Oct. 22, 2025 7 AM PT
To the editor: Regardless of Humpty Dumpty’s assertion in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” {that a} phrase can imply no matter you need it to imply, President Trump’s software of the phrase “terrorist” to home protesters and, lately, to suspected drug smugglers from Venezuela is an abuse of our frequent language (“How Rubio is winning over Trumpworld on striking Venezuela,” Oct. 17).
Drug smugglers are typically not motivated by a need to sow home unrest in our nation; they merely wish to make illicit cash. They’re frequent criminals and must be apprehended by our maritime forces and despatched to jail to await trial. As an alternative, 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 likely unlawful killing spree doesn’t.
Philip Baer, North Hollywood
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To the editor: Rising studies 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 could constitute murder beneath worldwide regulation.
Such grave allegations require greater than silence or dismissal. The USA has an ethical and authorized obligation to analyze any credible proof of extrajudicial killings or human rights violations, no matter who licensed or carried them out.
Our nation’s credibility is dependent upon transparency and justice. To look away from potential crimes dedicated in our title is to condone them.
Carl F. Enson, Oak View
