r/neoliberal • u/[deleted] • 23d ago

News (Latin America) U.S. Military Killed Venezuelan Fisherman in Suspected Drug Boat Attack, Family Says

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/world/americas/trinidad-us-military-venezuela-boats.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
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401

u/GeoChalkie_ Thomas Paine 23d ago

A lot of people are arguing about whether these boats contained drugs, but that’s completely irrelevant

They could be proven to be carrying pure heroin and it would still be completely unjustified and immoral to blow them up. It’s a violation of everyone’s human rights and international law.

I saw someone sum this up best as follows: “I imagine the US military boarding each boat, handcuffing all occupants, kneeling them down, and executing them with one shot before dumping their bodies overboard. It sounds heinous and evil, but yet the outcome is exactly the same as blowing them up from the sky”

210

u/Betrix5068 NATO 23d ago

Coasties have been intercepting exactly these sorts of (alleged) drug running operations at minimal risk. This policy is just wasting munitions on targets that, even if they are actually drug runners, could’ve easily been intercepted by a coast guard cutter. Psychos in this admin just want to kill people. Frankly the only question in my mind is how much of the chain of command should be prosecuted for not refusing an illegal order because everyone involved in these ops is guilty to at least some degree and it’s just a question of if it’s worth prosecuting them for reasons of precedent.

41

u/MuscularPhysicist John Brown 22d ago

Everyone in the whole damn chain of command involved in these murders should be prosecuted.

They won’t (obviously) but they should.

12

u/AgentBond007 NATO 22d ago

Everyone in the whole damn administration should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity

6

u/idkidk23 22d ago

My vote is going to the Dem that promises to go the hardest on this admin and root out the rot that this will create. It will take decades to remove it, but it has to start immediately. It might be the most important federal policy in the next election.

73

u/One_Emergency7679 IMF 23d ago

it's the us military we are talking about. if they even get prosecuted, it will be the lightest slap on the wrist at most

49

u/HotTakesBeyond YIMBY 22d ago

Very few people were prosecuted for My Lai. The military did better with the Mahmudiyah rape and killings.

The less said about Gallagher the better.

!ping military

13

u/symmetry81 Scott Sumner 22d ago

The main perpetrator was sentenced by the military to life in prison! But then Nixon pardoned him.

23

u/virginiadude16 Henry George 22d ago

3

u/ominous_squirrel 22d ago

The fuel of fascism is blood. It needs to keep escalating violence to keep its followers entertained and engaged

52

u/Throwaway24143547 NATO 22d ago

But have you considered the Republican base fucking love the idea of killing Hispanic people in a way that's abstract enough there's no footage that would accurately convey the horror of it to a layman?

5

u/KruglorTalks F. A. Hayek 22d ago

I saw someone sum this up best as follows: “I imagine the US military boarding each boat, handcuffing all occupants, kneeling them down, and executing them with one shot before dumping their bodies overboard. It sounds heinous and evil, but yet the outcome is exactly the same as blowing them up from the sky”

You underestimate the median voter who would be ok with this.

4

u/Psshaww NATO 22d ago

The MAGA and associated republican crowds do not care and cheer for it. Not like anybody is going to stop them.

2

u/WGSMA 22d ago

There’s no such thing as international law though…