The expert defending the Trump administration's drug boat strikes is likely referring to arguments that the U.S. was in a legitimate "armed conflict" with designated "terrorist organizations," making the boat crews "combatants" and thus legitimate military targets. The primary defense rests on the Trump administration's assertion that it had "determined" the U.S. was in a "non-international armed conflict" with specific drug cartels in Venezuela and elsewhere, which had been designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).