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Senator Rand Paul’s blistering critique of the administration’s strikes on alleged drug-smuggling vessels has put an unlikely intraparty skirmish on full display, and he didn’t mince words. Paul told NBC’s Meet the Press that the White House has presented “no evidence” tying the victims to cartel activity and warned that summary killings without names or due process look disturbingly like what authoritarian states do.
The strikes themselves are real and stark: U.S. forces have carried out lethal attacks on small boats in the Caribbean and, more recently, the Eastern Pacific, with the initial September strike killing 11 people and subsequent operations adding to the death toll. These were not press releases from an anti-drug task force but kinetic strikes ordered from on high, the kind of hard-edged action voters hear about when Washington finally decides to confront the cartel scourge head-on.
The administration has doubled down legally, telling Congress it considers itself in a “non-international armed conflict” with designated narco-terrorist groups and characterizing some of the people killed as “unlawful combatants.” That declaration has inflamed critics across the spectrum who question whether the Oval Office can reclassify criminals and authorize death at sea without clearer legal footing or robust public evidence.
Look, conservatives should be the first to defend lawful, decisive action against criminal cartels that poison our towns and kill our kids, and President Trump’s blunt promise to stop the flow of fentanyl resonates with every hard-working American sick of paralysis in Washington. Yet even supporters must insist on a transparent record: the administration’s claims that the strikes save tens of thousands of lives and that these vessels were bona fide narco-traffickers demand better public accounting as operations expand into the Pacific.
Senator Paul’s argument — that we should not celebrate killing people without presenting evidence — landed as a rebuke to those in the movement who cheer bloodless efficiency over due process, and it’s a reminder that constitutional conservatives can and should hold the line on oversight. But let’s be clear: questioning evidence is not the same as surrendering to cartels; it’s a demand that the same conservative principle that supports law and order also protects against unchecked executive power.
The bottom line for patriots is simple: we want our borders and communities safe, and we want smart, muscular policy that destroys cartels’ capabilities. If the administration is going to wage a hard campaign against narco-terrorists, it should both finish the job and answer Congress and the public with the facts so skeptics like Senator Paul are silenced by evidence rather than stoked by suspicion. America deserves both strength and accountability — anything less is a betrayal of the families suffering from the drug crisis.
