The Legal Questions Surrounding The U.S.'s Boat Bombings

The United States has been using a highly controversial tactic in its effort to stop drug trafficking: bombing suspected “narco-terrorist” boats off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. After a bombshell report in the Washington Post alleging that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered all survivors to be killed during one of these bombings, there has been bipartisan outcry over whether the United States is committing war crimes. In this episode, I'm joined by Laurie Blank, an expert in the law of armed conflict, to break down the legal questions behind these strikes. We explore whether the U.S. can legally classify drug boats as terrorist targets, what counts as self-defense outside a declared war, and how the U.S. can be held accountable for potentially committing crimes.