No matter how you slice it, Donald Trump’s invasion of Venezuela is an act of naked aggression. It is blatantly illegal and sets a disturbing precedent of indifference to national sovereignty that tyrants worldwide will be eager to exploit.

The ostensible reason for the US president’s military incursion was to arrest Nicolás Maduro on criminal charges for drug trafficking. But that does not justify invading Venezuela to seize him.

Under the United Nations charter, military force can be used against a sovereign nation in only two circumstances – with the authorization of a UN security council resolution, or in self-defense from an actual or imminent armed attack. But there is no security council resolution, and Venezuela posed no such military threat to the United States.

Trump has suggested that he was acting to defend the United States from the threat of drugs emanating from Venezuela, but that rationale for military action is dangerous. To begin with, Venezuela is not a source for the real drug threat – the fentanyl that has been killing so many Americans. It is a route for some cocaine, generally produced in neighboring Colombia, but most of that goes to Europe, not the US.

Moreover, drug trafficking is a crime that should be met with law enforcement, as the UN general assembly made clear in denouncing the invasion of Panama in 1989 to arrest its leader, Manuel Noriega, on drug charges. Drug trafficking has never been recognized as an armed attack that would justify the use of military force.

The concept of self-defense requires an actual military attack. The distinction is important because lots of cross-border activity causes........

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