There is nothing nearly as frightening as the sight of a United States Navy aircraft carrier strike group sailing toward you on the horizon.
These formations usually include at least five warships, 65 aircraft and additional supplemental logistics vehicles. If the lads at the Pentagon anticipate a longer engagement or a decade-long war of attrition, they may elect to deploy a fully functioning Burger King to the warzone as well.
For American servicemen, amenities like Burger King are some of the much-appreciated benefits of maintaining a $2.32 trillion defense budget. However, for America’s unlucky enemies, the ability of the American military to exert its power at any given moment is terrifying.
Leaders in Latin America are likely feeling that sense of terror as a fleet of guided missile cruisers, amphibious assault ships and a nuclear submarine approaches ever closer to the coast of Venezuela. The mobilization of these assets, as well as CIA and DHS surveillance assets, has set up a major geopolitical dilemma.
While U.S. officials claim they are merely conducting routine anti-cartel drug enforcement operations, recent precision airstrikes on supposed narcotics traffickers’ ships in international waters demonstrate an unprecedented use of lethal force against these types of targets.
The legality of these strikes is currently being debated by experts in international law and constitutional jurisprudence. However, through a controversial executive order signed by President Trump, several transnational drug cartels have also been designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the Department of State, which expands the domain of actions U.S. forces can take to legally combat them.
This heightened activity in the Caribbean has been matched by heightened rhetoric between the Trump administration and South American leaders. Attorney General Pam Bondi has made several statements labeling Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world and a threat to the national security [of the United States].”
Statements like these are remarkably similar to the warnings issued against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein — warnings issued just before a massive military coalition ousted him from power and destabilized the region. It is also worth mentioning that the invasion of Iraq initially received significant public support from both American citizens as well as from the higher echelons of the political establishment, in large part thanks to the false pretense of seizing non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
American policymakers shouldn’t make the same mistake of employing this sort of messaging to sway public opinion toward support of even greater intervention abroad, especially for ulterior motives. Is the Trump administration truly cracking down on the drug trade, or is this just a facade for regime change against a member of the enemy bloc?
Venezuela has historically aligned itself with states that the U.S. deems to be adversarial, including China, Iran and Russia. Despite our political rivalries, this unilateral escalation of conflict really isn’t justified. The Trump administration ought not let drugs become Maduro’s “weapons of mass destruction” and deploy our troops where they don’t need to be.
If the U.S. is genuinely interested in implementing an effective counter-narcotics policy, the focus must be on Mexico above all other countries. Mexico, after all, shares a direct border with the United States on both land and sea. Mexico — not Venezuela — houses some of the largest manufacturers of illicit substances in the world. Mexican cartels are known to collaborate with Chinese criminal syndicates to perpetuate their illegal activities.
If we are adamant on resolving the issue of opioid overdoses and drug addiction, our first step to achieving that goal must be to neutralize the threat right at our front door. The two groups leading the charts in drug output and income from drug sales are the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Their emblems strike fear into the hearts of the innocent; in the past 10 years, these cartels have frequently claimed responsibility for some of the most brutal acts of violent terrorism in Mexico. For these reasons, they are the top priority in a proper war on drugs.
The strategy is simple: identify, intercept and eliminate. The United States has incredible surveillance capabilities, from orbital satellites to high-altitude drones. These must be utilized, in addition to local intelligence, to identify the location of drug labs and the people running them.
Where necessary, precision strikes should be employed. Unlike strikes on unidentified boats that occur under the status quo, lethal force should be the last option. Capture, followed by extradition to secure prisons in the United States, is preferable. This way, U.S. forces can interrogate suspects for vital information and ensure that the bosses don’t become martyrs in narcoculture.
Information will be vital for intercepting drugs, money and illegal shipments of goods. Transnational cartels use a combination of black money, cryptocurrency and legal front companies to complete illicit transactions and launder massive sums of money across borders, often in different currencies.
Exposing fraudulent businesses, freezing bank accounts and regulating cryptocurrency will bring cartels to their knees. Their success relies on the drug trade remaining profitable, so if their wallets grow light, they will be less able to allocate funds toward bribing government officials or purchasing weapons.
Finally, we must wage this war on the home front. In order to achieve a total victory, we must eliminate both supply and demand for drugs. This starts by addressing the domestic opioid epidemic that has plagued American streets for over 30 years. By making healthcare more accessible, expanding rehabilitation programs and intensifying education, we can put an end to the pervasive addictions that fuel the cartel war machine.
The cartels have crossed a line, and that’s not just the border. If we want to protect Americans from the threat of narcoterrorism, let’s flag down our warships and tell them to circle around. The merchants of death are right in front of us, not in Venezuela.
Aidan Zamany is a political science sophomore and opinion writer for The Battalion.
