On September 2nd this year there was an open boat in the waters off the coast of Trinidad in the Caribbean Sea. Reports indicate there were possibly 11 people aboard the vessel. No one really knows for sure what those people were doing on the, "ship," or where it was headed. All we can be sure of is that the location that day put it 630 miles away from the American territory of Puerto Rico and 1,762 miles from the United States mainland. Two distances which seem pretty daunting for an open boat with an unknown amount of fuel and cargo.
Secretary of Defense/War Pete Hegseth apparently had no doubts about where the boat was headed, or what it was carrying. According to Hegseth, Trump, and other in the administration all these open boats on the seas are hauling drugs and they are headed here. With that in mind, reports say Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order instructing Admiral Frank M. Bradley to, "Kill everybody."
Either a missile, or drone was launched and, the 11-man boat went "boom!" The whole awful event, thanks to military technology was shown live on screen.
It was at that point things went, as the movie line said, "All Medieval." Not to mention murky. It turned out the attack had left two visible survivors. What happened next depends on which unnamed source you believe. The first says, Hegseth, who was watching, personally ordered a second strike. Another claimed Bradley did it all on his own--ultimately following Whiskey Pete's initial instructions. No matter what the case, a second strike took out the two people left. That would be took out as in killed. As one observer put it, "It was the modern-day equivalent of machine-gunning helpless combatants floating in the water."
The initial official explanation for the second attack was it took place to clear the water of debris which could be a danger to other ships in the area. The more cynical among us recognized the second strike for what it really was--the elimination of witnesses. Hey, you can't claim you weren't transporting drugs if you're dead can you.
Some began talking about the commission of war crimes. Such behavior does seem to fly in the face of the U.S. military's Law of War Manual. According to the New Republic, the manual prohibits, "declaring no quarter, or conducting operations on the basis that there shall be no survivors." The rule is there, no doubt, so we can continue to call ourselves the good guys--you know, the type who don't machine gun helpless people in the water.
Other analysts have maintained the attacks themselves and now this gruesome act, cannot be called war crimes, because legally there isn't a war. Not yet anyway. They say that since there isn't a war, only one term can be applied to what happened on September 2nd. That term is, Murder.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump says Pete Hegseth told him, "I did not order the death of those two men," and he believes him. A little bit later, White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt told the media one of the Secretary's subordinates was the one responsible for what amounted to, the kill shot.
Trump has claimed he started all this deadly crazed shit to shut down the drug traffic from Venezuela. Everyone with a brain knows that's a cover story. What the Donald really wants is to somehow get rid of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He has even claimed Maduro is a member of a vast drug cartel which is intentionally poisoning the population of the United States with drugs for political and social purposes. Even to the point of--and you knew this had to be coming--sending Venezuelan gang members and other monstrous deviants to the U.S. as immigrants.
Yesterday, Donald Trump didn't do anything to dissuade those who subscribe to the narco-terrorism as a cover for forced regime change theory. It's kind of hard to do that when you issue a pardon for a guy named Juan Orlando Hernandez. Mr. Hernandez is the former President of Honduras and a current guest in the Federal Prison System. After his second term in 2022 he was extradited to the United States and in March of 2024 he was convicted, by a jury, of conspiring to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
On Air Force One, the irony impaired Mr. Trump--the man behind the accusations against Maduro and the commander in chief of a military blowing up boats willy nilly in the Caribbean without any proof of criminal activity--told reporters the reason he pardoned Hernandez was this. "Many of the people of Honduras said it was a Biden setup. He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a drug dealer. because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration setup and I looked at the facts, and I agreed with them." At another point Mr. Trump said of Hernandez, "He was treated very harshly and unfairly."
Should someone tell him, or should we wait to see if he figures out the brute insanity of that statement on his own?
Ladies and gentlemen, while we ponder the question, the bar is open.
12-2-25
