from technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to world@lemmy.world on 26 Oct 15:06
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/56330832
US military forces struck two small boats off the Pacific coast of Colombia Wednesday, killing at least five people. The strikes were the eighth and ninth since President Trump issued orders September 2 for a campaign of military violence against alleged drug traffickers that is both illegal and unconstitutional.
While Trump claims that the strikes are justified because the United States is at war with drug cartels based in Latin America, the White House has not sought a declaration of war from Congress, or even a congressional resolution authorizing military operations, as in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The strikes are in flagrant violation of international law. The US government has offered no evidence against the people it is annihilating, and even their names are unknown. And the military assaults are taking place in international waters, where ships of any nationality supposedly have “freedom of navigation,” a right that Washington claims to be defending in the South China Sea…
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I haven’t heard it called ‘military murders’ but that’s horribly appropriate.
Shame it has to come from a tankie rag like wsws. They get it right sometimes, but really not a great news source generally speaking.
Time for the next genocide I guess. I hear those are in this year.
Can’t believe Joe Biden signed off on this. If only America had listened when the Democrats were screaming and raving about killing tan skinned people.
imagine blowing up a boat just because its from Venezuela, just to find out dude was just catching some big ones in the ocean.
They will never find out. First they don’t care, second they will call 8t fake news and continue eating their mcfish.
im just upset dude was having a good time fishing. Id be pissed.
Trump this, Trump that.
Who executed these orders? Who in the chain of command was happy to bomb these people? What names and ranks are there in the report?
There shouldn’t be people who, without a shadow of a doubt, would press the red button on an incorrect order. It seems, there are a lot of them there right now. All that stops us from having the US from starting a nuclear war is an assumption, that there would be someone knowing better in place, and this international bombing spree tells us it’s not a safe bet at all.
Imagine Donald wanting to nuke South America or Canada - would there be anyone to refuse?
You have a good point but may not have an appreciation for what that means for the individual soldiers. I recommend this legal eagle vid. Even if they were clearly in the right in refusing the order (which they obviously are in this case) - do you think there is any chance they would get a fair trial with this regime in power?
Imo the check on this is impeachment and prosecution of the president and officials.
It’s either they get court martialed now for disobeying “lawful” orders or court martialed later for following clearly illegal orders later?
Didn’t the Supreme Court basically say that if the president says it it’s not illegal? Kind of a Catch 22 for anyone involved. Glad I got out!
Sounds awfully familiar.
I just started watching Boots. If that show is at all accurate, then the military has some of the worst people. In the show, the military treats new recruits like shit fir no fucking reason. It’s like they’re in the military to bully people.
It’s semi-accurate, it’s based on a memoir but heavily modified. That said, boot camp is supposed to break someone down, get them to think like a soldier, Airman, sailor, or marine depending on branch. The Navy for example puts a lot more emphasis on critical decision making than the Marines, the Marines emphasize martial prowess, the Army is somewhere between, and the Air Force is kinda just a souped up summer camp.
No one becomes a drill instructor to bully people, they do it because it’s all but required for advancement at a certain point in jobs that have a low promotion rate. There is some bullying in a sense but at least Navy side it’s fairly minimal and the experience is mostly focused on learning things then making sure you can perform your now learned duties under duress.
The Marines boot camp (what’s in the show) is focused on making sure that when a lot of people are screaming different things you can still execute the task at hand, effectively making sure you can be effective and task focused even in chaotic situations. At least that’s what I hear from Marines, I also hear they do in fact do some shit like stealing toilet paper and stuff, the Marines don’t care if your smart, or make good decisions, just that you can execute tasks in chaos.
Kudos for correctly classifying it as murder
Any reliable reporting coming out on all these boats and crews that are being blown up?
(The ‘Drug War’ has been blatantly evil for decades. We know there’s a good chance the official narrative is bullshit, and there certainly is no nuance.)
Are they fishing, smuggling, or both?