Another Drug Boat Bombing

Plus: The U.S. blockade widens, Los Angeles teachers get a pay bump, the sunny side of a treeless national mall, and more…

U.S. Southern Command claimed on social media to have killed three male “narco-terrorists” in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The post includes a video of the “kinetic” strike turning the bombed boat into a fireball.

Though it shouldn’t be, trafficking drugs is a crime. Criminals are normally arrested by the police, instead of being killed by the military. Trump’s use of the military to kill suspected drug smugglers in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean has been legally controversial since the strikes began in September of last year.

Neither the administration’s designation of drug smugglers as armed combatants at war with the U.S. nor its denial that it is engaged in hostilities makes sense on its own.

Standard definitions of armed conflict and armed combatant can’t be stretched to cover drug smugglers. Blowing up drug smugglers, on the other hand, would seem to very clearly meet the definition of hostilities.

The Trump administration has tried to say it’s not engaged in hostilities that would trigger the War Powers Resolution because the U.S. military personnel blowing up the drug boats are not at risk of being attacked by their targets.

“This argument concedes that the targets posed no immediate threat, meaning Trump authorized the use of lethal force in circumstances where it was morally and legally unjustified,” wrote Jacob Sullum in a recent issue of Reason.

Lawmakers have put forward multiple resolutions to stop the Trump administration from continuing with boat strikes, but all have failed thus far.

As it stands, the president continues to exercise the effectively unchecked power to kill people he alone decides need killing.

Blockade broadens. Meanwhile, in our other noncongressionally sanctioned conflict, the U.S. military has broadened the scope of Iranian shipping that’s subject to its blockade.

That blockade that began on Monday initially targeted ports and oil terminals along the Iranian coast. Lloyd’s List reports this morning that U.S. Central Command has issued updated guidance asserting a right to board and seize Iran-linked vessels anywhere on the open seas.

The expanded geographic scope of the blockade, when combined with the U.S. military’s wide definition of contraband subject to the blockade, means “almost any industrial cargo bound for Iran could plausibly be intercepted,” the publication notes.

As The Wall Street Journal detailed in a story yesterday, there’s a cat-and-mouse game being played in waters near Iran between the U.S. military and “shadow fleet” ships that have long used various means of deception (like spoofed locations and turned-off transponders) to smuggle sanctioned Iranian oil.

U.S. Central Command claims no Iranian-linked ships have managed to slip its blockade within the first 48 hours. The Journal reports that at least 10 ships, some of which show signs of shadow fleet activity, have managed to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

More money, more problems. Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Unified School District reached an agreement with three employee unions to avoid a strike by raising salaries for teachers and other staff.

Despite shrinking enrollment, Los Angeles’ per-pupil spending has continued to increase at a much higher rate than overall inflation.

It’s quite possible that L.A. teachers and school staff do deserve a raise. It’s hard to say one way or another when the government is the one setting the price of labor.

But a school district going broke while it spends more and more money educating fewer and fewer students is not something taxpayers, parents, or students should have to accept.

Scenes from Washington, D.C.: On X, the account Echoes of War shared an early–20th century image of the National Mall and surrounding areas, as seen from the top of the Washington Monument.

The real upgrade that the mall needs is a few more permanent bathrooms and water fountains that actually work.

QUICK HITS

• A woman who was arrested for wearing a penis costume to a No Kings protest in Alabama has been found not guilty on all charges.
• Tom Palmer at Reason says good riddance to Viktor Orbán.
• Also read Scott Alexander on how Orbán was still bad, even if he wasn’t a full-on dictator.
• Make World Cup attendees pay for their bus trips.
• In the wake of Eric Swalwell’s exit from the California governor’s race, Tom Steyer surges.

Reporter, Reason

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