“BE WARNED — IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU!”
— President Donald Trump
What’s illegal are the drugs that were on the boat, and the drugs that are being sent into our country, and the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs. That’s what’s illegal.
— President Donald Trump
This is not a war. U.S. forces went out and committed murder. There was no armed attack on the United States that would allow for the U.S. to use force in self-defense. There is no armed conflict between the United States and any cartel group or any Latin American country. A foreign terrorist designation of any of these groups does not change that. It does not authorize force against those groups. The killing of all 11 of these men was illegal. This was a premeditated murder of suspected criminals — by definition, civilians — based on the facts provided by the administration themselves,
— Sarah Harrison, former Pentagon legal expert
The Trump administration is now murdering suspected drug traffickers without due process. It should trouble all of us that Trump is using the military to blow up boats suspected of carrying drugs, killing everyone on board. These unilateral actions against alleged traffickers are illegal and immoral. Yes, I know that Trump has declared “war” on drug traffickers, but this is not an official declaration of war. Only Congress has the power to declare war. What we currently have is a rogue state doing what it wants to kill an alleged enemy. Evidently, the rules of war do not apply to this rogue state; Trump believes might makes right.
There’s little that can be done to combat Trump’s murderous ways. It is up to a Republican-led congress to reel Trump in, but by all accounts, they have no intention of doing so. Sadly, many Republicans love Trump’s bravado. They want to see him use even more violence to advance the MAGA agenda, not less. Lest you doubt this to be true, consider the fact that a Fox News host said that the answer to our homeless problem is to euthanize them. Yep, he wants the government to commit the mass murder of homeless people. The MAGA crowd claims Christianity as their chosen faith, but there’s little in their behavior that suggests they know anything about the life and teachings of the Prince of Peace.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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