It continues. Trump’s war against America continues. After the way he talked about his plans for Chicago, no one should doubt his intention. It’s war. On Truth Social, he said Chicago is going to learn why he renamed the Department of Defense to the “Department of War.” He did this in a post, and on it, he inserted an AI-rendered picture of himself with the words, “Chipocalypse Now”, indicating his desire to turn the city into an apocalyptic wasteland. And, if we listened to the commentary by Pete Hegseth concerning what it means to live with a “Department of War,” instead of a “Department of Defense” we should know it means Trump and his administration plans to engage a killing spree within Chicago: “We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethal. Not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct.”
Legality is not their concern. Death is their concern. Death is their interest. Violence is their interest. Not just any kind of violence, but violence against an American city, against American citizens. For the Trump administration, it is too “politically correct” to seek the preservation of life, even as it is too politically correct to follow the rule of law (“tepid legality”). With such words, with such a demeanor, with such intent, how can anyone say Trump is about “enforcing the law,” when they admit they are not interested in following what the law demands? It is a farce to say Trump’s actions are about enforcing the law. It’s not about the law. It never has been, which is why his administration has been ignoring court orders and injunctions whenever they think they can’t be stopped. They are trying to change the conception of what the rule of law as being what Trump wills, which is how and why he constantly uses Executive Orders, acting like they are superior to the laws established by Congress and what the courts, including the Supreme Court, have said. This, of course, is far from the rule of law in the United States; it is the rule followed by dictators and tyrants who say they represent and are the state.
We can see this new ethos in effect in the way the United States killed alleged drug smugglers (or gang members) from Venezuela. The United States attacked a boat in international waters, one which they say was trafficking drugs. They did not seek to take it and seize it and engage proper procedures. They just went in for the kill. There are many reasons to doubt they were drug runners, among which, the number of people killed (eleven) seem to be too high because that many people would get in the way of space for the drugs. Another is the fact that the boat was not seized, it was destroyed, leaving no means for us to know what exactly was in the boat. The evidence is gone. The action, whether or not the ship was running drugs, was illegal. It was shoot to kill, without concern of making a mistake and killing the innocent. Certainly, there was no need to attack the vessel and kill all those onboard to stop the boat. It could easily have been seized, with the lives of the people preserved and any potential drugs confiscated. What we have instead is a violation of the rule of law, national and international. While the administration tries to claim the smugglers were terrorists and so it was act of war (with all the sophistry required to make such an argument, the kind which could have anyone labeled a terrorist), the rules of engagement were violated, because, once again, the boat could easily have been taken without loss of life. Military ethics are ignored. This, of course, is one of the things we should learn from this encounter, exemplifying what Hegseth said when he indicated that ethics are “too woke.”
A true warrior does not just go seeking to kill, and to kill as many as they want, but rather, they also try to remain true to their principles. They are expected to protect life, which is how they justify their actions. Warriors know how difficult it is to kill, and if they find themselves having to do so, they feel all kinds of stress and anxiety and sorrow afterward, often from the rest of their lives. What Hegseth wants are warriors to be turned into psychopaths. Trump wants such psychopaths to be used against Chicago. Christians, whether or not they are Catholic, whether or not they have studied just war principles and understood how they are to serve as limits to the kinds of actions taken in war, should not only know that having psychopaths as warriors is a dangerous path. They should know that an ideology which promotes the actions of psychopaths is an anti-Christian ideology. Christians are expected to keep to the principles of Christ in all their lives, even at war. They are to seek for peace. They to preserve as much life as is possible. They certainly are not to be bloodthirsty, looking to for excuses to bring as much death and destruction as possible.
I, like many others, have been sounding the alarm. Trump’s ideology is an ideology of death. Trump’s way is the way of death. It is hatred for the other, for anyone who does not glorify him above all else. This is why his cabinet meetings have his cabinet all seeking to outdo each other in offering him outrageous forms of flattery. I have also been saying that he will turn his ill-will against his fellow Americans. His hatred, his desire for torture and death, does not stop with immigrants. The veracity of this should be obvious now with his call to create an apocalyptic wasteland in Chicago. He plans to attack those who do not bow to him and his will. He plans to make lessons out of key cities to frighten the American populace into submission. But, as with all those who engage the way of death, that will not be enough. He, with his administration, seeks maximum lethality. Tyrants always find excuses to have people put to death, even if they are compliant to his wishes. They look for those who do not show enough fervor in their compliance. They look for those they deem unworthy to live, like the poor. They look for those who they just do not like. They become paranoid. And with that, they find excuse after excuse to execute more and more people. Their bloodlust knows no bounds. That certainly happens when an authoritarian in a position of power promotes lethality and violence as ideals.
Christians need to speak out against this. They need to once again promote the way of peace and peacebuilding. They need to speak out against Trump’s calls for war, be it war against other countries like Canada, Mexico, or Venezuela, or war against his fellow Americans. Catholic bishops need to speak out against this. They need to point out those who follow such orders can and will commit mortal sin, as they will engage unjustified killing (murder). Catholic politicians, like J.D. Vance, who claim they do not care if military actions are legal or not, need to be warned that they put their souls in jeopardy. Indeed, they should be told they risk excommunication, and there might come a time in which such an excommunication might need to be placed upon them. Until Christians get serious in following and promoting the ways of peace, the ways of life, non-Christians are not going to take what they have to say seriously, especially when they call themselves pro-life but seek maximum death.
* This Is Another Post From My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series
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