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There's one rule in the age of Donald Trump. When it comes to him, you simply cant rule anything out. Its true that, only recently, when asked about the possibility that he would order military strikes not just on ships off the coast of Venezuela but in Venezuela itself, he bluntly said no. But hes also said that military options remain on the table. And how strange, if hes planning on doing nothing, that U.S. warships are now reportedly positioned for possible strikes inside that country, with destroyers off its coast and an aircraft carrier task force having only recently entered the Caribbean as well. And don't forget the covert actions his administration has already secretly authorized the CIA to take inside that country. Or for that matter, the supposed drug ships his administration has been sinking regularly in the Caribbean (and the Pacific Ocean), even though it doesn't faintly know who's on them.
Mind you, were talking about the president who claims to have ended eight wars and considers himself the most eligible person on Earth (bar no one!) for a Nobel Peace Prize. But the world of Donald Trump simply couldn't be stranger or both more predictable and yes! more unpredictable. Recently, in a social media post, Senator Bernie Sanders pointed out whats constitutionally obvious, even if not, of course, to the president and his crew: Trump is illegally threatening war with Venezuela after killing more than 50 people in unauthorized strikes at sea. The Constitution is clear: Only Congress can declare war. Congress must defend the law and end Trumps militarism.
How truly strange and, stranger yet, the recent Trump attacks on those drug ships in the Caribbean and this country's ongoing war on drugs have a distinct history, which TomDispatch regular Greg Grandin lays out all too vividly today. When it comes to the United States of America and its presidents, while Donald Trump is now distinctly upping the ante, there's nothing faintly new about the disastrous war on drugs. Tom
Escalating the Escalation
A Short History of the Long War on Drugs in Latin America from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump
By Greg Grandin
Today, Donald Trump presides over his own Murder Incorporated, less a government than a death squad.
Many brushed off his proclamation early in his second term that the Gulf of Mexico would henceforth be called the Gulf of America as a foolish, yet harmless, show of dominance. Now, however, hes created an ongoing bloodbath in the adjacent Caribbean Sea. The Pentagon has so far destroyed 18 go-fast boats there and in the Pacific Ocean. No evidence has been presented or charges brought suggesting that those ships were running drugs, as claimed. The White House has simply continued to release birds-eye view surveillance videos (snuff films, really) of a targeted vessel. Then comes a flash of light and its gone, as are the humans it was carrying, be they drug smugglers, fishermen, or migrants. As far as we know, at least 64 people have already been killed in such attacks.
The kill rate is accelerating. In early September, the U.S. was hitting one boat every eight to ten days. In early October, one every two days. For a time, starting in mid-October, it was every day, including four strikes on October 27th alone. Blood, it seems, lusts for blood.
And the kill zone has been expanding from the Caribbean waters off Venezuela to the Colombian and Peruvian coasts in the Pacific Ocean.
Many motives might explain Trumps compulsion to murder. Perhaps he enjoys the thrill and rush of power that comes from giving execution orders, or he (and Secretary of State Marco Rubio) hope to provoke a war with Venezuela. Perhaps he considers the strikes useful distractions from the crime and corruption that define his presidency. The cold-blooded murder of Latin Americans is also red meat for the vengeful Trumpian rank-and-file who have been ginned up by culture warriors like Vice President JD Vance to blame the opioid crisis, which disproportionately plagues the Republican Partys White rural base, on elite betrayal.
The murders, which Trump insists are part of a larger war against drug cartels and traffickers, are horrific. They highlight Vance's callous cruelty. The vice president has joked about murdering fishermen and claimed he doesn't give a sh*t if the killings are legal. As to Trump, hes brushed off the need for congressional authority to destroy speedboats or attack Venezuela, saying: I think were just gonna kill people. Okay? Were gonna kill them. They're gonna be, like, dead.
But as with so many Trumpian things, its important to remember that he wouldn't be able to do what he does if it weren't for policies and institutions put in place by all too many of his predecessors. His horrors have long backstories. In fact, Donald Trump isn't so much escalating the war on drugs as escalating its escalation.
What follows then is a short history of how we got to a moment when a president could order the serial killing of civilians, publicly share videos of the crimes, and find that the response of all too many reporters, politicians (Rand Paul being an exception), and lawyers was little more than a shrug, if not, in some cases, encouragement.
A Short History of the Longest War
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