U.S. Military Boat Strikes and Venezuela Thread

[TimHauck 3,315]

 

 

[seafoam1 3,440]

1 minute ago, TimHauck said:

 

 

Ben norton. 

[SaintsInDome2006 665]

There have been 20 US military strikes on foreign boats in international waters.

[Mike Honcho 5,445]

 

Quote

Trump briefed this week on options for military operations in Venezuela

President Donald Trump was briefed this week on options for military operations inside Venezuela as he continues to mull a path forward in the country, four sources told CNN.

Trump has yet to decide on how to proceed, and he continues to weigh the risks and benefits of launching a scaled-up campaign. The president has previously voiced reservations about taking military action meant to oust Nicolas Maduro, concerned about whether it would prove effective.

While Wednesday’s briefing included an updated set of options for the president to consider, it did not indicate that he’s closer to making a decision, one of the people said. Another source familiar with the briefing said the options were similar to those that have been discussed within the Pentagon, and some publicly reported, in recent weeks.

 

 

[SaintsInDome2006 665]

It turns out that the internal legal justification for the military strikes on foreign boats in international waters… is Trump’s own claims.

>>

The memo, which was completed in late summer, is said to open with a lengthy recitation of claims submitted by the White House, including that drug cartels are intentionally trying to kill Americans and destabilize the Western Hemisphere. The groups are presented not as unscrupulous businesses trying to profit from drug trafficking, but as terrorists who sell narcotics as a means of financing violence.

Based on such claims, the memo states that Mr. Trump has legitimate authority to determine that the United States and its allies are legally in a formal state of armed conflict with “narco-terrorist” drug cartels, according to the people who have read the document. The rest of the memo’s reasoning is based on that premise.

For example, the people said, the memo asserts that boats believed to be carrying narcotics are lawful military targets because their cargo would otherwise generate revenue that cartels could use to buy military equipment to wage the purported armed conflict.<<