Why Is the U.S. Sinking Boats Off Venezuela? There Are More Questions Than Answers.

"These questions are hard to answer, in part because the Trump administration has furnished so few details about the operations and no evidence supporting its fist-bumping claims. After the first sinking, on Sept. 3, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth crowed, "We smoked a drug boat, and there's 11 narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, and when other people try to do that, they're going to meet the same fate.""

"What other person in Hegseth's position has ever talked like this, especially in describing the rather effortless action of a superpower with a $1 trillion military budget going up against a small boat that didn't get off a single shot, if it was armed to begin with? But quite apart from his juvenile braggadocio, neither Hegseth nor anyone else offered the slightest evidence that the boat was carrying drugs."

U.S. Special Forces sank seven vessels in the Caribbean, killing 32 people. The operations have been described by officials as targeting drug traffickers, but the administration has released few operational details or evidence of narcotics aboard. Public statements by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth framed the actions in combative terms and labeled those aboard as "narco-terrorists." Legal experts and retired officers have said the killings lack clear legal or tactical justification and that international law distinguishes ordinary criminals from organized armed groups whose members can be treated as terrorists. The absence of evidence and aggressive rhetoric raise concerns about legality, proportionality, and possible geopolitical motives.

Read at Slate Magazine