Republicans' plan to bomb Mexico is bad

We don't need a literal war on drugs

During the Trump administration, Brett Giroir served as Assistant Secretary for Health, a position that entailed a commission as an admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service and, therefore, required that Giroir sometimes wear a military-style dress uniform.

This is the source of an amusing anecdote reported by Maggie Haberman: Giroir supposedly came to the Oval Office to talk about opioids, and Trump — mistaking him for a military officer — asked about bombing fentanyl labs in Mexico. “The response from White House aides,” Haberman dryly reports, “was not to try to change Trump’s view, but to consider asking Giroir not to wear his uniform to the Oval Office anymore.” Haberman also reports in her book that Trump’s interest in the subject led to him “eventually asking a stunned Defense Secretary Mark Esper whether the United States could indeed bomb the labs,” which suggests the whole thing was not purely a mixup about Giroir’s role.

During the initial news cycle, the contrarian in me w…