Pyrrhic would be if we had expended too many resources to accomplish it again. At worst you could say this is a token victory, but I care much more about the optics and implications of the White House publicly posting footage of military intervention against cartel drug smuggling on Twitter than I do about whether this specific incident is a massive bust or “merely” one shot. We all know military intervention exactly like this, along with the implied message of “we will fucking explode you, even if you think you’re just one boat beneath our notice”—and in this sense, it may actually be better and more effective that this is “just” one small boat—is the only thing that can really stop the flood of drugs and migrants, and yet it would have been unthinkable even just a year ago that we’d actually deploy the military to do this.
This is a fantastic thing to see, and one has to twist themselves into silly knots of doomerism to not appreciate it. Don’t bitch about an objectively positive action just because it is the beginning and not the finale.
but I care much more about the optics and implications of the White House publicly posting footage
This is likely the intent too. We are at like 3x the self-deportations than direct ones as a result of the optics and fear the White House has been pumping out about it, so this is likely another continuation of that successful tactic.
The point of publicizing things like this is that if you make it clear you’re willing to kill drug smugglers and invaders, a lot of them won’t even try because they don’t want to be killed. Obviously, we can’t launch missiles at thousands of boats. But we won’t have to.
They don't have to. The main drug routes out of Venezuela go through Haiti and Honduras. A couple hundred miles each way.
Venezuela isn't even the biggest player. Most of the volume moves on the Pacific side. The main obstacle is the Darien Gap.
So, pyrrhic victory then?
Pyrrhic would be if we had expended too many resources to accomplish it again. At worst you could say this is a token victory, but I care much more about the optics and implications of the White House publicly posting footage of military intervention against cartel drug smuggling on Twitter than I do about whether this specific incident is a massive bust or “merely” one shot. We all know military intervention exactly like this, along with the implied message of “we will fucking explode you, even if you think you’re just one boat beneath our notice”—and in this sense, it may actually be better and more effective that this is “just” one small boat—is the only thing that can really stop the flood of drugs and migrants, and yet it would have been unthinkable even just a year ago that we’d actually deploy the military to do this.
This is a fantastic thing to see, and one has to twist themselves into silly knots of doomerism to not appreciate it. Don’t bitch about an objectively positive action just because it is the beginning and not the finale.
This is likely the intent too. We are at like 3x the self-deportations than direct ones as a result of the optics and fear the White House has been pumping out about it, so this is likely another continuation of that successful tactic.
How much does that missile cost? And how much per hour is the operation of the ship that fired it?
All people killed were real narco-terrorist?
They are fixing the supply problem, what about the demand?
The point of publicizing things like this is that if you make it clear you’re willing to kill drug smugglers and invaders, a lot of them won’t even try because they don’t want to be killed. Obviously, we can’t launch missiles at thousands of boats. But we won’t have to.
yeah, let's not kill them cause it might be too expensive. even a bullet is worth more than their lifes
Missiles have expiration dates, might as well use them.