‘America falls victim to its own pre-emptive doctrine’

This is apropos three letters to the Editor titled “America falls victim to its own pre-emptive doctrine” carried by the newspaper on Monday, Tuesday and yesterday.

When nations normalize pre-emptive violence externally, elements within their own society begin to internalize the same logic—that grievance can justify aggression, that perceived threats demand immediate force, and that violence is a legitimate expression of injury. This tragedy is a domestic echo of a doctrine whose psychological fractures now reach into American neighborhoods and military families.

These external and internal patterns converge with a new and overlooked threat: America’s own criminal ecosystem, which is deeply intertwined with the consequences of its foreign and domestic policies.

According to law-enforcement estimates, there are approximately 172,000 cartel-affiliated and illegal-gang operatives inside the United States, embedded in trafficking, distribution, logistics, and underground financial networks. If aggressive external crackdowns in Venezuela and Colombia disrupt these supply chains, tens of thousands of operatives inside the United States will suddenly lose their income, hierarchy, and criminal ecosystems.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026