Sometimes the slide down a slippery slope is very fast. Soon after taking office, President Donald Trump designated several Mexican, Salvadoran, and Venezuelan gangs as terrorist groups. Many observers, including myself, thought that the listing could be a pretext to start an unauthorized war in Latin America. On Friday, The New York Times reported that Trump was doing exactly that.
The president "has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations," according to the Times. It's not clear exactly which cartels will be targeted or what kind of U.S. military force will be brought in; the Times reports that the military is drawing up plans for "direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels."
As usual, Congress and the American people aren't being given a chance to deliberate on the war they're being committed to, and the media has to play guessing games about what that war will look like.
