Once again, the United States is using lethal force off its shores. In recent weeks, American drones and warships have sunk or disabled a string of speedboats in international waters off Venezuela. Washington says the vessels belonged to narcoterrorist networks tied to the Maduro regime and Tren de Aragua and that they were carrying cocaine and fentanyl precursors bound for the United States. At least 83 alleged traffickers and others are dead. Caracas calls this extrajudicial murder. Human-rights groups call it assassination. Cable-news panels and UN press releases are already rehearsing the same ritual question: Is this legal under international law?
That is the wrong question—not because the answer is obvious, but because the question itself is a trap. It drags debate into a framework that has repeatedly shown itself incapable of distinguishing between arsonists and firefighters. Instead of reflexively asking, “Is it legal?” we should be asking three far sharper questions:
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