To the editor: Regardless of Humpty Dumpty’s assertion in Lewis Carroll’s “By way of the Trying Glass” {that a} phrase can imply no matter you need it to imply, President Trump’s utility of the phrase “terrorist” to home protesters and, just lately, to suspected drug smugglers from Venezuela is an abuse of our widespread language (“How Rubio is profitable over Trumpworld on placing Venezuela,” Oct. 17).
Drug smugglers are typically not motivated by a want to sow home unrest in our nation; they merely need to make illicit cash. They’re widespread criminals and needs to be apprehended by our maritime forces and despatched to jail to await trial. As a substitute, alleged drug smugglers had been and proceed to be topic to extrajudicial killings on the excessive seas.
If Trump sincerely aspires to a Nobel Prize for Peace, his actions have to mirror that sincerity. This ruthless and probably illegal killing spree doesn’t.
Philip Baer, North Hollywood
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To the editor: Rising stories of lethal U.S. operations linked to Venezuela ought to alarm each American. If U.S. personnel or coverage choices contributed to the deaths of civilians, that might not merely be a coverage failure — it might represent homicide underneath worldwide regulation.
Such grave allegations require greater than silence or dismissal. America has an ethical and authorized responsibility to research any credible proof of extrajudicial killings or human rights violations, no matter who approved or carried them out.
Our nation’s credibility relies on transparency and justice. To look away from doable crimes dedicated in our title is to condone them.
Carl F. Enson, Oak View