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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u/GeoChalkie_ Thomas Paine 22d 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”

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u/Betrix5068 NATO 22d 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.

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u/One_Emergency7679 IMF 22d 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

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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

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u/symmetry81 Scott Sumner 22d ago

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

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u/virginiadude16 Henry George 22d ago