"Trump on Thursday insisted that he could continue to launch strikes against alleged drug traffickers without Congress first passing an official declaration of war. "I'm not going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war," he said. "I think we're just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We're going to kill them, you know, they're going to be like, dead.""
"It's clear that Trump's intention was to rule out any congressional interference with his constitutionally dubious use of military force in a struggle - don't say war! - with so-called "narco-terrorists." But the line he drew between "war" and "killing" revealed a more fundamental element of his thinking. There has always been a bit of a contradiction between Trump horror towards "forever wars" - not to mention his aspirations as a global peace-maker - and his more general blood lust."
Trump insisted that he could continue launching strikes against alleged drug traffickers without Congress passing a declaration of war and stated he would "kill people" bringing drugs into the country. He framed such strikes as exempt from congressional interference and distinguished between declaring war and deploying lethal force. A tension exists between opposition to prolonged wars and a readiness to employ extreme violence without traditional restraints. Laws of warfare protecting civilians and prohibiting torture were dismissed. A "Secretary of War" was appointed who prioritizes lethality in national security calculations. Retribution against those who cross him is treated as unrestrained policy.
Read at Intelligencer
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