Hegseth boat strike (Trump administration brewing)

[Syne]

Not even close.

Narcoterrorism, in its original context, is understood to be the attempts of narcotics traffickers to influence the policies of a government or a society through violence and intimidation, and to hinder the enforcement of anti-drug laws by the systematic threat or use of such violence. As with most definitions of terrorism, it typically only refers to non-state actors.
- wiki

What people seem to be confused about is that the terrorism is largely conducted against people in their own country, to intimidate and hinder any obstacles to their operations, and to people on the borders they must smuggle through.

Cartels, like drug cartels or traditional industrial cartels, operate within capitalism but subvert its core principles of free competition and open markets, acting as anti-competitive monopolies that artificially inflate prices, control supply (like drugs or oil), and often use violence, creating a dark, parallel economy that extracts wealth, fundamentally clashing with healthy capitalist ideals but using capitalist structures (global finance, logistics) for illicit profit, forming a predatory form of capitalism.
- Google AI

There's nothing right-wing about monopolies and perverting the free market. That's actually the goals of economic central planning in socialist or communist systems, where those in power seek to be the single-provider monopoly themselves, using the power of government to terrorize.

"The law" has always seemed to leave a good number of cartels operating at any given time. Not so much with bringing them "to heel."

[geordief]

Narco-terrorism is far-right capitalism.  It's people making money without giving a shit about the law, who they hurt (They sell to who evers buying) or how they go about doing it.
I suppose it could be classed as ultra-capitalism, when capitalism is left unchecked.

It's not the same as Terrorism,  as thats usually a bunch of people conspiring to burn-down and destroy a particular group and inflict as many causalities as possible (They tend to only make money to fund further attacks).

The other main point between the two is narco-terrorism can be brought to heel by the law, where as terrorism is only fought through it's ultimate destruction.

Is there any slight  possibility that this apparent "policy" of making an actual war on drug smuggling gangs  can  actually be successful( whatever about its legitimacy) in the  short ,medium or longer term?

In terms of combatting addiction in the States .. (I see they are trying to claim they  are protecting Europe too -no thanks) 


As I saw  this attack described  on another forum this seems like a kind of "performative murder" .Who are they performing to and is that all there is to it?

[Syne]

They are increasing drug smuggling by sea since the southern US border is much more protected nowadays. So yes, if this route can be blunted as well (including to Europe), it can go a long way towards bankrupting the cartels. It could even weaken the cartels to a point that local citizens and government can actually have a better shot at free and fair democracy. All without any direct, external attempts at regime change.
Stemming the flood of highly addictive and highly deadly drugs can only help combat addiction and save lives.
Not sure how stopping illegal drug trafficking could be merely performative, but many people (Dems, lefties) seem invested in keeping these cartels in business. So maybe that is wishful thinking on their part.

[confused2]

Stemming the flood of highly addictive and highly deadly drugs can only help combat addiction and save lives.
Not sure how stopping illegal drug trafficking could be merely performative,

Current US tobacco production (2024) 65,000 tons.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1920...0in%202021.

Smoking causes over 480,000 deaths annually in the U.S., making it the leading cause of preventable death, with major impacts from cancer, heart disease (IHD), and chronic lung diseases (COPD), affecting millions and costing hundreds of billions in healthcare and lost productivity

Performative..

done or expressed insincerely or inauthentically, typically with the intention of impressing others or improving one's own image.

[geordief]

Stemming the flood of highly addictive and highly deadly drugs can only help combat addiction and save lives.
Not sure how stopping illegal drug trafficking could be merely performative,

Current US tobacco production (2024) 65,000 tons.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1920...0in%202021.

Smoking causes over 480,000 deaths annually in the U.S., making it the leading cause of preventable death, with major impacts from cancer, heart disease (IHD), and chronic lung diseases (COPD), affecting millions and costing hundreds of billions in healthcare and lost productivity

Performative..

done or expressed insincerely or inauthentically, typically with the intention of impressing others or improving one's own image.

Who do you think is being performative (if you do) and who might they be trying to impress in an inauthentic way ?

I will suggest  threy are trying to impress  the public that they have a serious plan  as well as to reassure them that the list of scapegoats  snd hategoats is not exhausted. 

The market price of cruelty is steadily rising.and all is well in the Court of the Mad Donald.

[Syne]

If people had the political will to outlaw tobacco...

In the US, there were 12,429 drunk driving deaths in 2023, which accounted for about 30% of all traffic fatalities. - Google AI

... and alcohol, I'd be all for it.

Tobacco causes tens of thousands of deaths annually in the UK, remaining the leading preventable cause of death, with estimates around
75,000 to 80,000 deaths per year, primarily from lung cancer, COPD, and heart disease.
- Google AI

To put that in perspective:

Tobacco deaths in the UK vary by region and year, but recent data for England (2017-2019) shows around 202 deaths per 100,000 population, while Scotland in 2022 had roughly 271 deaths per 100,000 for ages 35+, with rates often higher in deprived areas, impacting lung cancer, COPD, and heart disease heavily.

Compared to:

Tobacco use causes over 480,000 deaths annually in the U.S., translating to roughly 145-150 deaths per 100,000 people (based on ~330M pop), with rates varying significantly by demographics like income, but remains the leading preventable cause of death, with smokers losing 10 years of life on average.

But if the UK isn't doing anything to fight illegal drugs, I guess there's nothing performative about them also not stemming tobacco. God forbid you do anything that could be accused of being inauthentic.

[geordief]

Current US tobacco production (2024) 65,000 tons.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1920...0in%202021.

Smoking causes over 480,000 deaths annually in the U.S., making it the leading cause of preventable death, with major impacts from cancer, heart disease (IHD), and chronic lung diseases (COPD), affecting millions and costing hundreds of billions in healthcare and lost productivity

Performative..

done or expressed insincerely or inauthentically, typically with the intention of impressing others or improving one's own image.

Who do you think is being performative (if you do) and who might they be trying to impress in an inauthentic way ?

I will suggest  threy are trying to impress  the public that they have a serious plan  as well as to reassure them that the list of scapegoats  snd hategoats is not exhausted. 

The market price of cruelty is steadily rising.and all is well in the Court of the Mad Donald.
Not sure about the parallel with tobacco,although it does exist.
It does do great harm but there have been no riots to evict tobacconists from the Southern Hemisphere to date.
I used to like to smell lof tobacco smoke from a pioe in the street  and it was always nice to be able to offer a stranger a ciggy.

[confused2]

Just a thought..
Rather than "Kill them all"
Ensure there are survivors. Drop them off 100 yards from shore with the most absurd flotation aids you can find and film them swimming home. Distribute footage widely.

[Magical Realist]

You keep ignoring facts that are inconvenient to your beliefs. That's a you problem.

1) US and Canada designates cartels as terrorists.
2) Obama set precedent of double-tap strikes to ensure terrorist targets are killed, even not knowing who the targets were.

Don't like those facts? Oh well. 9_9

If that were true we'd be raiding the cartels in Mexico where they're located. Instead we are taking out a few smugglers far away in the Carribean on camera and making the 5:00 o'clock newscycle. This proves it's all just a stunt to justify the overthrow of the Venezualan leader and make Trump look like a badass. Has nothing to do with actually combating terrorism. Some of the boats blown up weren't even headed to the US.

[Syne]

Trump wants to attack cartels. Many Mexicans welcome it

Despite Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s opposition to foreign intervention, polls show some Mexicans support U.S. military action against drug cartels operating in Mexico.
Decades of escalating violence and failed security strategies have left many Mexicans skeptical that their government can battle cartels without U.S. help.
Experts question whether U.S. strikes would succeed, pointing to past crackdowns that fractured cartels into smaller, more violent rival groups.
- https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/sto...-like-neve

Being a direct neighbor and ostensibly democratic, there's probably more of a diplomatic effort to build some cooperation with Mexico, where Venezuela and Colombia (yes, we're striking Colombian boats too) likely showed zero interest in working with the US. It's likely that the Trump admin won't strike inside of Mexico unless it does in Venezuela first. Mexico largely smuggles drugs over land, which has already been limited by the Trump admin work on the border.