Dec. 1, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: The recent ghastly summary executions by our military of suspected drug traffickers in small boats in the Caribbean has concerned our family.
And so we were pleased to see Sen. Tim Kaine on national television Sunday last voicing concern and possible congressional action against these mass killings.
Where is our Ben Cline? Isn’t there a more humane approach to drug-smuggling interdiction by boat? Can’t a warning be issued to the would-be smugglers to stop and exit their vessel immediately? Then force them to board a rubber raft (to be dropped), and only then destroy the smuggler’s vessel while dispatching a U.S. vessel to recover the would-be smugglers, and floating evidence.
Current U.S. actions carried out by our military under the direct order of Donald Trump appear little short of murder. No jury, no evidence, no appearance before a judge: a summary execution, in the name of “justice” and “making America safe.”
While in the same news cycle, we find out that Trump has just pardoned the ex-president of Honduras (Juan Hernandez), who was recently convicted of drug trafficking in an American courtroom by a jury of U.S. citizens and sentenced to 45 years in jail. He participated in years of drug trafficking from Honduras to the U.S., making millions of dollars doing so. Trump’s reason for pardon: “Some friends told me he was OK.” Oh, dear reader, I confess that I smell a cryptocurrency transfer arriving in the Trump family coffers.
But, the hypocrisy exposed by these two news items viewed together is shocking. Money talks, wealth matters, a reminder of the Confederate soldiers’ truism, “A rich mans’ war, a poor mans’ fight.” FRED FEVRIER Walkers Creek
