I’ve already expressed myself about the Trump Administration’s attacks on Venezuelan boat whether they’re carrying illegal narcotics or not. I’m against it but I won’t explain that again.
What I do want to remark on is something that is not being mentioned in any of the media coverage I’ve read. The odds are that at least some of the individuals on these boats are armed, they probably aren’t wearing insignia identifiable at a distance, and they probably don’t have a command structure. In other words they aren’t civilians but they aren’t soldiers, either. They’re irregulars.
The laws of war still apply to them (they’re written so as to apply to everyone) but not as civilians. And not the way they would apply to Venezuelan soldiers. That’s pretty limiting.
They can’t be tortured. They must be treated humanely if captured and they should receive fair trials. They aren’t subject to summary execution.
It’s that last bit that might render destroying those boats a war crime. That’s a pretty slender reed.
You dont really know if any of them are carrying drugs. Our armed forceses and police have made mistakes before in targeting. If you really want to kill them pass a law that makes it the death penalty for smuggling drugs. Then capture them, confirm the drugs, prosecute convict and kill.
Lots of Americans carry guns. I dont think I see good faith arguments supporting the idea that police should just summarily execute people they think might have committed a crime on that basis.
Steve
I think we all know the goal here is to put pressure on Maduro to leave and let us set up a friendly regime.
To boot out Russia, China, Iran, and do it in the least messy way that we can.
Blowing up go-fasts in open waters isolates the violence while starving Maduro of funds, you can’t run a dictatorship without paying for gunmen and they’ll lose their loyalty when the paychecks run dry.
Chavez was democratically elected. Maduro replaced Chavez. Whoever replaces Maduro will be cut from the same cloth, just governing a Venezuela that’s a lot poorer than it was the day Chavez was elected. The problem is the Venezuelans. Chavez, Maduro, and whoever replaces him will all have been crooks but they are crooks who sing a song the Venezuelans like to hear. There is a lot of ruin in a country.
Furthermore, bringing Venezuelans here as asylees does not change their culture or preferences. They bring those with them.
The population of Panama when we invaded was around 2 million. The population of Venezuela is nearly 30 million. Setting up a “friendly government” there is beyond our ability and our track record over the last 20 years proves it.