The Trump administration recently ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to Venezuela. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell claimed that this was done to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States.”

However, U.S. Senator Mike Rounds, a republican from South Dakota, said Tuesday he thinks President Trump’s administration’s decision to send a carrier strike group to Venezuela is for “shock and awe” purposes only.  “I think maybe the president is sending a message that, look, we’re serious about it,” Rounds told “On Balance.”

On Tuesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also announced four more boats were destroyed in the Pacific Ocean by the U.S. military, resulting in 14 men being killed and one survivor clinging to wreckage. The U.S. is getting rather comfortable removing due process and committing war crimes.

U.S. Strikes A 4th Venezuelan Boat, Committing More War Crimes

Hegseth said that the U.S. is creating a show of force in the Caribbean. “There’s about 6,000 individuals that are off the shore there right now. There are, I believe, eight separate military ships in the area, including the Ford coming through. So we are making a real show of force. The president does have the authority to do that. There’s no question about that.”

Hegseth is an infamous Christian nationalist and war monger hoping to instill a theocracy in the U.S.

Rounds said he does not believe that the U.S. will declare war on Venezuela. It seems content to violate the basic human rights of civilians in the meantime and commit war crimes.

Many are expressing concerns that the strikes on civilian boats without due process are becoming a habit that, once established, has shifted the Overton Window in such a way as to desensitize humanity to the atrocities being committed.