During the Watergate Crisis, President Richard Nixon fired the Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox on Oct. 20, 1973, in what was called the "Saturday night massacre." Nixon had first directed Attorney General Elliott Richardson to dismiss Cox. Richardson refused and resigned. One wonders if today's attorney general ever read that history.
In many ways, the Trump administration has stretched the law beyond its limits ethically and legally. That the Trump family has made a fortune because of the man in the White House may not be illegal. It certainly reeks of massive conflict of interest.
Where Trump has indeed broken the law is ordering the military to carry out law enforcement duties specifically prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.
Venezuela is the most egregious example. Blowing up boats allegedly carrying drugs is something few Americans would oppose if they don't understand the law or know such an action violates the law. And ordering the National Guard to be sent to states other than their own is questionable at best.
In Venezuela, according to The New York Times on Oct. 2, "President Trump has decided that the United States is engaged in a formal 'armed conflict' with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are 'unlawful combatants,' the administration said in a confidential notice to Congress this week."
Thus, Trump can claim that as commander in chief, he is authorized to use military force. Currently about 10,000 sailors, Marines and special forces are deployed in perhaps a dozen ships in the Caribbean, along with fighter aircraft and drones off the Venezuelan coast.
So far, seven "drug boats" and a semi-submersible have been sunk by U.S. military forces, which clearly should have been done by law enforcement officials, according to the law.
Trump could have gone to Congress to get a resolution authorizing the use of military force. He did not, fearing it would not pass, and more importantly, because of his expanded view of executive authority. That also included a fly-by of B-52s designed to rattle the Maduro regime.
In the last attack, two men survived and were repatriated to Ecuador and Colombia. The mother of one protested that her son was not a druggie. Whether true or not, Venezuela is not the center of the drug and fentanyl trade in Latin America. According to some sources, Venezuela exports to the Caribbean, not the United States. And Colombia and Mexico are the major sources of drug trafficking.
The situation was made more opaque by the retirement or firing of the Southern Command commander, Adm. Alvin Holsey. While the Secretary of Defense's office issued complimentary press releases about the admiral's service, the administration otherwise seemed disinterested. There is no other plausible reason why the admiral would leave, other than he was fired or concluded he could not carry out his orders in good faith.
Cynics, who are experienced realists, see Trump's actions as provoking regime change in Venezuela. In essence, President Nicolás Maduro has become a South American James Comey or John Bolton, suffering the wrath of Trump. One wonders if Trump worries about provoking another Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq with the myth of regime change to which he was once violently opposed.
Make no mistake. If Trump were truly serious about declaring a war on drugs and cartels as enemy combatants, Mexico would be in his sights. Perhaps, with his new attack on Colombian President Gustavo Petro -- and lack of recall of Plan Colombia in which the United States spent billions of dollars to stop the drugs -- Venezuela may be a new target.
It is also a further myth that the National Guard is preventing or reducing crime. It has been charged with protecting U.S. facilities and personnel, not arresting criminals for which they have no authority.
At one time when laws were respected and there was a Congress, a furor would have erupted over this militarization of the drug war that failed and over mobilizing the Guard. Both Houses of Congress have been derelict. And, frankly, because Republicans have the majority, they have the responsibility to exercise checks and balances on an over-zealous executive.
Remember the August 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution and a blank check for Vietnam. This time we don't need a resolution to stumble into another potential quagmire.
Harlan Ullman is UPI's Arnaud de Borchgrave Distinguished Columnist; senior adviser at Washington's Atlantic Council, chairman of a private company and principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. His next book, co-written with Field Marshal The Lord David Richards, former U.K. chief of defense and due out next year, is Who Thinks Best Wins: Preventing Strategic Catastrophe. The writer can be reached on X @harlankullman.
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