Rand Paul: “somewhere off the coast of Venezuela a speed boat with 11 people on board is blown to smithereens. Vice President Vance…”

“somewhere off the coast of Venezuela a speed boat with 11 people on board is blown to smithereens. Vice President Vance announces that ``killing cartel members that poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.'' When challenged that killing citizens without due process is a war crime, the Vice President's response was that he ``didn't give a shit.'' Sometimes, in fits of anger, loud voices will say they don't care about the niceties such as due process. They just want to kill bad guys. For a brief moment, all of us share that anger and may even embrace revenge or retribution. But over 20,000 people are murdered each year in the United States, and somehow we find a way to a dispassionate dispensation of justice that includes legal representation and a trial. Why? Because sometimes the accused is actually not guilty. Even with the best of care, even with the best of justice, sometimes we find out it is the wrong person. As passions subside, a civilized people should ask questions. To be clear, the people bombed to smithereens were guilty, right? If anyone gave a you-know-what about justice, perhaps those in charge of deciding whom to kill might let us know their names, present proof of their guilt, show evidence of their crimes. The administration has maintained that the people that they blew to smithereens were members of a gang, members of Tren de Aragua, and therefore narcoterrorists. Why? Because we say so.…”