These guys are sending poison into our society each month. It is a fucking deluge and law enforcement can’t handle it. Decades of interdiction have barely made a dent in the trade, and the cartels’ networks are stronger than ever. Dollars are washed with increasing sophistication. Look at Panama! It’s the financial capital of Central and South America, and it ain’t from collecting fees from banana boats going through the canal. If we don’t stop these guys, or at least slow them down, they are going to become a major power right on our front porch. Are we supposed to just watch that happen? Do we have to just sit back and go through the farce of this endless ‘drug war’ while our inner city kids kill each other, generation after generation of them unemployable. The suburban kids grow up wasted and useless, and even the country kids have figured they can make meth themselves and eliminate the middle man. Everyone acts rationally except us, and you want to see no evil?”
“I just saw you commit murder, and you are telling me it is officially sanctioned? Fine, let’s march the cons on death row to the firing squad tomorrow. Let’s send the damn lawyers home if we have no more rules of engagement. I mean… I can’t believe we’re having this conversation, Weed. What have you gotten involved in?”
“What did you see out there? A U.S. Navy warplane catching a smuggler in international waters and taking it out. What is the difference between that and a UAV blowing away a terrorist in any number of sovereign nations? Happens all the time, doesn’t it? How about a sniper defending a company of soldiers. No warning, bang, here comes a Hellfire or a high caliber bullet. Precise and quick. Would you rather we waste the coastal village from where they started? The poor farmers who are growing this stuff and still live in squalor? The bottom line is everyone gets screwed but the kingpins down here and the dealers back home.”
“No survivors! Why? Just tell me why?”
“The gloves are off. It sends a message when Juan and the boys go over the horizon and are never heard from again. Before, the Coast Guard would capture some guys after they tossed everything overboard. They would then do some amount of time, then it’s ‘Back, Jack, do it again.’ I’m thinking, after this month, the recruiting offices will have a tougher time making their quota of mules if the mules know there’s a pretty good chance they’ll disappear forever. That fear is another weapon, asymmetric at that. If those guys want to play without rules, we can do that.”