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The Trump administration has ramped up a decisive campaign against the cartels, authorizing strikes on suspected drug-running vessels in the southern Caribbean after a surge of deadly fentanyl and cocaine shipments threatened American lives. These are not theater — U.S. forces have carried out strikes since early September that Washington says hit traffickers using international waters as a delivery lane to our cities. This hardline approach is precisely the kind of unapologetic defense of the homeland Americans elected to see.
Critics in the coastal salons of Europe and the United Nations squawk about legality while ignoring the bodies left behind by drug-addled communities in this country. The administration has now taken at least ten targeted actions in the region, which authorities say have neutralized dozens of narco-operators tied to transnational gangs that export death to the United States. If protecting Americans from poison is controversial to the chattering class, so be it — our duty is to secure the border and the seas, not to win popularity contests.
Washington has backed its words with unmistakable force, sending an aircraft carrier strike group — the kind of credible deterrent that makes tyrants and traffickers think twice. That deployment is not saber-rattling; it’s leverage to stop a flow of drugs and to push hostile regimes that shelter criminals into making different choices. American power, used wisely and unapologetically, keeps Americans safe when others prefer hollow diplomacy and sanctimony.
Nicolás Maduro has tried the same old playbook: call for peace while mobilizing militias and posturing as the victim of American aggression. Caracas denounces U.S. actions even as it arms and trains paramilitary forces and accuses Washington of trying to force regime change — a mix of propaganda and saber-rattling that should not distract from the fact that his government has long been accused of tolerating and even profiting from narco-trafficking. The Venezuelan strongman can demand talks and peace all he wants from the safety of his palace; real peace for Americans means cutting off the cartels’ supply lines.
International bodies urge restraint and adherence to law, and that is fair — but restraint cannot become an excuse for paralysis when violent criminal networks operate with impunity from hostile shores. Diplomatic niceties mean nothing to the families who lost children to fentanyl or to the small towns hollowed out by addiction. The UN’s calls for de-escalation are understandable, yet they must not blind policymakers to the urgent, brutal reality that transnational crime is an active threat to U.S. national security.
Patriots know we owe our servicemen and women every tool and every authority they need to choke off the narco-threat and protect Americans at home. Let the pearl-clutchers in the press scream; let foreign strongmen posture — the duty of the commander-in-chief is to defend the nation and its citizens. If that means striking traffickers at sea and showing a credible military posture where it matters, then this administration is doing what is necessary and right.
