Trump’s ‘Stupid’ Drug War Killings Put Military In Untenable Position, Former GOP Attorney General Of Idaho Says (Op-Ed)

Trump drug war killings: spectacle on the high seas, policy in the undertow

Note: I’m channeling a gritty, late-night narrative tone without imitating any single writer’s voice. Trump drug war killings have the cheap sizzle of a fireworks show over black water—loud, brief, and blinding—yet they do little to illuminate the problem. Off Venezuela, far from American shores, the U.S. military has been blowing apart purported drug boats, racking up a reported body count of 32. The crews are nameless. Their cargo unproven. The claims—“narco-terrorists,” fentanyl on board—arrive without verifiable evidence, even as most fentanyl is widely known to move through Mexico and across the U.S. border. The strategic logic is as flimsy as a soaked matchbook: obliteration destroys evidence, silences suspects, and buries whatever intelligence might trace back to actual kingpins. Former Idaho Attorney General Jim Jones, writing in an Idaho Capital Sun op-ed, frames the Caribbean explosions as performance art masquerading as policy—political theater set to the drumbeat of “law and order” without the law or the order. The boats are roughly a thousand miles from Miami, yet the show must go on. This isn’t drug interdiction; it’s a made-for-TV raid on due process.

Law versus theater

The law is not a suggestion box. Congress authorizes the use of lethal force; the executive doesn’t freelance it because a camera is rolling. To justify killing without trial, you need imminence and clarity—real threat, real evidence, real process. Here, you get none of that. Destroying vessels at sea doesn’t just sink suspects—it torpedoes the chain of custody and any hope of unraveling the supply network. The tactic insults international law and the guidance of top military lawyers who have, for decades, cautioned the services to keep faith with the rules of armed conflict. Call it what you want—kinetic interdiction, maritime deterrence—the operation looks less like “cannabis taxation” or any sober “drug policy reform” and more like a sledgehammer swung in the dark. If the goal is to dismantle the fentanyl pipeline, you don’t vaporize your leads; you flip them. You interrogate. You map the money, follow the trucks, and grind through prosecutions that stand up in court.

The uniform, the JAG, and the weight of an order

Jones points to a purge of senior Judge Advocate General officers under the current Pentagon leadership as an omen—a signal that legal brakes were unwelcome in a command post wired for spectacle. He invokes George Washington’s old truth: an army without discipline is a mob with better shoes. The military runs on lawful orders; unlawful ones can land a junior officer in irons while the politicians head for the greenroom. Consider the optics: a Southern Command admiral abruptly retires; a senior colonel resigns over contempt for constitutional boundaries. Whether you see smoke or fire, you do see exit signs lighting up. Meanwhile, drug policy gets hammered out elsewhere, in courtrooms and committee rooms—messy, public, and accountable. Look at the slow, procedural grind surrounding psychedelic access, where legal process is the whole point, as in Oregon Officials Seek To Dismiss Psilocybin Access Lawsuit From Homebound Patients. That’s not a perfect system, but it’s a system. The chain of evidence isn’t a splash on the sea; it’s a paper trail.

Prosecutions down, pardons up, and the risk pushed downhill

Here’s the kicker: while the fireworks crackle offshore, prosecutions ashore have dropped to their lowest level in decades, according to reporting summarized by Jones. Prosecutors and agents diverted to immigration dockets can’t chase the complex financial scaffolding of transnational narcotics. And when the White House hands out clemency to big fish, the message gets muddy fast. The stagecraft continues in Congress, where a U.S. senator branded those distant boats an “actual attack” on America. If that’s the evidentiary bar, then the word “terrorist” is just another prop. But service members aren’t props. They’re bound to disobey unlawful orders—because the law won’t shield them after the smoke clears. Meanwhile, the cannabis file—the patient cards, the regulatory hearings, the fines and discipline—rolls forward the way a nation of laws is supposed to work. That’s the everyday grind detailed in Michigan Lawmakers Consider Bills To Change Legal Marijuana Possession Limits And Alter Industry Disciplinary Rules and the civic tug-of-war captured in South Dakota Medical Marijuana Advocates Alarmed After Lawmakers Give Prohibitionists A Platform. No explosions. Plenty of accountability.

Choose law over fireworks

America became a global power by keeping faith with law—domestic and international—and by demanding evidence before pulling triggers. If leaders truly want to cripple fentanyl networks, they should fund port inspections, target cross-border logistics, and prosecute the financiers who turn misery into margins. That means more investigators in courtrooms and fewer press conferences at the pier. And when the drug policy debate reaches the constitutional stratosphere, it belongs before judges, not on a gunnery range. Consider the looming constitutional questions that come with legalization and interstate commerce, like those raised in Marijuana Companies Ask U.S. Supreme Court To Take Up Case Challenging Constitutionality Of Federal Prohibition. This is where durable policy is forged—in sunlight, with precedent, with the record intact. Leave the spectacle to the movie studios. If you’re here to navigate this evolving landscape and want compliant, high-quality options, take a calm, informed step into our shop.