The Many Ways in Which the September 2 Caribbean Strike was Unlawful … and the Grave Line the Military Has Crossed Now that the President has submitted the required War Powers Resolution report to Congress, we can begin to take stock of just how extraordinary and significant last Tuesday’s lethal strike in the Caribbean Sea was. As I will try to explain below, it’s likely that the President lacked any affirmative domestic authority to order the strike, and the strike itself appears to have violated several legal prohibitions. Those legal transgressions, however, aren’t necessarily the most significant thing about the strike. As I’ll discuss at the end of this piece, regardless of which laws might have been broken, what’s more alarming, and of greater long-term concern, is that U.S. military personnel crossed a fundamental line the Department of Defense has been resolutely committed to upholding for many decades—namely, that (except in rare and extreme circumstances not present here) the military must not use lethal force against civilians, even if they are alleged, or even known, to be violating the law. https://www.justsecurity.org/120296/many-ways-caribbean-strike-unlawful/
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