By AAMER MADHANI and LISA MASCARO Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and says the United States is now in an “armed conflict” with them, according to a Trump administration memo obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, following recent U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean. “The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” the memo says. It “means the United States can target members of those cartels with lethal force. Those strikes followed up a buildup of U.S. maritime forces in the Caribbean unlike any seen in recent times. The Trump administration is arguing that it no longer has to consider the individual circumstances of using force, said Waxman, who now chairs Columbia Law School’s National Security Law Program.