Op-Ed

Hard-nosed realism that trades away our commitment to democracy in favor of cutting deals with dictators is not strength; it is strategic blindness that will cost America both credibility and security.

America’s undeclared war on drugs has killed more of our people than any foreign enemy since World War II, yet it remains a conflict fought in legal and political shadows where no one has to admit we are at war or explain how it ends.

If the fall of Maduro means one less outpost for Moscow in our hemisphere, I will not pretend to be conflicted about it, because I have seen what his patrons do to men whose only crime was fighting back.

The Trump administration’s self-branded hard-nosed realism is in practice performative isolationism that abandons allies, emboldens authoritarians, and trades American leadership for short-term political theatrics.

Based on a lifetime in uniform, I believe these boat strike missions are illegal, immoral, strategically hollow, and a betrayal of the ethical standards that should govern American military power.

When we order troops to carry out morally questionable strikes, we don’t just risk the target, we plant moral injury that spreads through the force, wrecks morale and trust in leadership, and creates long-term damage to the institution unless we face it honestly and care for our people.

Switzerland was right to reject drafting women because any society that has seen real war knows you don’t coerce women into the zero line unless you’re out of men, and pretending biology, psychology, and the brutal math of ground combat don’t exist is how you trade restraint for barbarism.

If the bombing of that vessel is ultimately judged to have targeted civilians or used grossly disproportionate force, then everyone in the chain of command, from the trigger-puller up to President Trump and his Pentagon leadership, must answer for it as a potential war crime rather than dismiss it as routine business of war.

Bombing suspected drug boats is a misuse of military power that erodes the rule of law, corrodes trust in the chain of command, and dangerously blurs the line between warfighting and policing.

The real danger is not the fog of war itself, but leaders who hide behind it when the picture is already clear.

We can secure our nation without blanket bans by fixing our vetting, honoring our Afghan allies who bled for us, and working together on practical solutions instead of scoring political points.

The United States cannot bomb its way out of the cartel and trafficking crisis without shredding its own legal and moral credibility, and it is past time to replace confused, militarized strikes on alleged drug boats with a coherent strategy rooted in law enforcement, diplomacy, and the protection of innocent lives.