cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/38798289

US reportedly carries out 20th attack on a vessel in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing four people with 'no survivors'.

United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has formally announced the launch of a US military operation to target so-called “narco-terrorists” as Washington’s large-scale build-up of troops, warships and fighter jets continues in Latin America.

“Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR. Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Hegseth said in a post on X.

“The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood – and we will protect it,” he said.

SOUTHCOM is the acronym for US Southern Command, whose area of responsibility covers 31 countries through South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

In a post on social media, SOUTHCOM said US Marines were conducting artillery training onboard the USS Iwo Jima – an amphibious assault ship – in the Caribbean in support of US President Donald Trump’s “priorities to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and protect the homeland”.

Hegseth’s announcement late on Thursday followed a report that the US military had carried out its 20th attack on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing four people earlier this week.

US broadcaster CNN quoted an unnamed US Defense Department official who said there were “no survivors” from a strike on a suspect drug smuggling vessel, which took place on Monday.

The attack is the latest reported targeting of people travelling in boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. The US claims it is targeting drug smuggling, but has provided neither evidence nor legal justification for launching lethal attacks that have killed some 80 people so far.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacted on Wednesday to criticism of the US attacks by its G-7 allies, saying that Europeans will not dictate how Washington chooses to defend US national security.

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[–] 59 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There's the Epstein distraction we knew was coming.

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  • There's also the precarious state of the market that has been making headlines.

    It's absolutely, 100% a spin to try and make us not focus on all the problems they're causing and refusing to address in any semblance of a humane way. More hate on top of hate.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Not a flotilla of relief supplies and materials for Jamaica.

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  • [–] 21 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Great, let's go into venezuela and kill a shitload of innocent people, a handful of actually bad people, and install some bullshit government which will be overthrown by a worse dictator.

    Why the fuck can't we stay out of foreign countries?

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I don't think they can really get much worse than Maduro anyway, but you're right that it'll be a needless waste of life for the end result being a new, but different Maduro takes power and the cycle repeats.

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  • Marco Rubio should die in a fire

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    So much peace. But who would expect something different from a pedophile. A pedophile who apparently sucks dick.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago*

    Sounds like one of russias special military operations war is about to happen.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    Got to bury those Epstein emails

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Interesting choice of operation name, is it a reference to bubba?

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    Not to worry, equatorial jungle warfare has always been the Americans speciality.

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  • 11 comments in c/world view that post
    [–] 46 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    I am so tired of this disgusting fucking country. It's stupid fucking leaders. And the absolute insipent fucking pieces of shit who cannot seem to even lift a finger inside of their own fucking border but have no problem winding and bitching about everything outside of it.

    I cannot tell you how many daydreams I've had of that Stephen King book under the dome, but instead it's just the entirety of the continental United States.

    Also, nice username. Now I'm hungry. This is your fault.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago*

    You're fucking tired?

    Try being my age and looking at my generational siblings that bought the mendacious utterances of this Child-Fucker in Cheif and realize that honestly, it's been the same shit with different sprinkles on the top since Reagan decided that the working class deserved to be "trickled-down" upon.

    This is just the desperate actions of a pathetic shitstain who's lookng to start a war and use it as a pretext to stay in power.

    There's food in the fridge, it's not much, but it will help with that gnawing rage. I left you the chili sauce for extra spice. Have at it.

    (..oh, and yeah, edited to add, this IS about deflecting attention away from the Epstein Files, so let's not lose sight of the why..)

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago

    i.e. the Epstein Files ARE going to be released and this is simply a distraction op.

    this "op" will also get massively drawn out on purpose and thus Trump will say there can't be an election during a time of war and he will get his third term.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    I Voted for Trump because I Didn't want MORE Wars!

    -LITERALLY Joe Rogan!

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    Time to wag the dog again.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    If the UN had teeth, it would embargo America for being complete assholes to its neighbours.

    Then, though, the US would veto its own penalization.

    Is it time for the members of the UN to rebel and throw out the ruling founder class? It would go a long way toward GDP-based troop and dues levies and the commandeering of Jerusalem as neutral space like a new Vatican city.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    If the UN had teeth, it would embargo America for being complete assholes to its neighbours.

    The UN is structured to reconcile global powers and avert a third World War. To that end, the big players on the National Security Council effectively hold one another in check (unless they fuck up and abdicate their roles, as when Russia boycotted the vote that kicked off the Korean War). It isn't that the UN lacks teeth. It is that these teeth are for biting weaker third world nations, not members of the organization's own inner circle.

    Is it time for the members of the UN to rebel and throw out the ruling founder class?

    That would defeat the fundamental purpose of the organization. The goal is to establish open channels of communication between sovereign states, not to pick sides in transnational disputes.

    Now... if the BRICS wanted to render aid to Venezuela as part of a pact of common defense (not unlike NATO or Warsaw during the Cold War Era) that would make a lot of sense. China or Brazil doing an Operation Cyclone out of the Tepui Mountains would be ironic in its own way.

    But I doubt the Americans are really interested in that kind of fight. We seem to have settled on "Send a few B-2 bombers to wreck their historical sites and academic institutions, then demand a token concession to prove you're our bitch" as operative American military strategy.

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  • You know, for someone so intent on using the military to step on domestic enemies...

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    The way they capitalise and use "Homeland" in that announcement is very reminiscent of Nazi Germany using "Vaterland" (Fatherland) to drum up nationalism. Fucking disgusting.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Trump wants the 1980's back so badly.

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  • 9 comments in c/news@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 28 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Donald sucked Clinton’s southern spear

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago

    Fuck war, and fuck Donald Trump.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago

    Nothing like an unprovoked war to distract from the Epstein files

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago

    Shame on anyone in the military following these orders.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    Because nothing says fiscally responsible taking care of at home like trying to manufacture support for a foreign war with someone who happens to have a lot of oil last I hear.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    Just a special military operation?

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  • and we will protect it

    Where “protect” is meant like “protection money”

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    This was TOTALLY on my bingo card.

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  • 1 comment in c/aljazeera@ibbit.at view that post
    [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    The united states is now a terrorist nazi nation. Fuck these pigs

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