'The questions are endless': Retired 3-star general pokes holes in Trump's 'act of war'

31 October

Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of U.S. Army Europe, in Wiesbaden, Germany on June 14, 2012 (U.S. Army Europe Images/Flickr)

On Friday morning, October 31, the Miami Herald's Antonio María Delgado reported that the Trump administration "has made the decision to attack military installations inside Venezuela."

President Donald Trump has been ordering military strikes against Venezuela boats that, he claims, are smuggling illegal drugs to the United States. But military strikes inside Venezuela itself, according to Delgado, would "initiate the next stage of" the Trump administration's "campaign against the Soles drug cartel."

Delgado's reporting follows reporting from the Wall Street Journal a day earlier. But while the Journal reported that the airstrikes were a possibility after "the Trump administration ... identified targets in Venezuela that include military facilities used to smuggle drugs," Delgado reported that according to Miami Herald sources, the Trump administration wasn't merely contemplating them, but had made a firm decision.

In response to the Herald's reporting, MSNBC's Ana Cabrera interviewed retired U.S. Army Gen. Mark Hertling — former commander for the U.S. Army in Europe, and now a writer for the anti-Trump conservative website The Bulwark.

When Cabrera noted that according to the Herald, a strike inside Venezuela "could come at any time," Hertling responded, "What I'm more interested in, as a military guy, is: What are the strategic objectives? What's the end state? What's the administration clearly defining as mission success in this? Is it just to bomb targets, or is there something related to that?"

Hertling continued, "Secondly, how does how does this campaign, if you will — if they describe it as such — challenge broader U.S. national defense interests in the western hemisphere? How are they coordinating with other countries in the region? A strike against Venezuela is certainly going to affect countries like Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico. And have they assessed a second and third-order effects of a major naval air strike capability against Venezuela, against not only the other countries in the region, but what does that end state look like?"

Herling went on to describe the "legal ramifications" of such airstrikes under the War Powers Act of 1973, telling Cabrera and her MSNBC colleague David Rohde, "The questions are endless, and I don't think the Trump White House has answered any of them."

Rohde weighed in as well, telling Cabrera and Hertling, "So this would be a direct strike. I mean, you could argue it's an act of war on Venezuelan military facilities. The administration says they're used for drug trafficking. I'm not, again, sure if evidence has been presented of that, but if they strike a Venezuelan military facility, that is an act of war."

When Cabrera mentioned that the Trump administration only briefed fellow Republicans — not Democrats — on the reported plans to strike inside Venezuela, Rohde commented, "It's off the chart, Ana ... You're putting American men and women — they're soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines — in harm's way. And the nation needs to understand why that's happening."

Watch the segment below:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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