U.S. military strike kills 3 in suspected drug-smuggling vessel operation

In the waters of the Eastern Pacific, the United States military has extended the logic of armed conflict into the long-contested terrain of drug interdiction, striking a vessel on September 9 and killing three people it identified as narco-terrorists. The action is part of Operation Southern Spear, a sustained campaign now one year old and 67 strikes deep, born of the conviction that the flow of narcotics into American communities constitutes a threat worthy of lethal force. Whether this represents a new chapter in the war on drugs or a continuation of its oldest tensions — between security a