Screengrab taken from a video posted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, shows two boats shortly before they are struck by a missile, in the Eastern Pacific on October 27. In his post, Hegseth said that US military forces struck these boats and two others, killing 14 people and leaving one survivor.
No Defendants, No Evidence, No Lawyers, No Courts, No Judges, Just Dead People in the Water
Screengrab taken from a video posted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, shows two boats shortly before they are struck by a missile, in the Eastern Pacific on October 27. In his post, Hegseth said that US military forces struck these boats and two others, killing 14 people and leaving one survivor.
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How long before someone walking down an American street carrying a sign with an “almost treasonous” criticism of Donald Trump is shot without warning?
Trump’s rocket strikes on alleged drug boats in the Western Caribbean and Eastern Pacific are his dream of what law enforcement should be. You make an allegation—look over there! A drug boat! You order up a Reaper drone armed with a Hellfire missile. You get your Secretary of Hair Gel to post a video on his X account showing the boat loaded down with packages—see what we said? Drugs! You shoot it out of the water. Boom! Lots of fire! It’s gone.
It’s not even shoot first, ask questions later, because there are no questions. It’s fait accompli. It’s gone.
I’ve watched every video they’ve posted of their attacks on so-called drug boats, and I’ve got to tell you, they’re not fishing boats. Nearly every one is the same design—a long speedboat style craft with three outboard engines attached to the transom. There are four or five thwarts, pieces of wood attached to the gunwales, running across the boat for stiffness, meaning that it is impossible to move around the boat without climbing over the thwarts. That’s not a fishing boat. It’s a boat designed to carry heavy loads in choppy seas without damaging the hull.
The boats are loaded with square or rectangular packages that appear to be wrapped in heavy plastic. Here is where it gets interesting. The boats are hit amidship by missiles fired from drones. Some of the packages explode away from the boats into the water. They can be seen floating next to the burning boat, because Hegseth’s videos dwell on the burning boats pridefully, like look what we did!
Do you want to know what those packages are? They’re evidence. But without defendants—the people in the boat, whose bodies exploded when hit by the missile—there is no need for the evidence.
There is also no need for the rest of the usual accoutrements of regular law enforcement, like some sort of an authority to make an arrest—say, the Coast Guard. There is no need for a prosecutor, because there is nobody to prosecute. There is no need for a courtroom or a judge, because there is no indictment, no case, no defendant. And there is no need for a defense attorney, because there is no one to defend.
Fifteen alleged drug boats have been sunk since the attacks began in September, killing 61 individuals whom Hegseth, speaking on X for the Trump administration, says were “narco-terrorists bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans.”
But here is where it gets interesting. Three of these alleged “narco-terrorists” survived. Two were picked up by a U.S. naval vessel in the Caribbean Sea and “repatriated to their countries of origin for detention and prosecution,” according to the New York Times. One was rescued by Mexican authorities and taken ashore. We do not know his status.
Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He has covered stories such as Watergate, the Stonewall riots and wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels and several unsuccessful motion pictures. He has three children, lives in rural Pennsylvania and spends his time Worrying About the State of Our Nation and madly scribbling in a so-far fruitless attempt to Make Things Better.
You can read Lucian Truscott's daily articles at luciantruscott.substack.com. We encourage our readers to get a subscription.
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