Was September’s double-tap strike on the alleged drug boat in the Caribbean legal… or did it amount to execution at sea? Some are calling it a war crime, even while doubting the Trump administration’s assertions that the U.S. is in an armed conflict with cartels.
As the Senate and House Armed Services Committees investigate, I spoke with Rebecca Ingber, an expert in international and national security law (no relation). She called it all “war cosplay.”
Remember that about 1.5 months after this strike, President Donald Trump announced on social media that two survivors of another bombing were repatriated for “detention and prosecution” in Ecuador and Colombia.
Rebecca explained why that was significant, how striking alleged drug traffickers is different than targeting terrorists in the Global War on Terror, and how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could still be liable despite his shifting story. She also laid out ways that courts could end up becoming involved.
And she described it as a grim moment for the country. “There is no real limiting principle,” she told me. “If [Trump] is asserting the right to kill them at sea, he’s asserting the right to kill them inside the United States… I think we should all care about whether we know precisely about what are the parameters in which the president can use force against any of us, and whether that’s clearly defined by law or merely defined by his will.”
More in the video.
