The U.S. Is Still Killing People In Illegal Boat Strikes

Last week, the U.S. military killed eight people and stranded six others in three illegal boat strikes, bringing the total number of people killed by “Operation Southern Spear” to at least 215. The ongoing campaign—allegedly targeting drug smuggling—has long ceased to be major news, fading, like so much else, into the constant background hum of inconceivable violence wrought by the current administration. Tracking the carnage is made easy by the military division that conducts the strikes, which posts its snuff footage on Twitter, alongside kill counts. Being bombed at sea is a gruesome way to die. Those not immediately blown apart or burned alive likely die slowly, left to drown while clinging to flaming wreckage. No one responsible for the strikes has publicly presented any evidence of drug smuggling. The first attack potentially killed a boat full of human trafficking victims, and two senators recently leaked that a boat doesn’t actually have to carry drugs or weapons at all to be targeted. It’s enough just to sail along “known narco-trafficking routes.” It’s illegal under U.S. and international law to deliberately kill civilians who pose no imminent threat of violence, even if they are smuggling drugs or otherwise breaking the law. This is called “murder” most of the time, and a “war crime” if it occurs during armed conflict. The White House’s argument of choice is that the dead are not civilians at all, but combatants in a fake war against “narcoterrorism.” In a statement, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said “these decisive strikes have been against designated narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores,” and that “the President will continue to use every element of American power” to fulfill his campaign promises to end the overdose crisis and stop the flow of criminals and drugs into the country.