The Partial Observer by Francis P. Sempa

Critics of Trump’s Drug Strikes were Silent about Obama’s Drone Strikes

The members of Congress now referred to by some as the “Seditious Six,” after attempting to form doubts in the minds of our service members and intelligence officers as to the lawfulness of President Trump’s orders, were and are strangely silent about President Barack Obama’s drone strikes against suspected terrorists abroad.

During his eight years as president, Obama ordered 542 drone strikes that killed more than 3,700 people, including more than 300 civilians, according to a Council on Foreign Relations report. That report quotes Obama telling his senior aides: “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was going to be a strong suit of mine.” Yet, none of the “Seditious Six” made a video urging our military and intelligence services to disobey any of Obama’s orders.

Under President Trump during the first year of his second term, the military has launched strikes against 23 suspected drug boats, killing 87 suspected drug traffickers. Senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, after failing in the video to identify specific Trump orders that were unlawful and that should be disobeyed, have latched on to Trump’s drug boat strikes as potentially unlawful. Slotkin accused Trump of waging a “secret war” in Latin America, while Kelly has called for an investigation into the drug boat strikes, citing the Law of the Sea and the Geneva Conventions. All this does is to further suggest to our service members that the orders of the president and secretary of defense may be unlawful. All this does is to reinforce the shameful video that encouraged service members and intelligence officers to commit acts of insubordination.

Slotkin, Kelly and others who participated in the social media video claim that the video merely stated what the Uniform Code of Military Justice says. That is true, but context is everything.

In the video, before Slotkin, Kelly, and the others told our service members and intelligence officers to refuse unlawful orders, they said that the Trump administration is pitting the U.S. military and intelligence officials against the American people, and the threats to our country are coming from right here at home, e.g., from Trump.

The message was clear: Think twice before you obey an order from the commander-in-chief. Yet, none of the participants in the video made a similar video to protest Obama’s drone strikes against suspected terrorists—which were much more numerous and much more lethal than Trump’s drug boat strikes.

The drug cartels that bring fentanyl to our streets have killed far more Americans than Islamic terrorists. Every president since Richard Nixon has pledged to wage a war against deadly drugs and the traffickers who peddle them, yet Trump is the first president to actually wage that war. Trump has closed the southern border to narco-traffickers and is now stopping them at sea. Congress passes laws that are mostly ignored by drug traffickers, while Trump takes concrete steps to protect the American people.

Francis P. Sempa is the author of the books “Geopolitics: From the Cold War to the 21st Century” and “America’s Global Role.” He is a contributing editor to “The American Spectator” and writes a regular column for “Real Clear Defense.”