‘Untie The Hands Of Our Military’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Latin American cartels the “Al-Qaeda” of the Western Hemisphere and anticipated the Trump administration will continue its military campaign in the region.

Speaking to U.S. troops, Hegseth began by saying that the country “fought for 20 years Islamist enemies around the world.” “I was there, there was a lot of goodness in what was achieved by our troops,” he added.

Hegseth went on to say that, however, “we have other entities in our hemisphere that have been poisoning America’s young people and Americans for far too long.” “Drug cartels, narco terrorists. They go by different names but are basically the al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere. President Trump said said we’re going to untie the hands of our military and make sure they understand there’s a new dynamic,” Hegseth claimed.

The U.S. has continued targeting alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific over the past weeks. He said on Tuesday that the latest struck four boats and killed 14 people.

Hegseth said in a social media post that the attacks took place on Monday “at the direction of President Trump.” “The Department of War carried out three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific,” he added.

Overall, at least 57 people have been killed in the strikes carried out by U.S. forces since the campaign in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific began in September.

Another report detailed that the Trump administration is so confident that its military campaign is so popular that it doesn’t need approval from Congress.

Concretely, a White House official told Politico that the strikes against the vessels in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific fulfill a campaign promise from Donald Trump to deal with drug cartels.

The official went on to say that lawmakers have been briefed on the strikes several times since the campaign began in September and that the administration is “working through additional requests for information from the Hill.”

However, a growing number of Republican senators are publicly demanding greater oversight of the campaign, arguing they have been left out. They include Thom Tillis, James Lankford and Mike Rounds, as well as Rand Paul.