The ‘war on terror’ has killed millions. Trump is reviving it in Venezuela | Daniel Mendiola

After decades of terrorizing civilians in the name of fighting terror, the White House is trying to do it with even less oversight

For the last two months, US forces have amassed outside Venezuela and carried out a series of lethal strikes on civilian boats. The Trump White House has ordered these actions in the name of fighting narco-terrorists" - a label apparently applicable to anyone suspected of participating in drug trafficking near Latin American coastlines. More than 80 people have already been killed in these pre-emptive strikes, and war hawks are calling for expanded military action to depose the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro.

Watching this play out, I am reminded of a passage from the geographer Stuart Elden's award-winning 2009 book, Terror and Territory. In discussing how to study the war on terror", Elden observed that it did not make sense to study terrorism as something unique to non-state actors.

Daniel Mendiola is a professor of Latin American history and migration studies at Vassar College