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President Trump’s recent decision to smash cartel-run drug boats in the Caribbean is the kind of bold leadership Americans have been starving for. After years of talk from soft-on-crime politicians, the president finally put force behind policy and hit the criminal networks that flood our cities with fentanyl and violence. The strikes are a message: when foreign criminal organizations threaten American lives, our country will not sit idly by.
Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson told Jon Glasgow on Sunday Report that this reckoning with the cartels is overdue and that the administration has at least succeeded in changing the narrative. Hutchinson — who ran the DEA and knows the operational limits of pure law enforcement — praised the visible deterrent effect while warning that Congress needs clarity on legal authority and an endgame. Conservative Americans should welcome his sober praise: leadership that acts and then answers questions is preferable to cowardice and excuses.
Since early September, U.S. forces have struck multiple vessels alleged to be trafficking narcotics, sinking boats and disrupting routes that funnel deadly drugs northward. These operations are not reckless joyrides; they are the consequence of an administration that declared certain narco-groups as terrorist actors and moved to treat them as the existential threat they are. The results so far show that visible American strength can scramble cartel logistics and save American lives on our streets.
Of course, the usual suspects in the media and on the left are howling about legality and sovereignty, even as fentanyl floods our hospitals and funerals. Legal scholars and international actors have raised questions about process and transparency, and those critiques deserve careful answers from Washington rather than reflexive sanctimony. Still, when mainstream institutions failed to stop this crisis, the country needed a commander-in-chief willing to act — and that is what we have.
Hutchinson’s point that this represents a shift from law enforcement to military action is an important one, and conservatives should push for smart follow-through. Secure borders, targeted interdictions, and prosecutorial muscle at home must go hand in hand with kinetic pressure abroad so the cartels have nowhere to hide. If Congress insists on oversight, that is the right forum for Republicans to build a lawful framework that empowers commanders while protecting American legal principles.
Let the critics tremble and denounce; America’s first duty is to protect its citizens, not to placate hostile regimes or coddle transnational criminals. The choice is stark: allow cartels to operate with impunity and watch more funerals mount, or back leaders who are willing to use every tool to defend our streets and children. Patriots know which side they’re on, and right now the country needs unwavering resolve and patriotic defenders in government.
