Bizarre Double Strike On Trinidad Bound Boat

It's hard to make sense of the double aerial strike on a peñero fishing boat heading from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago.

For a nation that sports the greatest navy in history, the U.S. government acted pretty weird in its decision to “double tap” a peñero fishing boat heading from San Juan de Unare, Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago.

Note that the vessel doesn’t even have a bimini to protect the occupants and cargo from sun and rain, never mind a cabin for sleeping or even a simple cargo hold. From Tobago, the shortest distance to the mainland US (Miami) is 2,200 miles.

I wonder how the Joint Interagency Task Force - South (JIATF-S) could have known for sure that the boat was running drugs bound for U.S. coke sniffers.

Was the cargo positively identified from aerial photography, or is there a human intelligence source in San Juan de Unare who is thought to be completely reliable?

Note the U.S. has good diplomatic relations with Trinidad and Tobago. Why not work with their well-organized coast guard to interdict maritime drug smuggling from Venezuela?

Does the JIATF-S have intelligence about the smuggling route from Trinidad and Tobago after initial transfers from Venezuela? If so, why not interdict the cargo after it leaves Trinidad and Tobago?

After blasting the boat the smithereens, what was the rationale for murdering the survivors clinging to the wreckage by hitting them with a second missile strike?

In my decades of studying naval history, I’ve never heard of such a thing. Apart from cutthroat pirates, there is a long tradition among seafaring peoples to render aid to helpless men clinging to wreckage, even among warring powers following the exchange of fire in naval combat.

Indeed, the British government raised an enormous stink about the Nerbudda Incident in 1842, when the British vessel Nerbudda, carrying troops and supplies for British forces during the First Opium War, was shipwrecked on the coast of Taiwan. The First and Second Opium Wars were a result of England’s policy of smuggling opium into China from India in an aggressive campaign to foster widespread Chinese addiction.

Chinese officials were enraged by this state of affairs and therefore decided to execute the crew of the Nerbudda. British diplomats protested that the incident was a case of cold blooded murder.

The Nerbudda Incident received international press coverage expressing outrage and calls for the adoption of international norms to protect shipwrecked seaman. The 1858 Treaty of Tientsin includes such provisions.

Blasting fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela—even if they are suspected of running dope—strikes me as a species of Team America theater, apparently part of a pretext for gaining control of Venezuela’s mineral assets.

The Trump administration should consider that such shabby acts of murder are not only illegal, but deeply unbecoming of a nation that aspires to maintain the idea of honor in its military profession.