With thanks to Denis’s piece of yesterday. Lots has been learned, and it’s Not Pretty. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that Hegseth will fall on his sword, too. The predominant emotions are anger and disgust. But the s*** always flows downhill, and there are a lot of people having to explain themselves over the whole September 2nd boat incident. Better start brushing up on the resumes, because they are all going to go down. After my enlightening conversation with Denis yesterday, any sympathy I had is gone. Boom. From, again, Raw Story:
New details are emerging about. the Trump administration’s Sept. 2 strike on a vessel they claimed was trafficking drugs to the United States, which cast serious doubt on the validity of the military target. According to The New York Times, “Multiple people who have seen video of the attacks say the survivors climbed on the overturned hull and waved to something overhead, a gesture interpreted as an attempt to surrender, beckoning rescue or trying to signal other alleged drug traffickers. The boat strike has drawn congressional oversight, and the legality of the entire military campaign is in dispute.”
Surrender. Rescue. They still died. What kind of cowflops was that? Killing survivors. That’s wrong in half a hundred ways. We still have *no* proof that they were smuggling drugs. None. They’re killing small boats in the Caribbean on a guess, on a whim. Because they can, apparently. They’re practicing for something … skeet shooting? They never give a warning. They just blow up small motorboats.
Making matters worse, according to CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Admiral Frank Bradley, who testified to Congress about the details of the strike this week, said that the vessel that was destroyed wasn’t even headed to the United States. Rather, “the alleged drug traffickers killed by the US military in a strike on September 2 were heading to link up with another, larger vessel that was bound for Suriname – a small South American country east of Venezuela – the admiral who oversaw the operation told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his remarks.”
Really? There was no justification for the first OR second strike. That’s illegal, no matter where the boat was, especially after killing the survivors! The more that comes out, the more disgusted we should be. And seriously, what the hell is going on here??!! These (expensive!) strikes continue, but Trump pardoned a cocaine dealer. Some war against drugs. Some cowflops.
Bradley “argued there was still a possibility the drug shipment could have ultimately made its way from Suriname to the US, the sources said, telling lawmakers that justified striking the smaller boat even if it wasn’t directly heading to US shores at the time it was hit.” He also said he believed that the survivors clinging to the hull were trying to continue their drug run. However, this comes as a mounting chorus of legal experts say the strikes amounted to a war crime and unlawful use of military force, contradicting the longstanding policy of interdicting and arresting the crews of drug trafficking vessels. It also comes as new reporting says the military fired on survivors of one of the shipwrecks to eliminate them, which would be open-and-shut illegal under any interpretation of the rules of war.
This has felt off since the first boat was hit. There’s no need to kill them. You stop and search the boat. You don’t assume they have drugs. And how many dead people did NOT have drugs? We’ll never know. This is a precursor to Trump invading Venezuela. He’s trying to find one last excuse to send our military in. It will devastate the country and its people. Another war we don’t need. But Trump wants a peace prize.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
It appears that Trump wants to start wars so he can stop them and take credit for it. Trump is evil. Everything he says or does is evil. Can’t wait till November ’26.
I wish I thought his motives were that benign. My own suspicion is that he wants colonies.
The boat was going to Surinam. IMO as a way to get to Europe afterwards and it came from Colombia rather than Venezuela. Just keep this secret from the news.