Originally published in the Summer/Fall 2025 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 77, printed December 11. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Summer/Fall 2025 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

On Sept. 2, a U.S. missile was fired on a small boat in the Caribbean, killing several people and setting the boat on fire. Two crewmembers survived the attack andwere clinging to wreckage, when a second missile was fired, killing both sailors.

President Trump says we are at war against “narco-terrorists.” If we really are at war, then killing enemy combatants who are wounded or shipwrecked is a war crime.

And if we’re not at war, then U.S. military personnel are being ordered to kill people who are simply accused of running drugs – with absolutely no evidence, and no attempt to collect it.

That’s not a war crime, it’s just murder.

It’s as if some cops decided to shoot some kids because they thought they might be carrying drugs. It would be murder, and everyone would know it.

Recently, six members of Congress, all of them veterans of the military or intelligence services, put out a video reminding active-duty personnel that you have the right – and even the obligation – to refuse unlawful orders.

That’s Article 92 of the UCMJ. It says you have the duty to follow lawful orders – not unlawful ones.

We are asking sailors and other military folks based in Virginia, and especially in Norfolk, to think about what you’re being asked to do.

Ships out of Norfolk have participated in the bombing of Houthis in Yemen in defense of Israel, at the very time that Israel was carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Last February, the USS Harry S. Truman carried out a massive bombing of Somalia, an African country being torn apart by a civil war. It was the largest bombing attack by an aircraft carrier in world history.

And ships out of Norfolk are part of the massive flotilla responsible for attacking more than 20 boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing more than 80 people – all without any evidence that these boats were presenting any threat to anyone.

Have you asked yourself what you’re doing in the Caribbean?

President Trump says the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, is a major drug lord, responsible for shipping drugs into the U.S.

Again, there is no evidenceof that. What we do know is that Trump just pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras who was convicted of drug crimes. This guy got 45 years for helping to smuggle tons of cocaine into the U.S. – and Trump pardoned him. That’s how much he cares about drugs.

So what’s going on? Did you know that Venezuela has the world’s largest known oil reserves? More than Saudi Arabia or Iraq or Iran? And because its oil is owned by the Venezuelan government, it’s off-limits to U.S. oil companies.

Back when President George W. Bush got us into the war in Iraq, he claimed there were weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam Hussein was tied into 9/11 and was trying to develop nuclear weapons.

It turned out that none of that was true – but Iraq did have a lot of oil. That’s when people started up the slogan “No Blood for Oil!”

That war cost the blood of a lot of Iraqis – more than 150,000 dead – and more than 5,000 GIs.

How many people, on both sides, will lose their lives if Trump decides to make war on Venezuela?

Nov. 20 marked 80 years since the start of the Nuremberg Trials, in which high-ranking Nazis were held accountable for their crimes. Those trials established the legal principle that “just following orders” isn’t a defense against committing war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Folks, we’re not asking you to break the law. We’re asking you to obey it.

And most importantly, we’re asking you to think about what you’re being told to do.

Some Resources:

Veterans for Peace 757, on Facebook here

Veterans for Peace (National), at veteransforpeace.org

About Face: Veterans Against the War, at aboutfaceveterans.org

GI Rights Hotline, at girightshotline.org and at 877-447-4487