Official Washington is seized at the moment with the question of whether efforts to stop what amounts to chemical warfare against the United States have involved violations of the laws of war and, therefore, illegal orders to military personnel.

Specifically, congressional committees are investigating the use of lethal force to destroy Venezuelan fast boats fitting the profile of drug traffickers of the Soles cartel’s seaborne smuggling operations. 

The transparent hope of congressional Democrats and, apparently some Republicans, is to find a pretext for removing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. 

Like the recent video by six Democratic legislators encouraging service personnel to refuse to obey illegal orders, the practical effect will be to render the U.S. armed forces less unified, focused and ready at a time when serious threats to the national security from Communist China, sharia-supremacists and other enemies are metastasizing.

This is Frank Gaffney.