"The 'double-tap' boat strike scandal seems to get more complicated by the hour. Not because the facts of what took place that September day are complicated, but because it’s getting difficult to keep track of all the lies, distortions, and whiplash-inducing story revisions the Pentagon and its Republican allies have floated the last few weeks."
~ Andrew Egger
"These men were shipwrecked. Our own rules prohibit killing shipwrecked men, even if we are at war. But we aren’t."
~ Joyce Vance
"On Friday, Natasha Bertrand of CNN reported that the boat the U.S. military struck on September 2 was not, in fact, headed for the U.S., a claim from the president that had always seemed doubtful because of how far away from the U.S. the small boats the U.S. has been hitting are."
~ Heather Cox Richardson
“I think it’s really important that this video be made public,” Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) said today on Face the Nation. Himes was referring to a video of the September 2 U.S. military strike on a small boat with 11 people on it. In that attack, the first strike broke the boat apart and set it on fire. The strike killed nine people but left two alive, clinging to the remains of the vessel.
"Instead, Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who was overseeing Special Operations on that day, told Congress that the intelligence he received said the boat was on its way to meet a larger vessel bound for Suriname, a small South American country to the east of Venezuela, to transfer drugs to it. Bradley told the lawmakers that the military could not find the second, larger vessel."
"According to U.S. drug enforcement officials, drugs trafficked through Suriname generally are bound for Europe."
"Attention has focused on the United States’ shocking, illegal, and reprehensible action in murdering unarmed civilians whose ship our military had already destroyed. No justification exists for killing shipwrecked civilians. …
Throughout last weeks, even more disturbing facts emerged."
~ Jennifer Rubin
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/6
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/the-second-strike-isnt-the-only-problem
"CNN reported: 'The alleged drug traffickers killed by the US military in a strike on September 2 were heading to link up with another, larger vessel that was bound for Suriname.' The boat was not headed to the U.S., so Trump’s attenuated logic that it threatened the homeland collapses."
"One of the saddest jokes of our time is that Arkansas, a state once primarily known for rice, Wal-Mart founders, and the Clintons, has now given our nation a U.S. Senator whose chief distinction is an instinct for the most primitive idea in any room.
I am talking, of course, about Republican Tom Cotton."
~ David Shuster
#Trump #Hegseth #TomCotton #Arkansas #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/8
https://www.blueamp.co/p/the-double-tap-doctrine-tom-cottons
@wdlindsy [insert DEI joke about Neanderthals here]
@wdlindsy I almost said something speculating that right-wing money might have helped him through Harvard (since he became an advocate for their ideas very early in his academic career) specifically with regard to "tutoring" and, you know, proof-reading (shall we say) written assignments... but it was very speculative and I have no evidence. I'd even call it "mean-spirited" for me to suggest it, except it's kind of the very milk of human kindness compared to what he's endorsing now. -.-
@wdlindsy It's pretty obvious that it did happen at some point, yeah.
William Lindsey 
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
Woozle Hypertwin