OPINION:
Regime change is increasingly becoming the core of American foreign policy. We’re hearing the term used more and more in connection with the Venezuelan alleged drug-running boats, which have a limited cruising that can’t reach American shores.
None of these so-called narco-boats had fired upon U.S. military vessels or aircraft. In cases of vessels suspected of drug trafficking in international waters, the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act of 1986 allows the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy to stop, search, seize and impound the drugs, vessels and crew. The alleged smugglers will have their cases adjudicated in federal court.
Regardless of how you may feel about drug smugglers, they are entitled to due process too. That massive display of firepower and loss of life in the recent U.S. strikes were unnecessary.
President Trump has White House counsel David Warrington to advise him on legal matters of all kind, as well as Attorney General Pam Bondi. If his goal was to stop the narco-boats, he could have accomplished it much better legally through the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, without the world witnessing a massacre while we violated U.S., international law, the Geneva Conventions and our moral code.
Blaming Venezuela for America’s drug problem is as ridiculous as blaming Eskimos for global warming. Besides, other countries in the Caribbean basin are sending far more drugs to the U.S. than Venezuela.
LEE R. PITTS
Orlando, Florida
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