Concerning Kinetic Strikes on Drug Boats: Law, Not Hyperbole

The President and Secretary of War/Defense"known doctrinally as the National Command Authority"have the authority to declare certain forces hostile. Some may argue that the crews of narco fastboats are not akin to hostiles in the war on terror, citing the 2001 AUMF from Congress or that some radical Islamist groups actually declared war on the United States. The administration and others have argued the drug cartels' actual impact on American citizens has been more lethal than that of al Qaeda.

The decision to designate them as hostile is one within the purview of the executive branch. If there is enough political pushback against such a decision, the resolution is within the powers of Congress and, although less likely, the judiciary. It is neither a clear violation of domestic law nor a violation of the law of war.

Finally, some would argue that a president's power to decide what is a threat to national security and to order lethal action is not unlimited. For example, could he declare illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing a threat to national security and order fishing boats blown out of the water? Such reductio ad absurdum arguments simply serve to highlight the stark differences in narcotrafficking operations and other illegal civilian maritime activities. On the scale of maritime threats, narcoterrorist boats are more akin to brigands and pirates than are illegal fishermen.