Being very proactive
A top Republican and Democrats in Congress suggested on Sunday that American military officials might have committed a war crime in President Trump’s offensive against boats in the Caribbean after a news report said that during one such attack, a follow-up strike was ordered to kill survivors.
The remarks came in response to a Washington Post report on Friday that said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given a verbal order to kill everyone aboard boats suspected of smuggling drugs, and that this led a military commander to carry out a second strike to kill those who had initially survived an attack in early September.
“Obviously if that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Representative Mike Turner, Republican of Ohio and a former chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said on “Face the Nation” on CBS.
Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, said on CBS that if the report was accurate, the attack “rises to the level of a war crime.” And on CNN, when asked if he believed a second strike to kill survivors constituted a war crime, Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, answered, “It seems to.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the thinking is that once the enemy is disarmed and helpless it’s a war crime to kill said enemy.
I don’t fully understand why that doesn’t apply to dropping bombs on small boats, but anyway.
The United States has built up a military presence in the Caribbean meant to put pressure on Venezuela. Trump administration officials have said that they are trying to deter drug smuggling, and that the boat strikes, which have killed more than 80 people since early September, are part of a purported formal armed conflict with drug cartels. But members of Congress have been voicing concerns over the legal justification being used to conduct them.
Well it certainly sounds weird. What formal armed conflict? The drug cartels have formally declared war?
Democrats have repeatedly criticized the boat strikes as illegal, likening them to extrajudicial killings. Mr. Kelly was part of a group of six lawmakers who made a video this month that reminded troops they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, though it did not mention any specific order.
On Sunday, Mr. Kelly, who is being investigated by the Pentagon for his remarks in the video, said he had “serious concerns about anybody in that chain of command stepping over a line that they should never step over.”
Mkay so I’m not the only one who doubts the drug cartels have declared war on the US.
Still, many Republicans have expressed support for the military operations in Venezuela. On Sunday, Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a close Trump ally, dismissed The Post’s report and defended the administration.
Mr. Mullin, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Mr. Trump was “protecting the United States by being very proactive.”
Well, that’s one way of putting it. No doubt Lt. Calley would have said it if it had been current jargon at the time.
A failing economy, a healthcare system being dismantled, and social services being eliminated increases the demand, so of course they go after the supply. Prohibition didn’t work either. But as far as supply goes, it would be just as easy (and less expensive) to arrest the smugglers, and destroy their cargo. Trump and Hegseth should be on trial for murder right now, not living their pampered lives and running their stupid yaps on social media.
Shades of “kill them all, God will know his own” except the only god Trump knows is his own monstrous ego.
If we look at this through the lens of Venezuela’s oil reserves, it makes sense. The strategy is to goad Maduro into responding with violence in order to justify a declaration of war.
Mullin has excused the pardon of Juan Orlando Hernandez as “building relationships” in Central America. This is reminiscient of “He may be a bastard, but he’s our bastard.”
Fentanyl is coming in from Mexico. Venezuelan smuggling of cocaine is headed to Europe, and it’s Colombian. Lo siguiente es sorpresa y asombro.
Note about Venezuelan oil
It’s heavy thick stuff like the oil from the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta Canada.
Many US refineries have been adapted to use that sort of heavy oil and it is difficult and expensive to change them to run on the lighter stuff that comes from fracking shale.
Trump’s trade war has made it harder to get such oil from Canada. Is that why he wants regime change in Venezuela?
Interesting.
I should have added that opposition to pipelines carrying that thick oil from Canada through the US to the refineries is an important factor making it difficult for those refiners.