Questions about strikes on alleged drug boats
Updated October 24, 20254:01 PM ET
By Franco Ordoñez, Ryan Lucas
The U.S. military carried out three more strikes on alleged drug boats this week. Two of those attacks were not in the Caribbean Sea but in the eastern Pacific Ocean, signaling an expansion of the Trump administration's campaign against drug trafficking from South America ...
The Pacific strikes represented the eighth and ninth known boat attacks. On Friday, Hegseth announced an additional strike in the Caribbean, raising the known death toll to 43. The Trump administration has yet to provide public evidence to support its assertions that the individuals on the boats were cartel members and that the vessels were transporting drugs, raising concerns about the legality of the strikes and the real goals of the White House campaign ...
International law experts say it's an unprecedented amount of military hardware to confront suspected drug boats, which has fueled questions about whether the operation is about countering narcotics trafficking or instead toppling Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro ...
"It's such overkill in this naval deployment that there could be no justification if all the United States is trying to do is to attack a couple of small boats and intimidate drug traffickers," said Benjamin Gedan, who led the Venezuela portfolio at the Obama White House. "It's either a bluff meant to scare the pants off the Venezuelan generals and encourage them to rise up and remove the president … or actual preparations for some sort of war with Venezuela" ...
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/24/nx-s1-5584173/trump-drug-boats-venezuela-maduro
= new reply since forum marked as read
We have plenty of military muscle to capture these boats without killing all on board and destroying all evidence....
If evidence of the drugs exists.
Kick in to the DU tip jar?
This week we're running a special pop-up mini fund drive. From Monday through Friday we're going ad-free for all registered members, and we're asking you to kick in to the DU tip jar to support the site and keep us financially healthy.
As a bonus, making a contribution will allow you to leave kudos for another DU member, and at the end of the week we'll recognize the DUers who you think make this community great.