U.S. officials predicted that Operation Southern Spear, President Donald Trump‘s kinetic campaign against so-called narco-terrorist cartels in the Caribbean Sea, Pacific Ocean, and across Latin America, would continue through the end of his second term in office. The Trump administration held a background briefing with reporters on…
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U.S. killed 227 civilians in boat strikes, then kept striking narco-terrorist boats to the end of term
Born in the age of boat strikes, the U.S.’s campaign against narco-terrorist vessels has claimed 227 civilian lives, according to The Intercept, during what officials called 'A Year of Murders.' The program is set to continue through the end of term, per Washington Examiner. Preceded in death by the norms of civilian protection, survived by press releases and the ongoing operation. The ledger is measured in bodies and boats, with the receipts stapled together. The norm, once alive, now rests in the footnotes. In lieu of flowers, read the casualty report. The mechanism is sequence: the deaths recorded, the strikes continued. The stakes are the bodies and the policy. Gentle, never shocked, mourns the rule, never the person.
“When the receipts say 227 civilians dead and the strikes keep coming, they call it justice. The boats change, but the bodies don’t. That’s how you end up with a war report stapled to a press release.”
“You have to understand, these operations target dangerous criminals. If civilians were harmed, it’s regrettable, but the mission must continue. Did I say regrettable? That doesn’t sound like me.”
The receipts
“The boat strikes are, perhaps, the most stark testament to the lawlessness of the Trump administration.” The post The U.S. Has Killed 227 Civilians in Boat Strikes During “A Year of Murders”
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.