The White House made its most alarming escalation yet by declaring a “non-international armed conflict” against drug cartels, according to a memo to Congress obtained by the Associated Press on Thursday. The term is a pseudo-legal attempt to evade the War Powers Act which reserves to Congress the authority to declare war. The New York Times reported Monday that the US Army has prepared plans for strikes inside Venezuela. Inside the Pentagon, there are active debates on a new national defense strategy focused on US soil and the Western Hemisphere, disclosed in recent Military Times reports. Drug interdiction is invoked as a fraudulent pretext for aggressive military maneuvers akin to the “weapons of mass destruction” in the war against Iraq.