This growing sense of lawlessness in the use of the US military extends to international waters. Since August, the US military presence in the Caribbean has increased. More than 4000 additional troops, eight warships, a nuclear-powered attack submarine and stealth fighters have all been deployed. Exactly what they’re doing there remains unknown. They might be preparing to launch an attack on Venezuela, by militarising the war on drugs with strikes against criminal gangs designated narco-terrorists by the Trump administration. Or they could be planning an operation to fulfil Trump’s desire to retake the Panama Canal. Maybe Hegseth just got over-excited to discover there’s a place called the Virgin Islands.
The USS Gravely, one of the American warships off the coast of Venezuela.Credit: AP
Whatever the reason, two recent US military strikes on speedboats in the southern Caribbean raise serious concerns. In the first strike, 11 people onboard were killed. In the latest strike, three people were killed. The Trump administration claimed both boats were carrying drugs destined for the US.
No evidence has been provided to support the administration’s justification for the strikes. A planned classified briefing from the Department of Defence, which would have allowed for bipartisan questions on the first strike, was cancelled. Both strikes were ordered as a first, not a last resort, demonstrating a dangerous and, likely illegal, escalation in the US military’s use of lethal force. Due process is a democratic principle that Australia has committed to uphold. The US, our ally, has literally blown that principle out of the water.
It’s probably no coincidence that the strikes occurred at a time when the US military has been stripped of expertise and experience. An abridged list of high-ranking military personnel sacked by Hegseth this year includes the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations and the heads of the Defence Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Naval Special Warfare Command.
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The abrupt transition from a US defensive military posture to an offensive one is a serious problem for Australia. The ANZUS treaty binds us to act on common dangers with the US. We have American military facilities in Darwin, Exmouth and Alice Springs. China, which has long accused the US of being a warmonger and contributing to international instability, can now quite reasonably question Australia’s support of a foreign power that openly spouts violent rhetoric and takes military actions that are outside the parameters of international law.
As he signed the Department of War executive order in the Oval Office, Trump said: “I think it’s a much more appropriate name, in light of where the world is right now. It sends a message of victory.”
Victory against whom is what the world is now waiting on Trump to name.
Melanie La’Brooy is an award-winning novelist who has lived in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and writes on politics and social justice issues.
