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US vice president JD Vance has rounded off a week of military news - with the rebranding of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, and the American missile strike on a Venezuelan “drug boat” – by saying he doesn’t “give a s***” if people call the aforementioned attack a “war crime”.
According to President Donald Trump, the strike killed 11 people, and took place while “the terrorists” he says were smuggling drugs for the Tren de Aragua gang “were at sea in international waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States”.
Experts have questioned the legality of Trump’s actions, with Adam Isacson of the research and advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America writing on Bluesky that “lethal force against a civilian vessel in international waters is a war crime if not in self-defense”.
“There is zero evidence of self-defense here. Looks like a massacre of civilians at sea. Even if they had drugs aboard, that’s not a capital offence,” he said.
Juan S. Gonzalez, a former National Security Council official under President Joe Biden, tweeted that the strike “is legally questionable under both US and international law”.
Asked for a response to concerns about legality, a White House spokesperson told The Independent a “presidentially-directed strike” was performed in defense of “vital U.S. national interests and in the collective self-defense of other nations who have long suffered due to the narcotics trafficking and violent cartel activities of such organizations”.
“The strike was fully consistent with the law of armed conflict. This precision strike in international waters was conducted in a manner to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel and did not entail the use of ground forces,” they said.
And Vance defended the move in a post to Twitter/X on Saturday, writing that “killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military”.
After political commentator Brian Krassenstein replied that “killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime”, Vance didn’t hold back in response.
“I don’t give a s*** what you call it,” he said.
The sweary response from the VP has since been condemned by social media users, with Krassenstein going on to call for Vance’s impeachment:
Another questioned how long it would take until the strike is used “as a pretext to kill US citizens without a trial”:
A third argued “there would be a massive media uproar” if former vice president Kamala Harris shared something like this on Twitter/X:
Journalist Mehdi Hasan pointed to Vance’s time at Yale Law School in his response:
While Kentucky senator Rand Paul branded the vice president’s tweet a “despicable and thoughtless sentiment”:
indy100 has approached Vance’s office for comment.
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