As we all know, last week, it was reported that President Donald Trump approved a military strike against a cartel boat believed to be transporting drugs.
While I fully supported the move, there are some Republicans who believe the president took things too far.
That became very apparent after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) slammed Vice President JD Vance for his comments on the strike.
On Jan. 20 of this year, Trump signed an executive order titled “Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations And Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”
This was significant because it changed the game regarding how Trump could fight the cartels and drug gangs. With the terrorist group designation, Trump was now free to engage them with military assets, something he has wanted to do for some time.
In early September, Trump exercised this authority for the first time, announcing that a speedboat said to be operated by Tren de Aragua members had been obliterated by a missile attack.
After the attack was reported, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth further stated that anyone "trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco terrorist” would meet the same fate.
Vance has been very good about not routinely creating a stir since taking office, but he got the left riled up in the wake of the boat strike, posting, “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”
Liberal commentator Brian Krassenstein responded to the post, saying that the strike met the criteria of a “war crime.”
Vance then responded, “I don’t give a s*** what you call it.”
I was surprised by his comments, quite frankly, but Vance's response also sparked outrage among many, including at least one Republican.
Paul was aghast at the comment, responding, "JD ‘I don’t give a s[---]’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military.’ Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation??”
He continued, "What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial."
I find myself agreeing with Paul more often than not, but I don’t agree with him on this one, all because Trump already declared these groups as terrorists.
I think Secretary of State Marco Rubio put it best by saying that the rules of the game in this realm needed to be changed, and this will, hopefully, become a bigger deterrent to the war on drugs. And we are at war, as these organizations are destroying the lives of millions of people every year. If you don’t think they are terrorists or that we are at war, go look up videos of the street scenes in Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and tell me we don’t need to fight these people with everything we have.
