Renewed Caribbean tensions; Trump bypasses Congress.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Trump administration is continuing its deadly military campaign against suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific without congressional approval, even as lawmakers from both parties have expressed frustration that the administration has not provided a legal justification.
According to a senior administration official, U.S. officials do not believe the attacks have reached the level of violence required by the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which requires the president to end any military action after 60 days without congressional authorization.
The Trump administration official, who was not named in the report, added that the attacks on Venezuelan boats pose no risk to U.S. troops because the suspected drug-smuggling boats are targeted by drones that are far from Navy ships carrying troops.
The U.S. military has killed nearly 65 people in 15 airstrikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The latest U.S. strike came in the Caribbean on Saturday. The Trump administration has called the attacks on Venezuelan boats part of a non-international armed conflict against drug cartels, calling them foreign terrorist organizations.
But Republicans and Democrats in Congress have expressed frustration with the administration’s lack of transparency about the attacks on Venezuelan boats. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, announced on Friday in an unprecedented effort with Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat and the committee’s senior member, that they have twice written to Secretary of War Pete Hegsett requesting copies of executive orders, legal justifications and lists of designated terrorist organizations related to the Pentagon’s actions against drug cartels.
Senate Democrats, including Mark Warner, the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, also sharply criticized the administration for only providing information to Republicans.