Even if you accept the president’s assertion of an “armed conflict” with drug smugglers, blowing apart survivors of a boat strike would be a war crime.
Rep. Michael R. Turner (R–Ohio), a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, likewise recognized the import of the Post‘s article during a Face the Nation interview on Sunday. “If that occurred,” he said, it would be “very serious,” and “I agree” it “would be an illegal act.” He noted that “there are very serious concerns in Congress about the attacks on the so-called drug boats” and about “the legal justification [that] has been provided.” But he said the follow-up strike described by the Post “is completely outside of anything that has been discussed with Congress.”