Letter to the Editor: Columnist’s praise of Trump is nonsense

In his Sept. 21 commentary in The Mercury, opinion writer Lowman Henry mocked what he called the “American Left” for “taking the side” of narco-terrorists, supporting drug-runners, and condoning violent crime in the nation’s cities. According to Henry, President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and sinking of Venezuelan vessels on the high seas brilliantly outmaneuvered his political opponents and made Americans safer. In these recent “enforcement” actions, Henry claimed, the president is only exercising his Constitutional and legal power.

Henry’s argument is nonsense. Opponents of this president do not lament the death of drug traffickers — if that’s who they actually were — or condone violent crime. Instead, as anyone who is truly observing our nation would know, they are lamenting the death of Constitution-based, rule-of-law in our country under this Administration. I suspect Henry knows this. If President Biden or any of his predecessors conducted such lawless actions, Henry and his ilk would be their shrillest critics.  Trump’s use of military assets for law enforcement purposes is pure political theatre. Such acts go well beyond the strictures of U.S. law and, in the case of striking ships in the Caribbean, international maritime law.

The U.S. military has a clearly defined mission, which does not include policing American streets or summary execution of non-combatants. Trump’s use of U.S. military personnel as props harms mission readiness, threatens the morale of military personnel, and creates a terrible precedent for even more autocratic behavior.

The premise of Lowman Henry’s statements regarding “out of control” crime is false. Since 2021, the level of violent crime in most American cities has declined significantly.  Meanwhile, states where the rate of violent crime, including homicide, remains highest include Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Missouri — places that will certainly not receive such Presidential “concern” for public safety as Democratic Party-led cities. For whatever short-term, limited impact the flood of uniformed National Guard may have had on street safety, the economic and social damage to Washington, D.C., its businesses and residents is long-lasting. Rather than “protect” visitors, Trump’s action assures that many fewer will come.

What Henry does not address is what America — urban and rural — most needs from the federal government: support for health and other social services, community and rehab programs, local law enforcement agencies, public infrastructure, and education. All such help is on Trump’s chopping block.  American cities do not need uniformed soldiers sent not following a natural disaster but as a pretext and a distraction from, oh, I don’t know, perhaps the Epstein files. Even more pernicious to the social fabric of our country is the pervasive fear and horror created by this Administration’s hideous detainment practices and inhumane, indefinite imprisonment of undocumented men, women, and children.

In a line that reads like a White House press release, Henry claimed the recent air strikes on Venezuelan vessels saved “hundreds if not thousands” of American lives. Of course, by sinking the ships instead of boarding them, evidence for this assertion was destroyed. We’ll never know the accuracy of his hyperbolic assertion. As with sending migrants to brutal prisons in El Salvador, the people who died on the ships had no chance to challenge the Administration’s allegations.

For certain purposes, under certain conditions, nations can exercise jurisdiction over international waters. Using non-lethal force, warships can board vessels with reasonable suspicion of illegal activities. However, international maritime law does not permit disproportionate extrajudicial lethal force. Legal experts generally agree that the attacks on Venezuelan vessels by the U.S. military failed to meet that criteria. Labeling a criminal organization as “narco-terrorist” may make them a legitimate law enforcement target for the Drug Enforcement Agency or the Coast Guard, but not a military one. Henry’s so-called “Leftists” seem to comprehend better than he the terrible precedent just set by this White House in flaunting even the most minimal due process.

Lowman Henry got it backwards. If he really wants to understand who is on the wrong side of issues, he needs only listen to President Trump’s shameful Sept. 23 rant to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. No brilliance whatsoever. For all intents and purposes, the United States has become a de facto monarchy. And we, as well as the entire world, are definitely less safe.

Larry CohenU.S. Foreign Service (ret.), Department of StateSchwenksville