Deadly strike on boat was act of war

[struggle4progress]

Sept. 4, 2025, 5:11 PM EDT
By Julio Ricardo Varela, MSNBC Columnist

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. military blew up a vessel in the Caribbean, killing 11 people. The administration said the boat had departed from Venezuela and described the operation as a narco-trafficking bust against Tren de Aragua gang members. To anyone who knows the tragic history of U.S. interventionism in Latin America, it was an act of war.

This isn’t the first time a mysterious explosion at sea has been used to shape American public opinion and drum up pro-war sentiments. In 1898, the battleship USS Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 sailors. The cause was never proven, but American newspapers exploited the ambiguity to blame Spain, stoking outrage that fueled the Spanish-American War. Within months, the United States had radically recast power in the Caribbean, a grip it has maintained ever since, even when such power was challenged during the Cold War ...

... The Trump administration quickly produced a blurry video of the explosion, but the images don’t prove who was aboard, what they were doing or whether drugs were even present. The White House has offered no hard evidence that the dead were members of a gang. “Pentagon officials were still working Wednesday on what legal authority they would tell the public was used to back up the extraordinary strike in international waters,” The New York Times reported.

But for a president who has promised to “pursue our manifest destiny,” this is part of a larger script already in motion. “In the Trump era, a new manifest destiny is here, accelerating protectionism and expansionism at the cost of the powerless,” I wrote at the start of Trump’s second term. This worldview, shaped by a 19th-century ideology that also fueled the war against Spain 127 years ago, treats the Western Hemisphere as territory still to be controlled ...

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-boat-strike-caribbean-venezuela-drug-war-rcna229113

[struggle4progress]

1. Using Labels, Not Law, to Justify Lethal Force

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the U.S. military had attacked an alleged drug vessel in international waters, killing what he described as 11 “terrorists” who he claimed were members of the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela. The strike, which appears to be unlawful under international and domestic law, marks a sweeping escalation and departure from the U.S. military’s approach to drug interdiction. Borrowing language from the post-9/11 “Global War on Terror,” the Trump administration is attempting to turn counternarcotics missions into counterterrorism operations. But applying a new label to an old problem does not transform the problem itself – nor does it grant the U.S. president or the U.S. military expanded legal authority to kill civilians.

The Trump administration’s description of the boat is not much different from any number of drug vessels and fast boats that attempt to evade U.S. authorities. As a former naval line officer and JAG who has both advised on the law of naval operations and witnessed firsthand how the Navy works with the Coast Guard to interdict suspected drug vessels, I can attest that the United States has longstanding law enforcement rules to deal with these situations. These rules have been in place for decades. Typically, such a boat would be intercepted and boarded, the drugs confiscated, and the people on board arrested and prosecuted. Longstanding law enforcement statutes and rules dictate that the Coast Guard takes the lead in maritime law enforcement operations, using well-established procedures to halt any suspected drug vessel. If the vessel refuses to comply, the Coast Guard may resort to firing warning shots and disabling fire. None of these escalation of force procedures were followed here—why?

This attack appears to have been led by U.S. special operations forces—not the U.S. Coast Guard. Rather than follow standard military procedures, the Defense Department, acting on the president’s orders, used an MQ-9 Reaper drone, run by special operators, or a military helicopter, to carry out the attack, killing everyone on board.

Remarkably, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Mexico on Wednesday that, “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it’ll happen again. Maybe it is happening right now.” The decision to destroy and not interdict the alleged drug vessel, killing all civilians onboard, raises a host of questions and concerns. Brian Finucane has already done an expert job in outlining the core legal issues. Here, I want to explore the key operational concerns for the U.S. military, especially if these deadly strikes are going to continue, as the Trump administration promises ...

https://www.justsecurity.org/119985/labels-ustify-lethal-force-venezuelan-boat-strike/

[GreenWave]

2. Has anyone seen evidence of grieving family members?

[maxsolomon]

6. Meaning it didn't happen?

Have you seen any evidence it actually happened?

[GreenWave]

7. It is bizarre, but I think we would have seen a stronger reaction.

Meaning it is looking more like AI

[MrWowWow]

3. Pre-9/11 Anniversary Festivities?

Last edited Fri Sep 5, 2025, 08:07 PM - Edit history (1)

Or just more DICKtator bravado? What's stinky dollhands gonna do for his Reichstag Fire, so he can declare Martial Law? So doing would suspend the Constitution, and cancel the 2026 Midterms. Ya'll ready for that?

[Lovie777]

4. I don't know what rule or law pertaining....

to war time, but can elections take place here in the US?

shithole and the GQP will do anything to not have elections.

[Midnight Writer]

5. Remember last term, when Trump spoke about the President of (was it Indonesia? Singapore?) personally

shooting arrested drug suspects in the head?

He thought that was splendid.

And that was before his so-called "mental decline".

[tulipsandroses]

8. This is still so unbelievable to me. Even if they were drug runners, why weren't they arrested? And why kill low level

drug runners? You think El Chapo was out there on boats? Even if I believe that they were drug runners, wouldn't it make more sense to go after the leaders? Sammy the bull is living his best life after Gotti died in prison. 2 very evil men - The Government did not blow them up.

[allegorical oracle]

9. Puzzled at how that one relatively small boat was singled out to be

obliterated. It was obviously fast -- had four engines astern, but didn't appear that eleven people would fit on board. If it's legit (not AI), it might have been carrying drugs. But it didn't appear to be threatening the USA. So can't see what right we had to attack.