Barbary(ous) Cartels Get Whiff of US Law

Letter to Ephesians: WSJ quoted several legal experts damning US’s destroying drug cartel boat w/o warning & suggested it was an unprecedented violation of domestic/intern’l law cause there was no “imminent” threat to Americans. BUT what do they call Jefferson’s war on Barbary Pirates?

It not that I’m arguing the paper’s legal experts papered over the Law of Nations that would most likely block the US from using its military to destroy suspected criminal operations on the high seas. But I would caution against their out of hand blind eye to the reality of the modern world in which the drug cartels ... and terrorists they

are ... operate on the assumption that the laws of civilization automatically, unconditionally “protect” their uncivilized behavior. MUST THERE NOT BE A LINE BEYOND WHICH THE US HAS THE LEGAL RIGHT TO PROACTIVELY PROTECT ITSELF FROM THOSE WHO ARE ON THE WAY TO POISONING MILLIONS OF AMERICANS? Ah, the WSJ’s legal sources say, the key operative word is “imminent” or “immediate” danger. We’re told no US citizen was gonna die that day like 11 terrorists, er, gangbangers, did.

Perhaps. But tell that to Pres Jefferson who in 1805 unleashed a celebrated military campaign to snuff out, as in KILL if needs be, the North African Barbary pirates seizing US merchant ships for ransom. Tell that also to Lt. Stephen Decatur who raided a captured ship without “asking pretty please.” Isn’t pre-emptively using force to stop a ton of lethal drugs on their way to nearby US shores more righteous & compelling than using lethal force to stop the Barbary thugs from pirating more merchant ships on the other side of the earth & in the future? BTW: Do these “legal experts” know how dangerous it is for our servicemen to just “board” a ship manned by cartel terrorists?

Davd Soul