As we watch American civilization crumble day by day, we cannot help but wonder what happened to the legendary checks and balances designed into its constitution. The executive branch has been running amok, enabled by the judicial branch, while the legislative branch sits on its heels, oblivious to or collaborating with the executive mischief.

Yet suddenly it has shown some spunk. The executive branch has embarked on a campaign of serial mass murder on the Caribbean Sea, an outrage that seems to be proving too much even for this quiescent Congress. President Trump has designated the Cartel de los Soles as a Venezuelan narco-terrorist organization whose drug dealing threatens Americans such that they are at war. He has, therefore, unleashed his military to launch missile strikes against small boats allegedly carrying drugs.

As is usually the case, there are some flaws in Trump’s justification. The Cartel do los Soles is a myth. Venezuelans refer jokingly to army officers who deal in drugs as the Cartel do los Soles because of the sun patches they wear on their uniforms. Some do deal drugs, but general corruption is more likely than a cartel. In any case, Venezuela is not a major source of drugs to the U.S. Presumably the killings are part of American sabre-rattling aimed at destabilizing the Venezuelan regime.

One of the recent missile strikes has raised particular attention. It seems most of the boat’s crew were killed but the boat was still floating with two men clinging to it. The perpetrators sent a second missile to finish the job.

This was more even than murder. According to Ohio Northern University law professor Daniel Maurer, a retired judge advocate general: “Killing them while shipwrecked, while they’re hors de combat—they’re out of the fight—is a war crime.” It would be a clear violation of the American military’s own laws of war, as well as international laws.

This caught the attention of Congress. Both the House and Senate armed services committees intend to look into the legality of the second strike.

The Senate committee’s Republican chair, Senator Roger Wicker, issued a rare joint statement with the top Democrat on the committee, Senator Jack Reed, saying “The committee has directed inquiries to the Department [of Defence], and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.” The Republican chair and top Democrat of the House committee have made a similar statement, promising “rigorous oversight.”

Senator Mark Kelly, Arizona Democrat, retired navy veteran and Donald Trump nemesis, underlined the statements, “We’re going to have a public hearing. We’re going to put these folks under oath, and we’re going to find out what happened, and then there needs to be accountability.”

Meanwhile the president and his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, are ducking and weaving. Trump has passed the buck. “I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike,” he told reporters, “Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.” Note that it was up to Pete, not him.

Pete has passed it on. He called reports that he ordered the second strike “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory” and explained the action as “the fog of war.” In fact, there was no fog and no war. The little boat wasn’t attacking the U.S. navy, it was simply sailing in the open ocean when the navy used it for target practice. Hegseth added they had the back of Admiral Frank Bradley, i.e. Frank gave the order, not me, not Donald.

The congressional committees have not indicated whether they will examine the legality of the overall military operation against the boats, but it demands their attention. All these killings are extrajudicial, not just those of the two shipwrecked survivors. According to New York University law professor and former Pentagon lawyer Ryan Goodman, “Focusing on the shipwrecked is a distraction insofar as it suggests everything else preceding and after that strike was all legitimate. Even under a law of armed conflict, they were all civilians, and we are not actually in armed conflict. Either way, it was all murder.”

A group of former judge advocates general issued an opinion that there is no legal basis for strikes on boats carrying narcotics, saying the president has no authorization to use military force against the cartels. We may hope Congress will take note of these expert opinions, perhaps reminding themselves that the right to declare war is theirs..

As to what the military thinks about all this, we are in the dark. Apparently the Pentagon has presented its legal opinion to members of Congress, but only in confidential sessions.

In any case, it is refreshing to see that Congress, the third branch, has not become entirely supine before the nation’s would-be autocrat. It is manifesting a trace of the responsibility the legendary U.S. Constitution gave it. It has a long way to go to restore its reputation, if not its soul, but this could be a start.