USA just sunk a drug boat from Venezuela

[CriticalStinker]

If your black savior Obama can drone American citizens then Trump can certainly drone non citizen narco terrorists.
So screw the UN.
If congress wants to impeach him, go for it.
Good luck with those optics LoL

That’s how every administration justifies their actions. “Our opponent did this”

They all run on not being their predecessors, then use the track record to justify their own.

Venezuela is a dictatorship ripe with corruption. I don’t doubt they have a small part in organized crime and drug trade globally. Anyone who can afford a speedboat there is probably in on it.

Im not defending them, their admin just like I wasn’t defending Saddam back in the day.

But boy does this feel similar to then. Anyone critical of war with Iraq was suddenly terrorist sympathizers, just like asking if a war on drugs with Venezuela whose country was never accused of being a major player up until now. But they sure have been a target for regime change for decades. Is that in the interest of the American people like Iraq was? Probably not.

That’s not to say Trump and his admin are absolutely setting up the pretext for such an event… but if they were, this is how it looks. Look no further than Panama in 89’.

[Vermilion]

That’s how every administration justifies their actions. “Our opponent did this”

They all run on not being their predecessors, then use the track record to justify their own.

Venezuela is a dictatorship ripe with corruption. I don’t doubt they have a small part in organized crime and drug trade globally. Anyone who can afford a speedboat there is probably in on it.

Im not defending them, their admin just like I wasn’t defending Saddam back in the day.

But boy does this feel similar to then. Anyone critical of war with Iraq was suddenly terrorist sympathizers, just like asking if a war on drugs with Venezuela whose country was never accused of being a major player up until now. But they sure have been a target for regime change for decades. Is that in the interest of the American people like Iraq was? Probably not.

That’s not to say Trump and his admin are absolutely setting up the pretext for such an event… but if they were, this is how it looks. Look no further than Panama in 89’.

They didn’t justify it by saying Obama did it first.
I did.

The justification was that they were narco terrorists.
It was totally legal what happened.
It would have been just as legal even if there weren’t any drugs on board that boat.
The drugs getting destroyed was just the bonus.

[CriticalStinker]

They didn’t justify it by saying Obama did it first.
I did.

The justification was that they were narco terrorists.
It was totally legal what happened.
It would have been just as legal even if there weren’t any drugs on board that boat.
The drugs getting destroyed was just the bonus.

Well they are if they’re using the same mandate that gave presidents authority to strike terrorists associated with 9/11 (which later just meant anyone labeled as a terrorist).

Again, probably not good people anyways whether they fit the bill for terrorist, so no skin off my nose.

I suppose at the end of the day I wonder what the efficacy of targeting Venezuelans does for the American people. It’s no secret both parties have had a hard on to flip that regime, something that has little impact on everyday Americans.

[Bootless]

If your black savior Obama can drone American citizens then Trump can certainly drone non citizen narco terrorists.
So screw the UN.
If congress wants to impeach him, go for it.
Good luck with those optics LoL

I don't remember the name of the Army regulation, it's somewhere between the UCMJ and the Army Manual, but I'm sort of certain that it was under Obama that it was changed. It was something about the legal division being instructed to skirt international law as much as possible.

So no, it wasn't okay for Obama to increase the use of targeted killings of civilians.

[RichardHurt]

Well they are if they’re using the same mandate that gave presidents authority to strike terrorists associated with 9/11 (which later just meant anyone labeled as a terrorist).

Again, probably not good people anyways whether they fit the bill for terrorist, so no skin off my nose.

I suppose at the end of the day I wonder what the efficacy of targeting Venezuelans does for the American people. It’s no secret both parties have had a hard on to flip that regime, something that has little impact on everyday Americans.

Chevron in July got the ok to begin back up operations but Maduro regime gets none of the profits.
Then one month later Bondi raised the prices for Maduros capture by 25mil.
I think we all know what happenes next. And to anyone saying this is to stop drugs coming into the USA, you would be incorrect.

[CriticalStinker]

Chevron in July got the ok to begin back up operations but Maduro regime gets none of the profits.
Then one month later Bondi raised the prices for Maduros capture by 25mil.
I think we all know what happenes next. And to anyone saying this is to stop drugs coming into the USA, you would be incorrect.

They have the most oil of any country on the planet, albeit rough crude that is hard to refine.

Still a valuable country to have under your umbrella none the less.

I don’t think Venezuela accounts for even 5% of any drug… at least not from any source I can find.

[RichardHurt]

Chevron in Jan now has the ability to greatly increase the the processing capabilities. The timing is very convenient for the current administration to make all the moves to persuade the population that any action taken against Maduro be acceptable to the publics perception.

[IAMTAT]

I suppose at the end of the day I wonder what the efficacy of targeting Venezuelans does for the American people. 

...at the end of the day, these are narco-terrorist, Venezuelan drug traffickers.
Smoking them with a hellfire...along with their fast-boat load of US-bound drugs is a net plus for the American people.

Wouldn't you agree?

[CriticalStinker]

...at the end of the day, these are narco-terrorist, Venezuelan drug traffickers.
Smoking them with a hellfire...along with their fast-boat load of US-bound drugs is a net plus for the American people.

Wouldn't you agree?

Rubio's first comment was that the boat was bound for Trinidad. Then they said that a speed boat was going to come to the US, even though that's probably outside of it's range.

Some people have noted it could have had extra fuel on board, but that would beg the question why they would have 12 people, extra fuel, just to transport drugs... That would make it quite the light trip.

Again, I don't doubt that they were up to something nefarious, seeing as Venezuela is so crippled with inflation that most people can't eat. So if you have a speed boat, you have to have corrupt or illegal money.

What percentage of any drug does Venezuela produce and or traffic? I haven't found any source that puts them over 5%. 

So why the sudden push to put a naval fleet next to them if they aren't even a drop in the bucket, and a first strike is against a speed boat you could find at a lake? To me, it's fishy. I don't typically trust the government with stuff like this. I wouldn't have believed it if it was Bush, Obama, Biden or Trump. Again, we've been looking to topple Venezuela for decades, bipartisan. 

How many pharmaceutical executives went to prison for claiming oxytocin wasn't addictive while they made millions? How many politicians got investigated after protecting poppy fields in Afghanistan? Because opiate addiction wasn't the problem it was until the Afghan war, where they were the number one producer of opium on the planet. It's moral and logical holes like this that make me question going after a country that is under 5% in any drug production or trafficking but also has the most oil on earth. It's not because of the administration in power, but our track record as a whole.

[IAMTAT]

Rubio's first comment was that the boat was bound for Trinidad. Then they said that a speed boat was going to come to the US, even though that's probably outside of it's range.

The Cartels aren't making their drug money off of the good people of lovely little Trinidad.
That shipment was intended to end up being smuggled into the US mainland.
To argue otherwise is just foolish.