More than 30 people killed by US strikes on ‘narco’ boats as Trump launches first attack in Pacific waters

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1. Donald Trump’s administration has struck another alleged drug-carrying vessel, killing two people on board, in what appears to be the first attack in the Pacific Ocean.

   Tuesday’s operation announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brings the death toll from the administration’s campaign to more than 30, as the administration declares itself at war with drug cartels in an expanding military campaign across South America.

   The vessel “was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics,” according to Hegseth.

2. This is just a naval blockade disguised as an illegal drugs operation against another nation. The goal here is just to deny Venezuela the use of waters for trade and travel. US has long wanted to push the current regime out and install one that is friendly to US and allowing them to exploit and sell the oil.

   It is frankly insane. And on top of that, there is a report that black ops forces are on the soil of Venezuela.

   I doubt that is for drugs too.

3. If the headline read (and it has before) China doing this in the South China Sea, everyone would be up in arms about then terrorizing the region. Welp, thats what the US is doing now.

4. Most overdose deaths in the US are caused by fentanyl and other drugs, none of which come from South America. So I’m not sure what the intent of this policy is.

5. Its a free for all. Just plain murder.

6. I find the moral dressing of this conflict really interesting. It jumped so easily from ‘traffickers’ to ‘narco-terrorists’ to make everything sound justified.

7. When the patriot act was passed everyone paying attention said the definition of terrorist would be stretched to allow the government to kill whoever they wanted.

   …and here it is. Going after drug runners on terrorism justifications.

8. Rand Paul has been super vocal on this. Venezuela doesn’t produce fentnal and these boats couldn’t reach the US and are traveling in the area. 

9. Yeah we are totally invading aren’t we 

10. Fine by me. Venezuela (which by the way, has greater proven oil reserves that any other country, but somehow has mismanaged its economy to being on life support) and is a military dictatorship that welcomes Iranian ships into its ports. Columbia’s current president is basically a former terrorist.

    It’s not about preventing any boat from making through – it’s about sending a message. And at the end of the day, missile-ing foreigners of dubious national security threat is something every president for decades has done to some extent – Trump is just getting more heat for it for being Trump.

11. > More than 30 people killed by US strikes on ‘narco’ boats as Trump launches first attack in Pacific waters

    Excellent news! The clamp-down on what used to be called [“Cigarette Boats”](https://uk.boats.com/boats-for-sale/?make=cigarette) – generally 3-engine high-horsepower small-cargo boats transporting high value drugs is, for all nations bordering things, a great idea.

    Their deaths are irrelevant/inconsequential. They chose their path and it did not work out for them. Such is the nature of getting paid to transport narcotics: it pays very very well because it is dangerous and you may die doing it. Also; you’ll probably get away with it and make a ton.

    Some silly people on this sub-reddit imagine that this in some way “new” or “unprecedented” and aver that “one must declare war on nation X in order to kill their citizens in International Waters” and so on – but that is the nature of Reddit.

    To them, I say read this: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2012-12-03/the-reaper-presidency-obamas-300th-drone-strike-in-pakistan and when having finished reading it, bear in mind that that was *just Pakistan*, and remember that governments killing people is natural, normal, and has been going on for several thousand years at this point – thus law and so on is not on the side of the [fruit juice drinker](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/621434-one-sometimes-gets-the-impression-that-the-mere-words-socialism).

    Of course, you may say “I don’t want to be drone striked on my peaceful max-speed straight-line journey on my £250K 700Hp monster just for making an absurdly illogical and very inefficient dash between these two locations, one of which is a Narco Port” and that’s fair enough. The standard advice is to simply put up a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luneburg_lens and – given it makes you deliberately extremely visible on radar, you signal your peaceful intentions.

12. I can’t help thinking there are drug lords deliberately working with the US government and using the US armed forces to eliminate their competition. Just street turf wars, but in the open seas and with full blown militaries.

    After all, no general (or secretary) can resist the million dollar cannonballs drug dealers fire

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