Readers split on military attacking suspected drug boats

The issue of our government targeting and destroying suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific doesn't look like it's going away any time soon, especially now that comments have resurfaced from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in 2016.

While working as a Fox News Host, Hegseth criticized President Trump for implying the military would do Trump's will even if the orders were illegal.

And, as suspected, many of you are passionate about the topic.

Last week, I asked if you supported military attacks against suspected drug boats and the response was relatively close. Here's how you more than 1,300 of you voted:

Do you support military attacks against suspected drug boats?

Results:

No:  52.59%

Yes:  47.41%

Here's what you had to say:

In my 40+ years in the military industrial complex, I had many occasions to work with the security professional at different agencies. They were pros and for the most part, you could believe what they reported. Now Trump has fired all the old pros and seated pure yes men with no expertise throughout the military and intel agencies. \They just make up facts to support their plans.

I do not want the USA to operate as the world's worst thug or bully. We have a way to interdict suspected drug runners and have used it for years. It is the Coast Guard using helicopters and machine guns. But the Trump team needs live big action shots to put on Fox news, so they use a $250K guided missile to blow up a 20 foot boat and everyone on it on the 6 O'clock news!  Yea us!

You often agonize over inmates who are wrongly treated by the justice system. There is no worse treatment than being blown to bits because someone thinks you are running drugs. If the US has attacked enough Narco-terrorists to kill over 80 people, I would bet any amount at least some of them were incorrect, not who they were suspected of being.

I am ashamed to be American at times.  What Trump and his minions have done to the country and our military is pathetic.

I want the USA, in all our actions, to be the shining example, not the thugs on the hill.

--Mark Krumm , Melbourne

I believe first of all that calling them "narco-terrorists" is a way to make them inhuman. But they are human. And what we are doing is murdering human beings with no proven cause. We are not at war.

This is about regime change and it is sickening. I am ashamed.

--Beth Dimon, West Palm Beach

Why in the world would anybody in their right mind have an issue with the killing of these highly paid smugglers. Look at their boats, what do they think are under those tarps, fish? What are these boats doing heading out to sea with four high horsepower engines on them? I personally have seen the ravages of drugs on myself and family members. Luckily we were able to overcome and are all productive humans. There's a lot of children, teenagers, parents, grandparents, male and female that have died because of the scourge. No one should have an issue with this. I think that the people who have an issues with this is because of the person who initiated it, which is President Trump. Just another sign of Trump Deranged Syndrome. If it was a Democrat they wouldn't have an issue with it.

--Tom Timmins, Port St. John

I voted "No" on the question of military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and on surviving crew amidst the wreckage after a strike. That's because "Oh, HELL No!" wasn't an option.

I can join others in citing how the Defense Department's Law of War Manual expressly forbids "no quarter" orders. It even specifically describes firing on shipwrecked survivors of an earlier legitimate attack on a vessel as an example of an unlawful order that rises to the level of a war crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Or that for more than a century before that manual was published, a "no quarters" order by a U.S. military commander has been an unlawful order which could result in prosecution or punishment under Federal law. That was established by the 1863 Lieber Code outlining legal constraints on U.S. military conduct during the Civil War.

Like others, I can describe how the "kill them all" order for a "double tap" strike violates international agreements such as the 1949 Geneva Conventions or the 1907 Hague Regulations. As the United States is a signatory to both treaties, Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution gives those treaties the force of federal law.

I can point to the legal precedent of the SS Peleus war crime trial held by the Allies after World War Two as a particularly relevant case. The Peleus was a Greek freighter chartered by the British to carry war supplies, making her a legitimate military target to be torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. But the captain of U-852 then ordered the ship's surviving crew killed in the water with machine guns and hand grenades. That submarine captain and two of his crew who carried out the "no quarter" order were found guilty of a war crime and executed by firing squad in November 1945. 

But even if matters of morality and obeying the law are excluded from this discussion, a "no quarter" order is, from either a law enforcement or a military vantage, extraordinarily stupid. You can't interrogate dead people. The opportunity to learn more about the higher-level bosses giving the orders to the lower-level sailors in the boat was also exploded by the second missile. It may have been good politics or PR, but it was counterproductive as a way to more effectively reduce the inflow of drugs to the U.S.

--Gregg Wiggins, Indian Harbour Beach

It is murder on the high seas. The Coast Guard, with the Navy's coordination, have been interdicting boats for decades with very few incidents of harm to the said smugglers. The operation is run right out of here in Key West. The Narco-terrorist label is just a marketing scheme and is pure bs. 

--Lindsay Harper, Key West

Of course, distribution of drugs is not acceptable. But since our government has made several misstatements on many issues: vaccines, immigration arrests, sharing classified military information with friends and relatives etc. which then are justified by broad lies. How can we know for sure that the boats being targeted are really carrying drugs? International laws are being ignored!

The US government is out of control, attacking people on the sea and here on the streets of America. To hear TV commentators say we need to see the people that were targeted suffer more, adds to the bizarre idea of bombing and normalizes brutality and indifference to murder at will.

Trust and truth go hand in hand. Violence and hatred are being accepted as normalcy. We wouldn't accept this in a court of law, why is targeting people in a boat any different? None of this is normal or law abiding behavior.

--Ellen Keane, Melbourne

First, narco-terrorist is a made-up word designed to elicit an emotional fear response, and it works on the uninformed.

Second, these extra-judicial murders are blatantly illegal, and put the US in the same "boat" with Russia, Israel, Iran, etc. and other sponsors of state terrorism.

Finally, fentanyl isn't coming from Venezuela, this is all about oil and regime change, which we need more in the US than in Venezuela. 

--Paul A. Skinner, Daytona Beach

I do not support military strikes on suspected drugs boats, spending an estimated $18 million/day to deploy our troops around Venezuela, or the Department of Defense's ever-shifting narrative and "interpretation" of U.S. and international law, the Law of Armed Conflict and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

I also do not support President Trump's pardon of the former Honduran president,sentenced to 45 years in prison for using his position to help drug traffickers import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.

If we are "America First", why is the priority not the majority of illegal drugs that flow through our own ports of entry via mostly U.S. citizens? Also why are we diverting federal law enforcement personnel and resources away from drug smuggling to support ICE operations and ICE's massively obscene budget?

--Kathy Ojeda, Merritt Island

I am opposed to military strikes against boats in the Carribean for the following reasons: no war has been declared; no evidence has been revealed that these boats are narco traffickers; kiiling people without evidence, arrest, trial or due process is murder; even if individuals were arrested and convicted of drug trafficking, the penalty is not death; killing helpless survivors is murder.

--Forest Blanton, Fort Pierce

First, thank you for your thoughtful commentary on this and other topics. Whether we agree or not on any given topic, you always give me something to think about and challenge me to verify and clarify my stance on these issues. 

I am against these strikes for several reasons but I'll mention two. First, and I believe most importantly, is the word "suspected". These folks may indeed be drug traffickers, but the point is, we don't know. If we can bomb them so easily, surely we have the capability to intercept and apprehend them. Let's do that instead. Perhaps I've watched too much Law & Order, but I expect our authorities to follow the law and, under our laws, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Where's the proof? Bring them to trial.

Second is the term 'narco-terrorist.' Since the DEA uses this term to categorize individuals who are using drug trafficking to further terrorist organizations, again, how do we know that is who these individuals are? 

Let's stop the foolish semantics justification that we are "at war" with the drug cartels. We aren't. It has neither been authorized by Congress's, nor is a terrorist organization even a State (Country) that can have war declared upon it. 

As a person who's family has been devastated by illegal drugs, I'm all for stopping their trade. But as a citizen of the U.S., I want it done legally.

--Elise Dugwyler, West Melbourne 

To those who believe that the campaign of attacks on small fishing boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific is actually about interdicting the supply of illicit drugs coming into this country, then those persons have simply been brainwashed by yet more Trump regime propaganda. If policing the drug trade is truly a priority of this regime, then why did Trump just pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez ― former president of Honduras, who was sentenced just last year to 45 years in prison...for having trafficked more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States?

Give me a break. What this is  really  all about ― as usual ― is Donald Trump's enormous ego...and his desperate desire to look like a "tough guy", by blowing to smithereens more than 20 vessels, thereby killing more than 80 alleged smugglers (any evidence for such smuggling also having been conveniently blown to smithereens).

Absent a declaration of war by Congress, what Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are doing in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific is flagrantly  illegal .  It is flat out  murder .  Hegseth is directly responsible; Trump indirectly so.

Even with a declaration of war (war against  who ?), for having authorized the summary execution of those two survivors of the September 2 initial attack (the so-called "double tap"), Hegseth is directly guility of having committed a war crime; Trump indirectly so.

I find it all utterly disgusting.

--Michael V. Kniat, Titusville

This whole issue of the American military being used as a political puppet of the Trump administration, is disgusting. Narco-terrorits? Really?

Trump loves using the "terrorist" label whenever he wants to take action against an individual or group, because he feels it gives him the ability to do whatever he wants without the need to pay attention to any pesky laws.

The problem is, he's allowed to get away with it. This madness won't stop until someone stops him. He obviously has no scruples and has surrounded himself with enough like-minded people that he continues to feel emboldened. Our only hope to end this craziness is to pressure enough of the people who give him his power, to see that he's nuts and is leading our country into an ever darker place. I'm sad for the country I love and proudly served in the US Navy but I'm also afraid for our children. We're leaving them a dark world full of hate. As our country increasingly descends into the opposite of what we all dreamed of when we were young, we have only our own inaction to blame.

--Kevin Donovan, Port St. Lucie

I was an Air Force JAG for more than 30 years. I am a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Air War College. I prosecuted war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In my opinion, these actions against alleged  "narco-terrorists" constitute violations of international law and the rules of armed conflict. These rules are intended to protect all combatants, including U.S. service members. 

--William C. Potter, Colonel (retired), Indialanti c

If Trump was really concerned with drug smuggling, he would not have pardoned so many drug lords…Honduran President Hernandez helped move 400 tons of cocaine into the US, Ross Ulbricht founded Silk Road the world's largest black market for drugs, Baltimore drug lord Garnett Gilbert Smith, multiple members of the El Chapo family, and approximately 90 other drug related crimes.

Also, if the administration is so sure they were carrying drugs on these boats why would they not capture and arrest these survivors ― as well as others they later returned back to their home countries ― and interrogate them to find the kingpins of those operations?

The whole point is to give the illusion of fighting drugs while they cover up administration corruption in other actions.

--Joan Fanelli, Ft Myers

Up to now, the administration has offered no proof that these small boats are carrying drugs or "narco-terrorists". It is just as likely they are fishermen.

Without proof, what we are seeing is state organized murder; war crimes at the highest level.

Other sources are providing statistics that show these small boats would need at least 5 full tanks of fuel to travel more than 1000 miles to US shores. That alone makes it completely unrealistic that these small boats and their sailors are responsible for "poisoning" Americans as claimed.

The Trump administration and War Secretary Hegseth should be tried and punished for committing war crimes without evidence.

--Ronnie Peacock, Palm Bay

With regard to the sinking of drug boats, I'm sure almost everyone will agree that drugs and the misery they bring should be kept out of our country. That being said I wonder why we've appointed ourselves the world's police department in destroying drug boats a thousand miles from our shores. And let's admit that they were drug boats.  Not many fishing boats are sporting 3000 HP of outboard power.

The Hellfire missiles used to destroy the boats cost us $100,000 to $220,000 each and we decide to use one to kill two survivors who were clearly out of the fight.  No two men are going to flip over a 35 ft. several ton sinking boat.  That is the equivalent of a fighter pilot shooting at a man under a parachute. 

I worry about the United States place in our world.  Why are we concentrating on Venezuela and not some other country?  We all know its oil.  Why is it up to us to color outside the lines to keep the world "safe"? I don't want to be known as a bully around the world.

--Jim Hulsizer, Melbourne

No, I do not support military attacks against boats carrying drugs.

Smuggling drugs is not a capital offence, and even if it were, summary execution of suspects without a trial is unconstitutional.

The logic that permits this summary execution at sea, if used within the borders of the country would permit police to gun down drug dealers on street corners.

--Robert A. Sielski, Melbourne Beach

These strikes should not happen.  The law should not be dismissed just because the Trump Administration says these are narcoterrorists that must die.  Judge , jury and executioner all in one swoop down from the skies is not the United States of America that I know.

--Richard Caldwell, Indian Harbour Beach

Contact  Torres  at  jtorres@floridatoday.com . You can follow him on X  @johnalbertorres

Multimedia editor  Rob Landers  contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Military attacks on drug boats divide nation furrther