In less than two months, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth say the U.S. military has killed 32 people in seven strikes against drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. He has asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration when it declared a war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks.
