WASHINGTON— With the Trump administration continuing its efforts to eradicate drug cartels operating off Venezuela's coastline by destroying drug-laden vessels fueling the "fight of a lifetime" Americans face, Georgia Rep. Rich McCormick is warning that the cartels being targeted could soon begin to use "women and children" as human shields in defense of their lucrative trade.
During an interview with Dome Politics, Rep. McCormick, a former U.S. Marine aviator and emergency room physician, warned that drug cartels will not easily give up their "trillion-dollar industry."
"I have no sympathy for bad guys, but they are going to overcome, improvise, and adapt. Because why? It’s a trillion-dollar industry," said Rep. McCormick. "You kill a terrorist, they will replace. They are going to kidnap people’s families and force them to come here on drug boats. They’re going to start putting women and children on these boats and make this into a moral issue. We saw this with the Palestinians."
McCormick equated the daily death toll of Americans who overdose on illicit drugs to "the worst mass shooting" in American history.
"If you want to talk about civil deaths of any time in our history, there has never been a time in our history where we lost 100,000 people per year, including the Civil War, those were mostly combatants. But we’re losing 100,000 people for year over several years, over 250 people per day," McCormick added. "Imagine the worst mass shooting we ever had. Multiply that by 5 times a day, every day of the year, for 3 years straight, and you will just scratch the surface of what we are dealing with."
The administration recently completed a naval blockade of Venezuela.
"Let’s have a real discussion about what the biggest catastrophe for young people has been at any time, not just modern times, but anytime in American history. This is it. This is a fight of a lifetime."—Rep. Rich McCormick
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