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Sep 10: Letter to Congress [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-09-10
Over the weekend, the United States destroyed a small Venezuelan vessel off the coast of Trinidad, killing its entire crew. The President claims he personally authorized the strike. If true, this action violates international norms and effectively grants every nation on earth permission to kill American citizens and claim self-defense.
This is not strength. It is devastatingly self-destructive.
Far too often, this administration acts with haste and bravado, then retroactively justifies its decisions by invoking national security. By prioritizing speed and spectacle over process and truth, it erodes its own credibility, and ours as a nation.
The United States has long been central to the creation of international law. I will not pretend our motives were purely altruistic; these laws have protected us for decades. The UN Charter, which we helped shape, forbids the use of force except in self-defense or with Security Council authorization. These rules safeguard our citizens abroad, our diplomats, our service members, and our global standing.
Yet this administration behaves as if force is our only tool. We possess a vast array of diplomatic, economic, and strategic instruments to address international challenges. But because these tools do not produce explosions or viral soundbites, they are ignored, dismissed as weak or irrelevant.
We will never know whether the administration’s claims about the Venezuelan crew were accurate, because they were killed extrajudicially. The truth was silenced along with their lives. The administration acted as if it were starring in an action-adventure movie, not governing in the real world. And the cost is profound: our credibility is shattered. Once trust is broken, it is nearly impossible to restore. Our adversaries already doubted us. Now our allies must, too.
As a member of Congress, you have the power and the responsibility to stop this pattern of reckless behavior. I urge you to use every tool at your disposal to prevent this administration from endangering American lives and dismantling the legal and moral infrastructure that has protected us for generations.
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