War?: Crimes.

“War, it ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker
War, it got one friend, that’s the undertaker”

The regime’s actions around Venezuela are crimes.

It really is that simple.

The only real question is whether they’re war crimes or just crime crimes.

And that uncertainty is only there because it’s the military doing them; if anyone else started blowing up boats and messing around with air traffic then it’d just be obvious: these are crimes.

But the U.S. extends altogether too much benefit of the doubt to military activities, so we’re stuck with the question.

Is it war?

The easy answer is no, of course it isn’t. The U.S. president does not actually have the authority to declare war so, without an act of Congress, the United States is not “at war”.

But “war” is just a state of armed conflict between two groups, both of whom claim the status of “nation”, so you could argue that a state of war exists when a nation is attacked but has not “declared war”. Fair enough.

But the U.S. has not been attacked.

So all the boat sinkings and the associated killings are not war crimes; they’re just plain old crime crimes.

Destruction of property, assault with a deadly missile, piracy, murder; all of those crimes and more.

But declaring the airspace over another country to be closed is definitely an act of war, even though the U.S. president does not have the authority to declare war.

That’s trickier.

In that situation, Venezuela would have every right to claim to be “at war” since the U.S. has commited an act of war against them.

But the U.S., since the President cannot declare war, is not at war.

So what Trump, damn his name has committed there is probably best viewed as terrorism: criminal acts intended to elicit political change.

And, of course, abuse of power.

Dereliction of duty, violating the oath to uphold the Constitution.

Issuing illegal orders.

All of these things, certainly, though to know exactly what they’d be called as crimes you’d need an actual lawyer.

Treason, probably?

But not war crimes.

Because from any reasonable perspective, the United States is not at war.

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arkady

Author at This Needs Fixin'

a pseudonymous observer of Things That Need Fixin'