Does anyone else have a problem with what our military is doing to boats suspected of drug smuggling off the coast of Venezuela? If you haven't heard, we're blowing them up and killing the men on board.
If the men are guilty, not just suspected, then they are men who've made some bad decisions to be sure, but aren't beyond redemption to be fair. They won't have a chance at that, because our government is making the choice for them. So far, more than eighty such lives have ended in a fiery death in a watery grave.
This is President Trump's novel approach to drug enforcement. It's the quick and dirty version, or the drug dealers are scum, so let's kill them policy. Its legality is highly dubious. The president wants us to believe these men are coming for us, or at least their drugs will wind up on our streets. Let's be real, Venezuela is at least 1,400 miles away from Florida. No one in their right mind would attempt that crossing in an open boat. Furthermore, it's unlikely they are the true source of the deadly drug fentanyl in our country. It seems like we know where it's coming from, and it's not there. So, at best, the president is projecting his fears onto us; at worst, he's stoking ours. We're talking about men here, not monsters.
One of his predecessors spoke about fear. He encouraged us as Americans at a difficult time to put fear in its rightful place, in the dust.
Human life is sacred. It shall be treated as such. The lives of suspected drug smugglers are no different.
Garth Weber
Ridgefield
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