Individuals and groups who put their lives on the line to defend the country are true patriots.

True patriots are also those who speak out, stand up, and challenge our leaders, those who put their lives on the line by actively advocating for justice, freedom, and liberty through peaceful means.

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From the stars upon the CIA Memorial Wall; to the Tomb of the Unknowns; to the graves of our patriots across the world; to all the burials at sea; to our wounded warriors and our brave veterans; to our current troops who are placing their bodies on the front lines; and to the peacemakers, negotiators, and activists who have also put their lives on the line, I salute you all.

I wish I could find a way to apologize to all of you for the callous disregard to your honor and safety by your so-called Commander-In-Chief and his henchman, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, both of whom have violated the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice. They have also abandoned the Geneva Convention rules of war, which explicitly outline the parameters for the humanitarian treatment of individuals who are unable to participate in hostilities during armed conflict.

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Our Constitution, however, specifically grants Congress the power “to declare War” – not the President, and not the Judiciary.

If Congress had officially declared war on Venezuela and its president, Nicolás Maduro, whom the Trump administration has charged with sponsoring these alleged “drug cartel trafficking” small boats, then Hegseth would be charged with war crimes for allegedly ordering a second strike to kill two survivors clinging to the debris of a bombed boat.

Since Congress has not made an official declaration of war and the administration has not provided any credible evidence that these boats have been carrying illegal drugs anywhere, including to the United States, the over 80 deaths by US bombs could be considered murder.

But let’s be honest: Donald Trump does not care whether illegal, dangerous drugs enter the United States. He does not care that thousands of people have died after taking these drugs.

If he cared about human life, he would have expanded, rather than eliminated, funding of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to end hunger and disease abroad.

If he cared, he would have expanded, rather than reduced, funding to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program, developed in 2003 under the George W. Bush administration to limit the number of AIDS-related deaths around the globe.

If he cared, he would have advocated for the expansion, rather than reduction, of funding to SNAP nutritional benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and other safety net programs.

And if he cared about dangerous drugs entering the United States, why did he recently pardon the former ultra-conservative National Party president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted in the United States of a drug charge, thereby releasing him from a 45-year prison sentence? Trump has also threatened to cut off all US aid to Honduras if his preferred presidential candidate, another member of the ultra-right National Party, Nasry Asfura, does not win.  

Trump’s extremist actions over the Caribbean follow the classic “Wag the Dog” tactics. The 1997 film of the same name is a political satire starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, loosely adapted from Barry Beinhart’s 1993 novel, American Hero.

The film portrays a political spin doctor and a Hollywood movie producer who concoct a war in Albania to distract voters from a sex scandal in which the President of the United States was caught making advances on an underage girl in the Oval Office weeks before the election.

As it turned out, the war helped the president get reelected.

Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has been throwing spaghetti at the wall to find anything that will stick, anything that will divert attention away from his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

His conspiracy with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was ultimately unsuccessful, though it shut down the government for over a month – all seemingly so Johnson could justify delaying the swearing in of a newly elected Democratic House member, whose signature was needed to pass a discharge petition for the release of the complete Epstein Files.

Even prior to the Republican shutdown, the Trump administration had been bombing small boats in the Caribbean on the pretext of stopping drug trafficking to “Wag the Dog” away from Epstein.

Ultimately, no amount of diversionary tactics will cover the truth.

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