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The United States carried out targeted strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels operating out of Venezuela’s waters this month, a decisive response to a crisis that Washington can no longer ignore. The operations — one in early September and a follow-up mid-month — killed suspected traffickers and were publicly confirmed by the White House and the president. Americans deserve a government that acts when foreign criminal enterprises are trafficking fentanyl and cocaine toward our families.
According to official statements and imagery released by the administration, the first strike killed a reported eleven narcotics operatives and the second strike killed three more, with video showing boats engulfed after precision engagement. These are not casual run-ins on the high seas; they were kinetic actions aimed at stopping deadly poison from reaching American streets. If the facts are as the Pentagon and the president say, these strikes are a hard-minded approach to a humanitarian and security emergency.
President Trump and senior officials described those struck as “narcoterrorists” tied to organized crime networks operating in Venezuela, and the administration posted aerial footage it said supports that assessment. The American people have watched helplessly as cartels and foreign-backed gangs flood our country with fentanyl, and leadership means taking the fight to them when necessary. For too long Washington’s response was paperwork and platitudes while our children died; action at sea is the kind of enforcement that actually protects Americans.
Make no mistake: this is not warmongering, it is law enforcement on a different terrain — and it is long overdue. Conservatives have warned for years that the border crisis and narco-trafficking are national security threats, and when safer, non-lethal options fail to stop poison hitting our neighborhoods, commanders must have the authority to act. Those who pretend outrage at toughness while refusing to secure our border are the same people who enabled the chaos that made these strikes necessary.
Human rights groups and progressive lawmakers have predictably cried foul, calling the strikes unlawful and accusing the administration of extrajudicial killings. Those criticisms are politically convenient but ignore a basic truth: cartels are not charitable organizations and their shipments are weapons in all but name. If critics want America to surrender the fight against fentanyl, they should say so openly rather than hiding behind legalistic hand-wringing while bodies pile up at home.
The administration has pointed to the designation of groups like Tren de Aragua and intelligence linking Venezuelan criminal networks to mass trafficking as part of its justification for striking at sea. If the state that shelters and tolerates these gangs will not stop them, then the United States must protect its citizens by disrupting the supply wherever it is found. Congress should back the president with clear authority and funding, not grandstanding that ties the hands of our military and law enforcement.
This moment is a test of American seriousness: do we value the lives of our children and the rule of law, or do we bow to the squeals of a pampered coastal elite who put political correctness above safety? Conservatives say we stand for the people who get up before dawn to work, who bury their kids without the luxury of virtue-signaling. Secure the border, expand lawful counter-narcotics operations, and give our commanders the tools to hunt the cartels — anything less is a betrayal of the American people.
