The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
After the GOP-led Senate confirmed Defense Secretary Hegseth, despite his lack of managerial experience, alcohol issues and sex scandals, he turned the Department of Defense upside down. Hegseth fired multiple admirals and generals, often Blacks and women. Moreover, Hegseth fired the top military lawyers for the Air Force, Army and Navy. Georgetown Law Professor Rosa Brooks said: “In some ways that’s even more chilling than firing the four stars. It’s what you do when you’re planning to break the law: you get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down” (NYT).
Case in point. The U.S. military has attacked and sunk over 20 small boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing over 80. Trump and Hegseth maintain without proof that the boats were part of a Venezuelan drug cartel. Tellingly, 2 wounded survivors were returned to Colombia and Ecuador, not to a U.S. courtroom. But Trump didn’t ask Congress to authorize the attacks and excluded Democrats from intelligence briefings.
Democratic senators tried to stop Trump’s unauthorized attacks, citing the War Powers Act which limits the White House’s engaging in unauthorized military conflicts. 46 Democratic senators, including Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, plus 2 GOP senators, voted to end the attacks. Most GOP senators, including Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, killed the measure. However, Alaska GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski, who voted with the Democrats, spoke truth to power: “We all want to get rid of the drugs in this country, absolutely. But the approach that the administration is taking is new, some would say novel, and I think we have a role here.”
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Concurrently, Trump and Hegseth have stationed a U.S. Navy armada, including military flyovers, off the coast of Venezuela. Trump also authorized CIA covert action and threatened to send U.S. troops. Is the U.S. moving toward regime change and another quagmire? Hegseth claims that “the Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood.” All reminiscent of U.S. gunboat diplomacy in the 19th and 20th centuries: threats and military force supporting U.S. corporate interests and foreign policy. Multiple Caribbean islands, Central American and South American countries have endured threats or deadly use of U.S. force.
Senate Democrats have sought to prevent a military conflict with Venezuela. All Senate Democrats, including Baldwin, plus 2 GOP Senators, voted to bar U.S. military action. Most GOP Senators, including Johnson, voted to defeat the measure. But GOP senators should listen to Dan Maurer, retired top Army lawyer: “Harboring drug runners has never been considered a use of force under international law or an attack under international law.” Trump and Hegseth are making it up as they engage in the illegal use of force, violating U.S. and international law.
Admiral Alvin Holsey, then head of U.S. Southern Command, raised questions about the U.S. attacks. Now he’s gone. Forced out? Finally, 6 Democratic members of Congress, with military or intelligence backgrounds, courageously said members of the U.S. military can “refuse illegal orders.” Trump called them “TRAITORS” and threatened “DEATH!” Unhinged and un-American. Support our troops, not Trump.
— Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.
