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Ransom Frank Glew's avatar

Lt. Commander Dudley "Mush" Morton, on at least one occasion, directed the crew of the USS Wahoo to machine gun survivors of a Japanese troop ship they had torpedoed...

An Allied Liberator bomber attacked a German U-Boat that was towing lifeboats containing survivors of the SS Laconia, which it had earlier torpedoed. After this incident, Admiral Doenitz issued an order to his U-Boat commanders forbidding them to attempt rescues of survivors...

After being victorious in a particularly touch and go dogfight, USAAF ace Robert Johnson deliberately killed his German opponent attempting to parachute from his stricken aircraft. Johnson's rational was that the German was too good a fighter pilot and that, if he survived to fight another day, could easily take out an Allied pilot less experienced than himself...

After the Battle of the Bulge, US soldiers routinely executed Waffen SS men who surrendered to them...

At the Battle of San Jacinto, Texans slaughter surrendering Mexican soldiers so unmercifully that when Huston himself tried to curb the bloodshed he was told by one of his soldiers that he would not stop killing "Yellow-bellies" even if Christ himself descended from Heaven and commanded him to do so...

I could go on. This is nothing new. "Civilization" is a thin coating that war quickly strips away. Usually it is only the losers that are taken to account for their crimes against "humanity"...

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Tim Pallies's avatar

You make an excellent point. Still, I believe we should be repulsed by each event you mention. At the least, we should laugh when our "leaders" claim the moral high ground.

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Ransom Frank Glew's avatar

I did not say that I wasn't repulsed by these events. Maybe I should have. More to the point, we should be repulsed by war itself...

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Bob O'Brien's avatar

Bill in ww2 the japs gunned down american sailors in every naval battle. Hired killers like the mercenaries driving these boats are getting their justice served before they have a chance to deliver their poison to your fellow citizens. Amen.

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Mike Ware's avatar

According to the United Nations, unflagged vessels in international waters are considered pirates, and have zero rights under international law.

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Mark Smith's avatar

Imagine if the Chinese were doing this!

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Bob O'Brien's avatar

That would be great. If the Chinese killed all these maggots we wouldnt be having this conversation. Let the Chinese do this, but O wait, the Chinese are the ones supplying all this fentanyl.

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Mark Smith's avatar

No way the US would be happy if the Chinese decided to kill anyone they called “bad guys” off Venezuela. No way the US would be happy if the Chinese did that in the seas off China even. Quite rightly so, it’s illegal and obviously capricious and fallible.

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James W.'s avatar

Unknown to most outside of our big island Australia we have had one perplexing event and now a possibility of another underway. Recently, 2 Chinese Warships with an accompanying supply vessel, steamed down Australia’s East Coast around Tasmania and into and across the Southern Ocean. In (just) International Waters. Live fire drills ( without warning, advice or provocation) were carried out off the Coast. Airliners, uninformed and taking evasive precautions. The Airliner that first reported was close to Chinese warships.

There would be several reasons for this but given there would be little unknown or not charted about these waters I think it is quiet but meant intimidation and to what purpose?

What would happen if an Australian warship sailed up the Taiwan Strait. Vocal indignation and threats. Australian aircraft and ships in the South China Sea have come under threat.

We are informed it appears another Chinese flotilla seems to be on a voyage to the furthest reaches from home and a repeat of the previous ‘voyage’. Without any purpose or advice that would seem negative.

‘Oh what can ail thee

Knight at Arms?

Alone and pailly loitering,

The sage is withered from thy lips, and no birds sing’

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

Hey Bob, speaking of maggots, maybe the guy who pardoned Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández would qualify for elimination. The prosecution alleged that Hernandez helped move over 400 tons of cocaine into the US. Hegseth will have to blow up a lot of little boats to reach that number. Maybe we should also eliminate Donnie's buddy Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani acted as a high-profile fixer, leveraging his connections (including ties to then-DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson and Justice Department officials) to negotiate a lenient 2007 settlement. The Sacklers maintained much of their wealth in spite of helping to get the current drug epidemic started.

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Bob O'Brien's avatar

Dont believe everything you have heard about his conviction. The lib media only told half truths about this guy. Trump pardoned him because it was a unlawful conviction by a socialist govt. Anyway there is always way more to these stories then you and I will ever know.

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

He was convicted by the "socialist government" of the United States. Presiding over the case was the "socialist" judge Kevin Castel. Castel, a graduate of St. John's University (B.S. 1972, J.D. 1975), served as a law clerk to Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy before entering private practice at Cahill Gordon & Reindel from 1977 to 2003. His appointment was part of Bush's broader effort to fill federal judicial vacancies during his first term.

Damn, even Baby Bush was a socialist. They're everywhere!

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kenneth dame's avatar

Just as long as the Democrats get treated with the same punishment. Oh, that's right, Obama and his minions received no punishment. I sure hope I don't have to wait for that scenrio.

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Bob O'Brien's avatar

Cartero, the key words in your reply are ( prosecution ALLEGES, which is the same as saying we think but don’t know) .

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

We think - he was convicted. His brother was convicted too. The investigation started under Obama but continued under Trump. Donnie said he "heard" it was a political prosecution. Then why didn't he stop the investigation during his first administration. Those guys on the boats are also "alleged" drug runners too. So any conviction in federal court is automatically questionable?

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Bob O'Brien's avatar

He was convicted by a commie govt made up trial. Thats why when Trump got back in office he pardoned him. And those assholes in the drug boats are getting just what they deserve.

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Mark Smith's avatar

They’re possibly or maybe probably hired killers, delivering poison to their American customers. So possibly or maybe probably guilty as claimed. But we know fallible humans are deciding without any legal or public process. Maybe put AI in charge of who lives or died? Maybe think about where the demand is and why?

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

How about serving up some justice to our esteemed leader for pardoning the ex president of Honduras Juan Orlando. Prosecutors alleged that Hernandez helped move over 400 tons of cocaine into the US. How many little boats will Donnie have to shoot up to stop 400 tons coming into the US?

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Bob O'Brien's avatar

Cartero heres a suggestion. Lets do nothing to stop this like biden/ obama did for 12 years and just let this stuff pour into America killing kids and adults from all walks of life. Make you happy, not me.

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Dave J's avatar

It's interesting how many people seem to miss the point of the exercise. It makes me happy to watch boats with drug runners in them blow up.

And all you pearl clutching sympathizers need to realize that we've got sophisticated satellite surveillance tools and are monitoring these people while they load up these boats (you know, fishing boats with no fishing gear on them).

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James W.'s avatar

And able to travel at 50 Knots.

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

Donnie just pardoned a convicted major league drug trafficker while he's bragging about blowing up a few boats. Plus, Donnie's buddy Rudy Giuliani helped the Sackler Family get a sweetheart deal in spite of the Oxycodone scam helping to get the current opioid epidemic started. And Obama shut down a DEA investigation into the Sacklers drug scam. Neither team is on our side.

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John Austin's avatar

And, post-war, war crimes trials held Japanese leaders, and such Japanese lower ranks as could be found, to account.

Are the members of the modern USN to be held to the standards they once applied to Imperial Japanese Officers and sailors, after the war?

In that case, why aren't lower ranks following the example of Admiral Holsey?

Or are most serving members of the modern USN the moral equivalent of the Imperial JN?

I was never in the USN; I was in the RAN. I know that I would be prosecuted by my own Service for actions such as those, that you are applauding.

I know my former Australian crew would not have obeyed my orders if I were to order machine-gunning of survivors. (We had no remote means of killing, on my last, small, ship).

I wonder if it is easier to kill survivors if they only show up as distant warm spots on a screen, as opposed to people whose heads explode as your bullets find them only 20m away? It isn't a moral difference; but maybe it's just easier to do.

Or maybe the modern USA is the same as the USSR, Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany.

The light on the hill has gone out.

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Egypt Solomon's avatar

You ever notice how every war monger says the same thing before a drone strike? “We are the force of good!” Every time the Pentagon says that, you know someone’s about to get evaporated so hard their shadow files a missing-person report.

This whole society runs on a moral compass that’s been spinning like a busted jukebox since the last solar flare. “Drones aren’t evil, the Branch that uses them is evil.” Oh great, that’s comforting. It’s like hearing your surgeon go, “Don’t worry, the scalpel’s innocent. I’m the one who can’t be trusted.”

And then they go on a killing spree approved by both the Republican and Democrat Gomers, which is the closest thing we have to a bipartisanship. The only time they agree on anything is when it’s time to decide who gets turned into space confetti.

Republicans, Democrats, Elites, they’re all the same guy, really. Like a species of bureaucratic lizard wearing different-colored neckties. They keep saying, “We’re doing righteousness!” Meanwhile they’re signing extermination orders the way most folks sign for a package.

And nobody ever asks follow-up questions! That’s the best part. You could walk into the Pentagon, say, “I think it’s righteous to vaporize half them mules, regardless of circumstances” and they would just nod and say, “Makes sense, yeah, seems fair, It’s a complex situation.”

Then they act shocked when it turns out nobody was using divine wisdom, they were just bored and drunk on authority. Who would’ve guessed? It’s like watching someone throw a grenade into a room and then going, “Huh. Sure didn’t expect an explosion.”

And the press? The Fake News? They print headlines like, “The Pentagon acted within war protocol while liquefying that family of dope pushing mule stench Narcos.” No political fallout expected. Yeah, no kidding, the US doesn’t punish their leaders for massacres; they punish them for eating with the wrong fork at a pork banquet.

Oh and that part about Hegsbeth personally approving a weekly kill list?

Yeah, that’s totally normal. Nothing creepy about a guy in a robe sitting around going, “Hmm, let’s see… who looks most vaporizeable today?” He’s basically running a cosmic bingo hall of doom. Every time they botch a strike and vaporize some random teenager sipping algae tea, the commanders say, “Eh, the gods can sort ’em out.” Sure, just leave it to the gods. Nothing says moral accountability like outsourcing it to invisible cosmic HR.

You know Arnaud Amalric, the guy who said, “Kill them all, the gods will know which souls to recycle”? That guy would fit right in today. They’d make him chair of the Ethics Committee. Because in today’s Government System , morality works like a vending machine that only dispenses bad decisions. Push any button you want, the snack is murder.

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pete's avatar

"1500 Miles" !

Thats like saying how can we convince the gullible, oh yeah, just keep repeating the same thing over and over again until they come to believe it. Edward Bernays is in full display. Last time I drove down to LA from Vancouver about 1200 miles I'm sure it took more than 1 tank of fuel. But hey, who's counting? And what size is the engine, how many people on the boat exactly, is it a frictionless haul. No it was santa and his reindeers that would get them there in the last push to US shores with all the goodies.

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Egypt Solomon's avatar

Sounds like the DoW Logistics has officially adopted the “magic reindeer propulsion model,” where distance, physics, and logic are optional but taxpayer funded hallucinations are mandatory. In Congress, the only thing that travels 1500 miles on one tank is a lie with good PR.

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pete's avatar

I needed the laugh thanks !

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Invector's avatar

We can argue all day about whether or not these "drug runners" should die, but arguing about follow-up shots is non-sensical to me.

If you ultimately deem someone worthy of being killed, and they survive the first shot, how on earth does a follow-up bullet suddenly become "evil"?

If you determine that someone needs to die then kill them. The number of rounds it takes to finish the job is irrelevant.

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Tony G.'s avatar

We don't go to war in our Sunday best.

If we want to charge war crims with the sitting administration and its team then we have to start with the past administration's. Clinton, Bush 43, Obama, O'Biden then Trump. Based on Bills article I conclude these "war crimes" are no longer crimes there is a history of justified premise, I believe thats called setting precedence.

If we are still hell bent to charge the sitting administration we would have to get a past administration first, because the sitting will claim believe they are within the law due the the precedence has been set. My guess Obama administration would be the best one to prosecute firt the evidence is freshest and has the most living in his cabinet. I bet his defense would be what... what we did was legal due to precedence.

To some this all up "War is not pretty" quote from unknown.

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An Ol' LSO's avatar

On another note - just to show how transparent the Administration has become. Apparently, Trump has canceled the release of: 1.) Job Report, 2.) GDP Report, and 3.) Inflation Report. But I am sure everything is fine. Trump is just too busy killing defenseless sailors far, far from America's shore. You just can't make this stuff up.

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Dave J's avatar

Those releases not happening is a function of the Schumer Shutdown, not Trump.

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Bob O'Brien's avatar

Dems shutdown the govt, hence no data. Defenseless sailors? Get real. They deserve to die rather then deliver their poison to America. You have more sympathy for this garbage then Americas sons and daughters.

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InGodWeTrust's avatar

I completely agree with you Bob. The liberal trash that sympathize with these drug dealers/cartels are disgusting.

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

They deserve to die! What about the members of the CIA who pumped crack into the ghettos in order to fund their terrorists in the Contra? What about the Sackler Family who maintain most of the wealth they derived from the Oxycontin scam thanks to the help of Rudy Giuliani? What about the ex DEA official Paul Campo arrested in Virginia for drug trafficking? Why give them a trial? Just take them out on the high seas and shoot them.

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An Ol' LSO's avatar

Absolutely. Who needs trials or evidence or anything. String them up! How about the Israelis kill the women and children in Gazi - string them up to or better yet just shoot them. Bring out the guillotines. No time to get soft. Just shoot them MFs. Dick Cheney too. And how about the CIA that shot Kennedy. No time for justice........kill'em all.

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Bob O'Brien's avatar

Cartero, I worked with the CIA in s.e Asia during the viet-nam war in laos and Cambodia. If you are so naive to think we live in anything resembling a perfect world get over it. At least we finally have an admn thats for America and working for us. Get over your tds and help row the boat.

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

Naive? So you know that the CIA is heavily involved in drug trafficking during the Vietnam War and Iran-Contra. Plus, Afghan poppy production increased drastically after the US invasion and continued at high levels until the US withdraw. What's the chance they got involved with fentanyl to replace the Afghan opium income? I was naive when I was a young man but I now am a disciple of George Carlin. I don't believe anything the government tells us. They lied about the murders of JFK, RFK, and MLK. They lied about WMDs in Iraq and the Gulf of Tonkin. They lied about the Warped Speed experimental mRNA vaccines. Etc, etc.

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

Perhaps you are naive? First I do not suffer from TDS - but I have developed PDS - Politician Derangement Syndrome. So I don't trust any of them. But you believe Donnie is here to help us. Donnie is still the scam artist who learned his trade from his mentor Roy Cohn and bankrupted AC casinos when they were the only game on the East Coast.. A twice divorced adulterous NYC mover and shaker is now the darling of the religious right. He pardons a major league drug trafficker while bragging about killing small timers.

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Jimm Roberts's avatar

We are a vicious species; some more than others

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

Here's a great quote about our species from Hunter S. Thompson -"Human beings are the only creatures on Earth that claim a god and the only living thing that behaves like it hasn't got one"

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James ( Jim) Marshall's avatar

But you have to have faith; God will know what to do with them. Yes in the end God has the final vote.

Jim Marshall

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Angry Icebergs's avatar

Is this defending or high seas murder?

God doesn't make those decisions for us.

They are based upon the perception of survival.

Faith is only required to relieve our own guilt.

It does not absolve us of our acts.

We have faith God wants us to survive.

The drug boats maybe not so much...

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James ( Jim) Marshall's avatar

60 years I was on the other side of the world and many things happened over there that were questioned by the arm chair quarterbacks. I am not a bleeding heart liberal.

If you're going to eliminate a snake, you cut off it's head, then you never have to worry about it again.

Yes God will sort it out in the end.

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Angry Icebergs's avatar

...the point is why do you eliminate a snake?

God made snakes for a purpose.

Most snakes are harmless and eliminate pests.

Snakes don't attack.

The choice to eliminate a snake likely comes from fear (survival).

We choose to usurp Gods creations with our own justification that God wants us to survive, not the snake.

And we label it as faith...

It does not absolve us of what we did, only provides a reason for doing so.

Wars begin this way...

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Sluggo's avatar

Drug-runners are "shipwrecked sailors"? LOLOLOLOL...right out of the DNC talking-points.

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Mike Ware's avatar

It’s pretty comical Sluggo!

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Sluggo's avatar

Absolutely! The self-delusion of these leftists knows no bounds. And with it, they turn themselves into the comedy. LOLOL...laughing AT them, not with them.

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Mike Ware's avatar

Entertaining for sure. That’s about the only “value” you’re getting from his political drivel.

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Gordon's avatar

Once concern I have, which I have not seen expressed elsewhere, is that perhaps they don't WANT to pick up any survivors because they fear that those survivors might not actually be involved with drugs. I'm not sure what sort of intelligence they are basing these attacks on, but from a distance it could be that they assume that any boats leaving the coast of Venezuela must be carrying drugs, so drone them all! I have read that fishermen are afraid to go out fishing because other fishermen have been droned. True? I don't know.

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Don Hrehirchek's avatar

Good questions. Answers will come out in about the year 3000. Long after We are all dead !

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John S's avatar

I read that, roughly, 30% of all boats apprehended by the US coastguard are not carrying drugs, but, apparently, the military brass can tell with 100% certainty. I guess if you just blow up every boat you come across, you'll be right at least some of the time, but, in my mind, murder is murder

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

Plus, why not just track and eventually detain the suspects. Find out who is running the operations. Of course that might lead to embarrassments like this - Paul Campo, a former high-ranking DEA official, was arrested on December 4, 2025, for conspiring to provide material support to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a Mexican drug cartel designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

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Byron King's avatar

After the Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck, it sailed away and allowed the sea to claim survivors, aka “shipwrecked sailors” in todays odd view of reality.

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Paul Murray's avatar

First off, the Royal Navy isolated and reduced to derelict status a crippled vessel (an earlier torpedo strike from British "swordfish" planes broke the rudders, and she, already with a bow low in the water from earlier fighting, could then only navigate a large circular pattern, which begs the loaded question: is it "fair" to shoot at a crippled ship?) The crew of DKM Bismarck numbered more than 2200 individuals; only 115 are known to have survived. On June 8, 1989, Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of DKM Bismarck. Subsequent visits to the wreck by Argo confirmed what the Germans had always asserted: after the order "abandon ship" was given, the remaining crew scuttled the floating wreck lest DKM Bismarck fall into Allied hands. Earlier in the war, December 17, 1939, DKM Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by her crew under the orders of her captain, Hans Langsdorff, who later committed suicide, since, to save his crew, and be present to advocate for their welfare, he did not go down with his ship. Best always. PM

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Bonita Dave's avatar

About 100k Americans die each year from these drugs. Many times that number have their lives destroyed. The sailors had it coming. They are mass murderers.

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Zoltan Vincze's avatar

There is plenty of fentanyl entering the US from China via Canada with the help of Mexican Cartels and crooked Truckers from India...time turn those guns northward...

https://www.thebureau.news/p/inside-the-fortified-sinaloa-linked?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=mza4a&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

Then maybe Trump itself should be on your list for elimination. Let's take out the little guy suspects to divert the Sheeples' attention from things like Donnie pardoning ex Honduran president Hernández who had been convicted of moving over 400 tons of cocaine into the US. Wouldn't be nice to know who got the payoff for that pardon?

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Tom Langdon's avatar

Well Bill I very much appreciate your even handling of political leaders who kill in the name of current events and then invoke the name of God to sort it out after the fact. Here again we have the human condition on full display that eschews politics and political correctness in favor of tried and true DNA.

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Will Foster's avatar

Well, we have to give him credit no TDS here. By focusing on O’bummer, we see that the kinder, gentler, machine gun hand is universal.

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Angry Icebergs's avatar

...seems the lesson here is don't miss the target with the first shot, use a more destructive weapon.

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Paul Murray's avatar

"Don't use force; just get a bigger hammer. " Best always. PM

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Allan R Camrud's avatar

how easy is it to throw stones... the justification of the first shot is true for the 2nd or 4th. Hope you don't live in a glass house Billy...

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An Ol' LSO's avatar

Absolutely. Killing defenseless sailors or soldiers surrendering is horrific. There is no defense for these killings. How do people come this way of thinking? Just hard to believe the evil that lurks in those with power. And, it is seen worldwide - take the Israeli killing of Iranians two days before a peace conference - hard to figure out how they justified that to themselves. What would the World had thought if Iran had done that to Israel? These lines of thinking are sheer lunacy. Trump and its ilk are truly evil people. America has lost its moral compass and us peons are going to pay the price. Sad.

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Tom Langdon's avatar

Well God created man and man created religion to correct that which God created. And that my friends represents the ying and yang of the human condition.

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Frank Westmoreland's avatar

Mr. Camrud, Good point.

And if one wants to take this further, then the Democrats and some Republicans screaming about a few illegal drug runners---while pumping tens of billions into Ukraine to fight a war they knew was unwinnable against Russia over tiny Donbas, needlessly costing the lives of tens of thousands of young Ukrainian men as well as young Russians---is pretty rich.

One could also point out war crimes by those incompetents running the Biden Admin. (not the senile Joe Biden) by fouling up the Afghanistan withdrawal so badly as to needlessly cause the deaths of 13 U.S. soldiers and injuries to hundreds of others, while leaving a few thousand extremely loyal Afghan allies, who were told they would be rescued, but were instead tortured or murdered by the Taliban. Or Hillary Clinton's callous and indifferent actions in Benghazi, and the heavy-handed coverup. And even more horrifically, the Bushies trying to do "nation building" in Iraq, knowing full well if this effort was to be successful (which it wasn't remotely), this would lead to thousands of U.S. troops being killed, maimed, or plagued with PTSD.

And there will always be the argument about incompetence vs. malice. But from a practical standpoint, it appears incompetence by U.S. leaders has done far more damage to U.S. citizens than isolated incidents of malice.

I will give Bill credit during the 21st Century for being consistent in his criticism of war-making by U.S. presidents and U.S. congresses when this war-making appeared from the start to be nothing more than creating needless bloodshed or to maintain or increase U.S. defense jobs. And Bill has consistently pointed out that 21st Century U.S. leaders don't seem to learn the lessons of past leaders when those leaders made terrible mistakes, especially pertaining to war-making. I think some of this might be that Americans in general have increasingly given over their power to think to federal govt. leaders, causing these leaders' bloated egos to lead them and the U.S. astray.

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Abe Porter's avatar

BB-I agree with you that killing civilians which live among terrorists and cartel members is not a good thing. One of the rules of our government is to protect Americans. The bombing of boats in the Caribbean was to prevent drugs from entering the US. This is a way to curtail the movement of illegal deadly drugs. Hopefully, this will let the cartels know that if the boats have illegal drugs, anything goes to protect American citizens. It has nothing to do with the Constitution. As far as Gaza, Israel is the ONLY country that informs the civilians to leave the area they will be attacking. The ones that stay within the bombing area cannot be blamed on the Israelis. AP

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Cartero Atómico's avatar

Abe - wouldn't it make more sense to track the suspects in order to find out who is running the operation? Oh, I forgot, Donnie just pardoned ex Honduran president Hernández who had been convicted of helping to move over 400 tons of cocaine into the US. Let's face the facts - drug trafficking is a big business and a lot of banks are getting their cut.

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