Public sentiment on the US military strikes against suspected drug trafficking vessels is sharply divided. While many express strong support for the military actions as necessary to combat drug trafficking and protect American lives, a substantial number of commenters raise significant concerns regarding legality, potential civilian casualties, and the lack of due process. This division is not only ideological but also reflects broader political sentiments, with supporters often aligning with pro-Trump views and critics voicing deep ethical concerns.

US Military

US Government

President Trump


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Because they aren't drug smugglers and the US killed people without cause.

TintedApostle

So the US thinks these people are so dangerous, that the US military bombs them and kills them without any tria for just being on a boat. But if they catch them alive, then it's not even worth the effort to arrest them or put them to a trial?

It seems the US government seems to enjoy killing people more than bringing justice...

I assume that a trial also would bring up questions about the legality of these bombings and if the people that got killed were really that dangerous as the US government says.

TemporarySun314

&gt;The Trump administration has decided to repatriate two survivors of a deadly U.S. strike this week on suspected drug runners in the Caribbean Sea ***rather than prosecute them or hold them in military detention***

Translation: they committed no crimes and the US is literally out there murdering people in international waters and they'd rather sweep that under the rug.

Adventurous-Goal478

Article text:  
  
The Trump administration has decided to repatriate two survivors of a deadly U.S. strike this week on suspected drug runners in the Caribbean Sea rather than prosecute them or hold them in military detention, people with knowledge of the matter said on Saturday.

The men who survived were being returned to their home countries, Colombia and Ecuador, the people with knowledge of the matter said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational and diplomatic matters. It was not clear if the government of either nation would prosecute the men upon their return, or simply release them.

President Trump has previously described people aboard suspected drug-smuggling boats, which the United States has targeted in several deadly airstrikes since early September, as “unlawful combatants.” He has claimed the authority, widely disputed by legal experts, to summarily kill such suspects in military strikes as if they were enemy soldiers in a war.

It was a sharp break from the traditional handling of maritime smuggling, in which the Coast Guard would intercept boats and arrest people if suspicions proved accurate.  
  
The decision to transfer the two survivors, however, was in line with the Coast Guard’s practice of repatriating or handing off to friendly countries people who were intercepted outside the United States as suspected traffickers.

It also avoided the dilemma of what to do with the first people captured in what Mr. Trump has declared a formal armed conflict against drug cartels. Holding them as indefinite wartime detainees at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, could have opened the door to a court’s reviewing whether this really is a war.

The two were the only survivors of a military strike late Thursday on a so-called semi-submersible vessel that was traveling partially below the water, a familiar profile of smugglers in the Caribbean. Three U.S. officials with knowledge of the operation said Special Operations aircraft had fired on the vessel in the southern Caribbean after U.S. intelligence analysts assessed it was carrying some kind of drugs.  
  
Minutes after the strike, analysts watching on a video feed from a surveillance aircraft noticed what appeared to be at least two survivors bobbing in the water amid the smoldering wreckage of the craft, the officials said. There were also several floating bales, they added.

  
The Times has not seen the surveillance video. The Pentagon declined to comment.

Navy and Coast Guard helicopters were dispatched to the scene, and the two men were rescued and brought to the nearby amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, they said. The ship has medical facilities.
  
On Friday, U.S. officials confirmed the strike and that the two survivors were being held on the Navy vessel. Mr. Trump also confirmed to reporters that there had been a strike on what he called a submarine, but did not address questions about survivors.

The attack on the semi-submersible was the sixth known strike by the U.S. military on vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea since Sept. 2. The administration has said the first five attacks killed 27 people. Officials have said at least two men were killed in Friday’s strike, although the administration has not yet announced official findings.  
  
On Saturday, the officials said, the Pentagon transferred legal custody of the two detainees to the State Department, which was preparing to repatriate them. Their physical whereabouts and the mechanics of any impending transfer were not immediately known.

The apparent resolution of the fate of the two survivors, requiring diplomatic contacts, comes amid a large military buildup in the region that has focused on drug cartels and criminal gangs based in Venezuela.

The Trump administration has justified its attacks on drug smuggling suspects in the Caribbean as a formal armed conflict and as national self-defense, but without offering an explanation for how it can legitimately treat the crime of drug smuggling as if it were an armed attack or combat.
The administration has also cited the fact that about 100,000 Americans die from drug overdoses each year in the United States. But the surge in overdoses has been driven by fentanyl, which comes from Mexico, not South America.  
  
As of midday Saturday, the governments in Colombia and Ecuador had not responded to questions of whether arrangements were underway to repatriate their citizens.

mr-french-tickler

There should be plans to prosecute every link in the chain of command from the drone operator up. There's no abstraction or plausible deniability here: US Military personnel followed an illegal order to murder civilians and then the government showed us a video.

LordBoofington

I'm not going to go so far as claim they did this to cover up an illegal killing of people that were not smuggling drugs.  However, I will say I am terribly disappointed, because when I heard there were survivors I was hoping Congress might demand to have them brought to justice the US so they could be publicly questioned and a proper investigation might prove they were innocent.  This would have given the Congress and the courts some more ammunition to push back on Trump's policy.  Extrajudicial killings are considered a war crime and we need to get to the bottom of it.

Antipolemic

Will Trump repatriate the corpses of those who were killed in those strikes?

foxyLolita

lobsterisch

Make no mistake people, the only reason the world doesn't have warrants out for the arrest of every government official in America is because we have enough guns to keep them scared. Maybe at some point in the past we could've claimed to be the benevolent world-leaders, spreading world peace. That illusion is dead. We are the world's bully, and it is only a matter of time before someone comes for us.

martinsonsean1

Hornpipe_Jones

“Quick! Get them the hell out of the country before they can tell CNN that they were out studying the coral.”

cowpopper

Isn’t this an admission that the U.S. government committed a series of unjustifiable homicides?

PotatoAppleFish

I hope someone is already compiling and documenting in painstaking detail every single things this admin has done, everything it has posted, said, all the lies, every law broken, every dime earned or spent unethically or illegally, because no way in hell should it take three years to investigate, charge and convict. 

Business-Insurance90

Dix9-69

You will say these lines and then you can go home. 

Update: there was a horrible accident when the US was returning admitted drug smugglers.

Diced_and_Confused

congo122

More like they fucked up not killing them, and now these people have standing to sue the government and stop this happening so they can't be allowed access to the US justice system.

Kaiisim

Yelloeisok

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has seized survivors after a strike Thursday on a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean, the first since President Donald Trump began launching deadly attacks in the region this summer, a defense official and another person familiar with the matter said Friday.

It is believed to be at least the sixth strike since early September, and the first to result in survivors who were picked up by the U.S. military. It was not immediately clear what would be done with the individuals, who the person said were believed to be held aboard a U.S. military vessel. 

They confirmed the strike on the condition of anonymity because it has not yet been publicly acknowledged by Trump’s administration.

This strike on Thursday brings the death toll from the Trump administration’s military action against vessels in the region to at least 28.

Trump justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration when it declared a war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks. That includes the ability to capture and detain combatants and to use lethal force to take out their leadership.

The survivors of this strike now face an unclear future and legal landscape, including questions about whether they are now considered to be prisoners of war or defendants in a criminal case. The White House did not comment on the strike.

Reuters was first to report news of the strike late Thursday.

StupendousMan1995

Shame the military doesn't know how to stop and inspect shipping and has to resort to just blowing them up on suspicion of illegal activity. Maybe we should create some sort of Guard unit that specializes in that sort of thing. Maybe add Search and Rescue to their responsibilities so they can keep busy in between coastal defense missions.


We could even give them ships with a bright orange paint scheme so people know who they are.

DirkBabypunch

Cool, so we’re just taking prisoners from international waters now?

steve1186

Along with the survivors was found a piece of paper that said "WE LOVE SMUGGLING DRUGS INTO THE USA! WE ARE ATTEMPTING TO KILL AMERICANS WITH OUR DRUGS AS AN ACT OF TERRORISM! YAY ANTIFA!" which was signed by all of them. 

TheMightySet69

But no drugs to speak of? Why am I so unsurprised.

mephitopheles13

“Suspected drug carrying vessel” so they performed the strike without being 100% certain and potentially just killed innocent people for shits and giggles.

andrew6197

[deleted]

Another fisherman?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/family-trinidadian-man-believed-killed-us-strike-demands-proof-drug-trafficking-2025-10-17/

mdjak1

How the fuck are we able to do anything to anyone in a place that doesn't belong to us?  They haven't broken any US laws so what the fuck is the deal

smitteh

They need to send a drone boat out into open waters with nothing on it but dummy people. Let the Trump admin strike it to prove the US is blowing up boats in international waters under fabricated suspicions.

slax03

Got to take the survivors before they can prove they were just fishermen.

ShakesDontBreak

Why the fuck is the world just ignoring this?  I seriously don’t think other countries would get away with this.

Defiant-Fix2870

This government is murdering people, in the open, in plain sight.

swissarmychainsaw

People are (rightly) mad at people tsking money from Saudi Arabia, sportswashing in Qatar, and striking business deals in Dubai, but tbh, at this point in time, I see the US as being as bad as and often worse than these nations.

Im sickened that a World Cup is being partly held in thag country, and if it is a stain on someone's character to go and do a job in Saudi Arabia and take their money, then it should be just as morally reprehensible to take money from the Americans right now.

YooGeOh

Cityplanner1

Imagine if China sank a US vessel and just kidnapped the survivors.

Sol_Infra

So now, OrangeBeard is kidnapping people in another nation’s territorial waters ??  Yeah, bring on that prize for peace

peepers63

theredbeardedhacker

FarDig9095

Seems they could have seized *everyone* instead of blowing them up and nabbing survivors, since seizing was *clearly* possible.

odoylecharlotte

Update: The US government has released the two survivors to their respective countries. In other words, they weren't drug runners. Says a lot about blowing up boats nilly- willy 
w/o any idea who they are. It's murder, plain and simple.

SensitiveList65

The survivors back stories were probably carefully crafted before they ever met them.

pongmoy

They destroyed the fucking evidence if there ever was any.

BrewCityDev

Have we considered just capturing them first and seeing if there’s actually drugs on board instead of reaching straight for the missiles? You know, like a normal country?

NotAnAce69

offwwworld

NiranS

When you engage in marine skirmishes and straight up murder on the high seas, you invite desperation. Good luck with the open revolt on US pleasure craft, ocean cruises, and cargo vessels, you morons.   
   
The timing, the political climate, and the technology is very different now, and I don’t think that US civilians signed up for suddenly becoming targets of once-friendly neighbours (who share a landmass, an ocean shoreline, and civil airspace).    
   
I am so glad that I no longer travel anywhere near the border now. You are all so screwed. Sorry that your constitution, bill of rights, and entire legislative branch have been misplaced.

CarbonMolecules

Since when does being suspected carry the death penalty?

Lurkingdone

EleJames

They're just going to plant drugs in their boat or waterboard them into a false confession to say they are justified in blowing up boats.

boothash

So... murder and abduction takes the place of due process? Totally not fascist, you guys.

mrdominoe

I find it a little surprising that Trump wants to kill cocaine traffickers when his kids love it soooo much.

sherryleebee

In before they "died in custody".  

Extra points if they "confessed" before they conveniently died preventing anyone from questioning them.

prof_the_doom

This boat’s survivors to justify all the rest.

TreacheryInc

Am I supposed to be dumb enough to believe the cartel keeps sending boat after boat into a US Navy blockade?

InevitableKey3811

OK, we are just attacking random boats now. The NO WAR prexident

Jenicillin

I don’t think I have ever seen the phrase “seized survivors” before, and it doesn’t sound like something you want the good guys to be doing

UncleR1chard

Of course.....they can't have a fisherman telling the truth.

tonyd1957

Let's call it what it is. Piracy on the high seas. With a healthy dose of murder

synapseattack

Why?  I mean, you blew up their boat in an attempt to kill them.  If you wanted to capture them, you could have done that instead.   Which is it, you fucking orange clown?

pudding7

Why the fuck do I keep  getting these notifications

AlltheSame--

How is bombing boats without any actual evidence of what they are carrying and zero due process for the victims not being challenged by the rest of the world?

Trump and anyone involved in this are criminals of the worst kind.

CatBird29

We're never going to see/hear from them again and Trump is going to label them antifa.

KamaIsLife

Are they just going to execute them like they did their shipmates?   I mean at this point summary executions are US coast guard SOP right.   


I hope so county’s find a few American ships with suspected drugs and show them the same courtesy.

Unhappy-Lawfulness88

probably cheaper to just interdict them and find out what they were doing, but we've got all these missiles to play with, and who is gonna try us for killing people in international waters.

Epistatious

“Suspected”

Aka “imma kill some people, hopefully you’ll think it’s drug lords. If evidence is contradictory, we’ll flub it”

Neat-Morning7232

Surprised Kush hasn’t yet announced they found the drugs wrapped in pride flags.

DangerousDem

What is *actually* happening? I don’t believe anything the DOD (department of deceit) says.

Wildflower1180

Seized is such a terrible way to say kidnapped

Deveia

Can't have them telling stories about how they're just fishermen.  Its why they killed  all the surviving "suspects" last time with multiple attack passes.

piasenigma

The Peace President! Now taking prisoners!!

SonofaSpurrier

USA makes Russia a beautiful place to live.

SimmmySAFC

ubix

Extrajudicial killings are not a hallmark of a functioning democracy.

ankisaves

So suspected? Did they actually find anything? I doubt it. Morons

Tmac11223

Since they tried to kill him why wouldn’t they simply execute the prisoner?

Oh yeah, because it’s way easier to push a button and kill the “other” than actually doing it in person.

allmysportsteamssuck

They got their long overdue just reward…

BerniWrightson

baldtim92

CNN Headline

“Innocent people out fishing with their children brutally attacked.”

ChosenBrad22

Im amazed that liberals are now defending drug cartels just because "Trump bad."

largegreenvegtable

The pussies in r/combatfootage would cry if you posted this in there

Gold_Camera759

Individual-Log994

Judge declares attack was illegal and violated due process, and orders Trump to return terrorist back to life in 3 days.

Beaucoup_Fun

NiceTrySuckaz

Just the beginning… just wait. International waters are the ultimate FAFO zone.

michigannfa90

Freo_5434

h2ohow

blitzkriegisamust

External-Ad3608

Chance-Mix-9444

Ok-Passage8958

_-stuey-_

Liberals will still somehow say this is a bad thing

Junifer_1

That one strike saved thousands of lives from drug overdose deaths.

w1r2g3

If you like carne asada, and striking boats in the rain.

dianabowl

Sharks chomping bales of cocaine like its 1999

InTheShade007

KABOOM!!!!! GOT EM COACH...

![gif](giphy|14ceV8wMLIGO6Q)

Downtown-Price5265

Ppl on Reddit think the Mexican cartels might defeat the US military. 

The US military is watching you eat breakfast from outer space and can launch a cruise missile between your ass cheeks

Novel_Following255

phatione

AbjectFollowing1786

The US military has conducted a strike on a suspected drug-carrying submarine in the Caribbean, emphasizing a broader effort against narcoterrorism.

US Military Strikes on Drug Trafficking Vessels

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