Moby Dictator
Democracy is gonna need a bigger boat. The story of the administration’s decision to use military force against a speedboat purportedly carrying drugs is not only a shot across the bow of the laws and norms that govern the use of military force, it’s also indicative a much broader sea change in the way soldiers are being deployed against civilians. John Duffy, a retired Naval officer who commanded two warships, explains why the peremptory strike on a speedboat is a warning to all who serve. And all Americans. “For decades, the U.S. military and Coast Guard have intercepted drug shipments in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific under a careful legal framework: Coast Guard officers would tactically control Navy ships, invoke law enforcement authority, stop vessels, and detain crews for prosecution. The goal is not execution; it is interdiction within international law. This week’s strike ripped up that framework. The people on board were not given the chance to surrender. No evidence was presented. No rules of engagement were cited. The administration claimed authority to kill on suspicion alone … What happens abroad does not stay abroad. A government that stretches legal authority overseas will not hesitate to do the same at home. The same commander-in-chief who ordered a strike on a boat in international waters has already ordered National Guard troops into American cities over the objections of local leaders. The logic is identical: redefine the threat, erase legal distinctions, and justify force as the first tool. Today it is ‘traffickers’ in the Caribbean. Tomorrow it will be ‘criminals’ in Chicago or ‘radicals’ in Atlanta.” A killing at sea marks America’s descent into lawless power.
+ The “U.S. military personnel crossed a fundamental line the Department of Defense has been resolutely committed to upholding for many decades—namely, that (except in rare and extreme circumstances not present here) the military must not use lethal force against civilians, even if they are alleged, or even known, to be violating the law.” Just Security: The Many Ways in Which the September 2 Caribbean Strike was Unlawful … and the Grave Line the Military Has Crossed.
+ “Many legal specialists, including retired top military lawyers, have rejected the idea that Mr. Trump has legitimate authority to treat suspected drug smuggling as legally equivalent to an imminent armed attack on the United States. Even if one accepted that premise for the sake of argument, they added, if the boat had already turned away, that would further undermine what they saw as an already weak claim of self-defense.” NYT (Gift Article): Boat Suspected of Smuggling Drugs Is Said to Have Turned Before U.S. Attacked It.
+ Again, it’s important to understand that this is not just a debate about how we handle suspected drug smugglers. It’s a warning about how the military is deployed, and against whom. That’s why what’s happening in DC is part of the same story. WaPo (Gift Article): National Guard documents show public ‘fear,’ veterans’ ‘shame’ over D.C. presence. “The National Guard, in measuring public sentiment about President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C., has assessed that its mission is perceived as ‘leveraging fear,’ driving a ‘wedge between citizens and the military,’ and promoting a sense of ‘shame’ among some troops and veterans.” (How do we have access to internal National Guard documents? Someone accidentally sent them to the Post.)
