by Jacob G. Hornberger

November 14, 2025

Given President Trump’s and the Pentagon’s drug-war killings in the Caribbean and Pacific, it’s time for me to revisit my thesis regarding America’s periodic irrational mass killings. It has long been my conviction that these killings at the hands of “off-kilter” Americans are being subconsciously motivated by the mass killings that have been — and continue to be —committed by the U.S. government — specifically the national-security branch of the government.

No, I can’t prove the validity of my thesis. And I’m not a psychiatrist. Nonetheless, I have come to believe that it is the best explanation for these irrational mass killings. After all, as I have long pointed out, the most popular explanation for these killings — widespread gun ownership — fails to explain why these types of irrational mass killings don’t take place in Switzerland, where most everyone owns guns. There has got to be a reason why they occur here and not there — and I contend that that reason lies with the mass killings that have been carried out — and continue to be carried out — against foreigners by the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA.

Under the domination of the U.S. national-security branch, the U.S. government has become one of the biggest killing machines in history. We don’t know exactly how many foreigners that it has killed, either directly or indirectly (e.g., through invasions, occupations, sanctions, embargoes, coups, provoking wars, etc.), but the death toll certainly has to lie in the millions. That’s nothing to scoff at. When it comes to killing, there is no doubt that the U.S. national-security state has made American Number 1 in the world. But that’s nothing to be proud of. Remember: We condemn Nazi Germany for killing 6 million people.

Why is President Trump’s and the Pentagon’s killing spree in the Caribbean relevant here? Because the spree goes to the heart of my thesis, which is this: The Caribbean killings demonstrate perfectly that the U.S. government places no or very little value on the lives of certain foreigners, in this case Latin Americans.

After all, it’s not as though the Pentagon’s vast, all-powerful military armada is engaged in real Naval battles against the boats they are attacking. For all practical purposes, these are defenseless people inside those boats. Whether they are transporting drugs or not, they are, quite simply, being massacred by U.S. military might.

Why is that important? Because U.S. military personnel are choosing to kill them, knowing full well that there is another option, one that entails little or no risk — intercept the boats, board them, arrest the occupants (if drugs are found), and bring them to the United States for trial.

That’s the choice Trump and the Pentagon face in the Caribbean: Let the people in those boats live and face the possibility of a criminal trial for allegedly violating U.S. drug laws or simply kill them.

Trump and the Pentagon have chosen the second option. They have chosen to massacre these people, all of whom are undoubtedly very poor Latin American people, rather than let them live. It’s a reflection of the lack of value that the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA have placed on the lives of foreigners ever since the U.S. government was converted to a national-security state.

It was always assumed that this U.S. killing machine could operate overseas without adversely affecting American society. For decades, Americans have been told to just keep going about their daily lives — go to work, go shopping at the mall, take vacations — and were told not to concern themselves with all the foreigners who were being killed. “Just trust us that we are doing what needs to be done to keep you ‘safe’ from harm.”

This mindset of indifference to the value of foreign life was reflected perfectly by the words of former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright when she was asked whether the deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children from the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq were worth it. She responded that yes, those deaths of those half-a-million Iraqi children were, in fact, “worth it.” By “it,” she was referring to regime change in Iraq, which is obviously what those drug-war killings of those boat people in the Caribbean are all about with respect to Venezuela.

I contend that the U.S. government’s killing machine overseas is somehow triggering something internally in “off-kilter” Americans, which is causing them to engage in copycat killings here at home. Sure, someone could respond, “No, Jacob, that can’t be the case because those people over there are foreigners, not Americans. The mass killers here at home are killing Americans.” But who knows what goes on inside the mind of an off-kilter mass killer? He might well not draw the fine distinction that holds that the lives of Americans are more valuable than the lives of foreigners. He might well consider that all lives — foreigner and American, children and adults — are equally worthless in value.

If I’m right, everyone should brace himself for more irrational mass killings at the hands of the off-kilter people. It’s just a price we have to pay for living under a national-security state form of government, one that enforces its ongoing, never-ending, and perpetual senseless, failed, futile, deadly, and destructive war on drugs through the cold-blooded killing of foreigners.