We live in an age of endless outrages committed by an outlaw president, of kidnappings committed by masked thugs, of political corruption corroding what’s left of our democracy. And now, with the commission of an outright war crime, and the promise of more to come, the commander-in-chief is an accessory to murder.
No legal basis exists for the destruction of an alleged drug boat and the slaughter of its passengers by American commandos in the Caribbean this week. The laws of war forbid the killing of civilians. Trump’s calling the Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua a “terrorist organization” does not give him the right to assassinate its members. Nor does his invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act give him the power to use lethal force against them.
Pete Hegseth, the unhinged Secretary of Defense, credibly accused of sexual assault and blackout binge-drinking, cleared the field for this crime when he fired the Pentagon’s top lawyers in February, and put his personal attorney in their place. Hegseth had a name for those lawyers, the judge advocates general, or JAGs. That name was “jagoffs.” Their role was to rule on the lawfulness of military missions. They were impediments to illegality. As a Fox News host, Hegseth urged Trump, in his first term, to absolve three soldiers of war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. He succeeded.
The War Crimes Act – an American law – defines murder as “the act of a person who intentionally kills, or conspires or attempts to kill, or kills whether intentionally or unintentionally….one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities,” And no Pentagon lawyer – no real lawyer – would have signed off on a mission that entailed murder.
“We risk setting a precedent in which our most basic right to life is suddenly dependent on whether Trump or other leaders decide in effect to declare a war against us,” Ken Roth, the longtime director of Human Rights Watch, wrote in the Guardian. “Law-enforcement officers could shoot anyone anywhere on the mere assertion, never proved in court, that they were part of the group against which a ‘war’ had been declared. What just happened at sea in the Caribbean could be replicated on the streets of New York.”
Trump claims that that Venezuela’s government and its odious leader command Tren de Aragua, though the CIA says that’s not so. His account of the attack is flimsy on its face and likely false. And, in an ominous portent, when he announced the assault, in the next breath he threatened to send American troops to occupy Chicago.
For 235 years, the Coast Guard, the oldest of America’s armed forces, has served in its traditional role against lawlessness on the high seas. On August 4, 1790, President George Washington created it to enforce tariff and trade laws and prevent smuggling. The lawful way to stop a drug shipment at sea is to intercept and board the boat – not blow it out of the water.
But the Supreme Court ruled last year that no president can be prosecuted for crimes committed in the ambit of his power. It has made murder respectable. Under the ruling, a president “who admits to having ordered the assassination of his political rivals or critics…has a fair shot of getting immunity,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent.
Trump has labelled a lot of people as terrorists and traitors, including his political enemies at home. The court has given him a license to kill them. In the words of Thomas Jefferson: I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever.