DOJ Blesses Boat Strikes With Trump’s Old Notes
The mainstream media reports the Justice Department's November memo sanctioning military force against migrant boats relies heavily on Trump administration claims about cartels and national security. This 'innovative' legal strategy, unearthed now, conveniently echoes the administration's broader approach to border 'management' – a persistent narrative of crisis used to justify increasingly
militarized responses. Meanwhile, humanitarian concerns are usually docked for later discussion, if at all. Instead of addressing the root causes of migration, which often include US foreign policy and economic interventions, we get a legal framework for deploying 'kinetic' solutions. It’s almost as if the playbook for handling 'undesirable' populations has a well-worn section on 'shock and awe'
tactics, regardless of who's in office or what the actual international law says. Progress, apparently, is circular. How many times will we see 'national security' invoked to bypass ethics and human rights?