> Having seized the vessel, the navy said it could not be towed back to shore due to poor weather and its fragile construction, and it later sank in the open sea.
We don't know if the Trump admin is killing American citizens in these. They don't know who they are killing either. Maybe the first step to pointing a weapon is knowing who you are pointing it at.
Not even the "war" on drugs or "war" on terror? Semantic games aside, the precedent for the president engaging in military action without congress declaring war was broken decades before Trump.
I love me a good Tu Quoque defense. Keep em coming! I can't remember if we supported him cuz he wasn't the war candidate or we supported him cuz he was or if it even matters and we just make up bullshit excuses for what suits us at the time with whatever is convenient for the given argument...
Everyone talks about stopping drugs entering the border but no one talks about dismantling the extremely efficient logistic network that makes those drugs available in every corner of each major city.
I guess it’s easier to blow up random boats in the pacific than prosecuting corrupt officials but is it effective?
I would say it's as American as it gets, and in this case justified as well. Do you not know America's history..? Even recent one? Obama ordered drone strikes in foreign countries as well.
"In addition to the participation of the Portuguese Navy and Judicial Police, the operation was supported by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Joint Inter-Agency Task Force – South (JIATF-S), and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA), working together within the scope of MAOC-N."
from the linked press release, I'm assuming DEA tipped off the Euro agencies that the sub was headed their way
It's equally, if not more, probable that the intelligence about shipment departures came from non-US MAOC-N members and the "the operation" of tracking the craft was where the US liasons provided assistance.
It would be interesting to know the survival rate of the mariners involved. Do they mostly make it, or is it like serving on a WW2 German u-boat? The craft involved and the descriptions of the passage given to date do not inspire confidence, but then again if they never made it they wouldn't use this method...
It's probably very expensive patrolling waters 1000 nautical miles from your shores.
What incentive does Portuguese authorities have to do this, especially considering the cocaine would've likely just been shipped off to buyers in other parts of the EU and not affect Portugal as much
That's like saying "thousands of miles from California" when something is a few miles from Hawaii.
The article kind of buries it but it was intercepted near the Azores, which are Portuguese territory and policed accordingly. They weren't patrolling in the middle of nowhere.
Also they probably got spotted by drone or something before the surface vessels got sent in to check it out.
Which is why the title says "seized", and not "torpedoed".