Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth’s Deployment of Maximum Lethality – The Drug of Every Authoritarian Regime

In almost every war, every conflict, every criminal gang, every insurrection, every group of drug dealers, every group of drug users, and every issue involving undocumented or illegal (if you prefer that word) immigration, one could theoretically create maximum deterrence by imposing indiscriminate lethality. That is not how a Judeo-Christian or liberal democracy governed by a Constitution is meant to exact justice.

This is party because, in all of these settings—wars, conflicts, criminal gangs, insurrections, drug networks—there are always individuals with varying degrees of complicity, including some who are nearly innocent. Also, the over-eager, like Sec. Hegseth who take joy in violence and killing, often are mistaken. They want as excuse to kill. 

Indiscriminate lethality inflicted on alleged drug dealers, alleged drug users, or similar actors is not justice. It is injustice. It is predatory. It inevitably murders the innocent. Anyone who has studied authoritarian regimes knows this. And they also know that the authoritarian’s family, friends, patrons, and benefactors are never subjected to such indiscriminate violence, no matter the alleged crimes.

So it is with our current authoritarian, Donald Trump. He pardons a convicted drug trafficker—the former president of Honduras who profited from importing tons of cocaine into the United States—while ordering the obliteration of petty alleged drug runners on the high seas. And when there are survivors, he commits war crimes—murders—by ensuring they are dispatched.

When the opioid crisis unfolded in the United States, driven by pharmaceutical CEOs whose conduct approached that of narco-terrorists, what was the Trump administration’s response? Did they indiscriminately bomb their offices and homes? And while I assign the greatest culpability to the drug manufacturers and dealers, those who choose to use these products—including the wealthy—bear nearly equal culpability. Should they, too, be met with indiscriminate lethality?

In conversations with my own family about immigration, I offered a stark example to expose the injustice of the Trump administration’s family-separation policy and related actions. I explained that the immigration problem could be “solved” tomorrow simply by installing machine guns along the border and killing anyone who attempted to cross. Yes, that would drastically reduce unauthorized entry. But would it be right? No. Hell no.

No matter how justified your anger or how deep your hatred toward those who profit from manufacturing and selling illicit drugs—and toward those who use them—you must consider the consequences for those you love if this kind of vigilantism is applauded. It is not right, and it must stop.

Loren M. Lambert © December 4, 2025