I have to remember that he always does things by gut feeling with no information. It drives me bonkers. He’s using the military as a personal force, and not as it should. He feels it’s his own personal group of enforcers. Oh, brother. From The New Republic via AlterNet:
President Donald Trump’s administration keeps changing its story to justify an unprecedented military strike on an alleged Venezuelan cartel boat transporting drugs. Department of Defense officials privately expressed concerns that the government had changed details of its story about the strike that killed 11 people, according to a Thursday report by the New York Times.
Out of nowhere, he calls this strike on the rumor that it was operated by a Venezuelan drug cartel. He just sends the folks off to bomb (maybe?) a boat apparently owned by *another country*. Where’s the proof? How did he know it was from another country and transporting drugs? I call bullshizzle.
“Shifting the narrative to center the United States is particularly concerning considering the fact that the Trump administration has yet to produce a legal authority for the use of military force against cartels,” wrote New Republic writer Edith Olmsted. Trump claimed this week that the eleven crew members were “narco terrorists” that belonged to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, which the executive branch has labeled a terrorist organization.
I don’t think it was drug runners. But I *DO* Think it belonged to another country. That’s a problem right there. I’m not a lawyer, but it seems this has the potential to be very bad. If Trump finally shows us the *proof*, I might change my mind. Might. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, legal authority? I don’t see any.
But Olmsted said that designation does not serve as a legal basis for a combat strike, and added that the government has “offered no evidence to support its claim that the boat occupants were drug traffickers, despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claiming administration officials “knew exactly who was in that boat” and “exactly what they were doing.” “The actual details still remain murky beneath the Trump administration’s shifting narratives, and the government has been anything but transparent about the military strike, which may prove to have been illegal,” Olmsted wrote.
No, Trump doesn’t know how to think. And getting one country pissed with us could lead to more countries getting pissed with us. Please let this pass quietly with no more said about it. He’s attacked a boat full of supposed drug runners. He’s fought back on the war on drugs. This is ridiculous. This is enough.
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that of all of the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to continue our quest to tell the truth about Trump and ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thanks. Ursula
Tammy Duckworth says he’s practicing for doing the same thing here in US -see Raw Story if you’re interested
What drug runner would have that many people on a boat? They take up space (and weight) that could be used for more product. They require food and water which, again, take up valuable space. They are potential witnesses to the crime. I’m sure there are other reasons to think that this was not a drug boat. I’m also sure we’ll never know the truth.
YEP, To To MANY LOOSE CANNONS in RW FREAK SHOW! NOT trustworthy, LIARS & Psychopaths. The SANE in US, MUST shut this RW BS DOWN, ASAP! tRump & RW Nazi CULT wants CHAOS & WAR, whether within the US or without! Crimming & distraction, while they set-up their RW TAKE-OVER/COUP!