The first step was taken seven weeks ago. Donald Trump ordered a deadly military strike against a civilian boat in international waters, and according to the White House, the operation killed 11 people. The president justified the strikes by claiming the targets were boats smuggling drugs that would eventually reach the U.S., but neither he nor his team presented any evidence — to the public or to Congress — in support of the claim.
It was the first, but not the last. The second came two weeks later, followed soon after by several more. Late last week, the Republican administration pointed to a seventh such strike, followed by an eighth, this time in the Pacific Ocean. The New York Times reported:
The U.S. military attacked another vessel that the government suspected was carrying drugs, but for the first time struck a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia rather than in the Caribbean Sea, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. The strike, on late Tuesday, killed two or three people on the boat, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
The Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC, noted the White House has officially claimed that the first seven strikes have collectively killed 32 people. If the latest reporting is correct, it suggests the new total is nearly three dozen.
Of course, we have no way of knowing for sure whether there have been other, unannounced military strikes and whether the official death toll is accurate. Team Trump has also continued to ignore calls, even from Republican lawmakers, to justify the operations with evidence.
There are also related questions about whether the strikes are illegal. As the Times’ report added, “A broad range of outside legal specialists in laws governing the use of armed force have said the campaign is illegal because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even criminal suspects — who are not directly participating in hostilities.”
As for last week’s strike on an alleged submarine (the sixth of the eight operations), U.S. officials rescued two people who survived the attack and then sent them back to their home countries.
A CNN analysis noted shortly after that the move undermined the White House’s dubious claims: “Releasing them is very difficult to square with the argument that the U.S. government is engaged in a war with people who would do imminent harm to Americans. Put plainly: If these people are so dangerous and engaged in what is allegedly warfare against the United States, how could they be released?”
Complicating matters, Ecuador ended up releasing one of the men that Trump targeted, citing a lack of evidence.
All of this is in desperate need of meaningful congressional oversight, but the Democratic minority lacks the authority to launch thorough investigations, and the Republican majority has been content to allow Trump to do as he pleases, even if that means letting the president act as judge, jury and executioner against civilians in international waters.
