezuelan mainland and whichever legal justification he uses, he will once again be violating international law. He will be committing acts of terrorism, ironically under the guise of fighting terrorism.
While US law allows for strikes against terrorists abroad, the reality is that Trump is bombing Venezuela with the aim of overthrowing Nicolas Maduro and stealing Venezuela’s oil - something Trump has not been shy in talking about. During a 2023 speech at a North Carolina Republican Party convention, Trump said:
“When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over. We would have gotten to all that oil. It would have been right next door. But now we’re buying oil from Venezuela. So we’re making a dictator very rich. Can you believe this? Nobody can believe it.”
Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe has quoted Trump as saying off-camera:
“That’s the country we should be going to war with. They have all that oil and they’re right on our back door.”
Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world and those are what is attracting Trunp to Venezuela, in the same way money attracted Debbie McGhee to Paul Daniels. Trump can’t just declare war on Venezuela without the consent of congress so he is seeking a workaround. If Maduro responds to his attacks on “cartels”, Trump will have the excuse he needs to escalate.
Either Trump will bomb Venezuela with the aim of crippling its economy and hope the Venezuelan people overthrow him, or he might just lose patience and attempt an assassination. His legal justification will be that Maduro was head of a so-called “drug cartel” and therefore fair game.
Given that bombing Venezuela will probably galvalanise the people like bombing Iran did, I think Trump will at some point go for a decapitation strike. Just know that whatever excuse he uses, assassinating foreign leaders is a war crime and Trump belongs in jail.
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In reality the U.S is at war with itself!
It's all about the oil.