President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to target foreign drug cartels, including those in neighboring Mexico. The "secretly signed" order, which isn't so secret anymore, officially authorizes the use of military force in the battle against the drug trade, including possibly on foreign soil.
The basis for the move revolves around the Trump administration's decision to designate certain drug cartels as terrorist organizations. That would conceivably greenlight military action against them on American soil as well.
SEE: Eight Mexican Drug Cartels Are Designated 'Foreign Terrorist Organizations'
President Trump has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations, according to people familiar with the matter.
The decision to bring the American military into the fight is the most aggressive step so far in the administration’s escalating campaign against the cartels. It signals Mr. Trump’s continued willingness to use military forces to carry out what has primarily been considered a law enforcement responsibility to curb the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
The order provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels.
As the report notes, there will no doubt be legal disputes over this. How effective they will be is an open question.
U.S. military officials have started drawing up options for how the military could go after the groups, the people familiar with the conversations said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations.
But directing the military to crack down on the illicit trade also raises legal issues, including whether it would count as “murder” if U.S. forces acting outside of a congressionally authorized armed conflict were to kill civilians — even criminal suspects — who pose no imminent threat.
My initial thought is that this is long overdue. The drug cartels have killed millions of Americans over the years through their smuggling operations. They are also ground zero for the human trafficking of illegal immigrants. The nations they originate from have done very little to combat them, or in some cases, have outright enabled them through corrupt dealings. What other choice does the United States have but to start escalating the situation to cut the heads off the snakes?
With that said, I want to try to cover all the bases, and there are some legitimate questions to ponder, beginning with what happens if a military strike at the border kills American citizens? That would have to be something guarded against at all costs, and I suspect what's actually on the table here would make that improbable. I highly doubt we are going to see F-15E Strike Eagles dropping GBU-31s on large areas. Instead, you'd likely see the military authorized to return fire in cases they've previously been prohibited, such as the cartels taking potshots across the border. The use of special forces to target land-based safehouses and sea-going vessels also seems possible.
Which brings us to the next question. How would this work regarding cartel facilities in other countries? That's where military action would need to happen to produce real results. Would Mexico get on board, given its leadership's total failure to combat the drug cartels over multiple decades? I highly doubt it, and there are more than a few probable suspicions that the current Mexican government is paid off and compromised.
That makes this a complicated situation all around. That doesn't mean it's not necessary, though.
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