> Tell me you don't understand how maritime law works without telling me you don't know how maritime law works.
I will tell you that I don't understand how maritime law works in any great detail, but I do know what unprovoked murder without any discernible basis in fact is.
If they wanted to stop these boats and turn them back, or stop these boats and arrest the people on them, they could do so with exactly the same justification they are using to murder the people on them. i.e. zero justification. And it still wouldn't be unprovoked murder. Wouldn't that be better?
Given they have the tools to track them to murder them, they could also track them and wait until they arrive in US waters to arrest them. This is how it normally works. And even if that is inefficient it still does not justify killing them as a more efficient alternative.
I don't think there have been any details released about the information. There never are with military operations, so I'm not sure why they're expected now, especially since this is ongoing, and it would invalidate their methods. Of course, this all requires that you don't believe the military is firing randomly at boats.
There has been testimony in front of Congress stating that they don't know who is on the boats and don't have any evidence that they are involved in drug trafficking. Common sense tells that the boats could not possibly reach the US, at best they are headed to the Caribbean. Even if these are drug vessels, the drugs aren't coming here.
I think that's somewhat orthogonal though, since stopping the act is the goal, rather than knowing/caring who's doing it.
> don't have any evidence that they are involved in drug trafficking
I tried, but can't find anything related to this. All I can find is that they haven't provided evidence, with many claiming they don't have any. Do you have a reference? The military rarely, if ever, gives away how they gather intelligence, so I'm not sure why it's expected now.
You appear to be correct, they have declined to provide evidence, even in closed hearings, they have not admitted to having no evidence. It's merely highly probable that no evidence exists.
> It's merely highly probable that no evidence exists.
Could you explain where this comes from? I think the track record of our military operations, and our surveillance systems (which Trump helpfully leaked), suggests the complete opposite, that they have precise knowledge of the source, destination, etc, with democrats even having faith in the intel, and more of a problem with transparency [1]. Biden was getting things going in 2022 [2]!
I mean, the fact that this administration flat out lies and bullshits about everything more or less as a matter of Surkov-type policy and is essentially run on weaponised bad faith does not encourage any other conclusion.
Also, I repeat: the guy responsible for that navy command is stepping down in terms that appear to be highly unusual.
The most significant thing you can do for your understanding of this situation is to understand that this is not inside baseball, niche knowledge, nuanced interpretation stuff. It's Calvinball.
I will tell you that I don't understand how maritime law works in any great detail, but I do know what unprovoked murder without any discernible basis in fact is.
If they wanted to stop these boats and turn them back, or stop these boats and arrest the people on them, they could do so with exactly the same justification they are using to murder the people on them. i.e. zero justification. And it still wouldn't be unprovoked murder. Wouldn't that be better?
Given they have the tools to track them to murder them, they could also track them and wait until they arrive in US waters to arrest them. This is how it normally works. And even if that is inefficient it still does not justify killing them as a more efficient alternative.