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Notes -
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/white-house-admiral-approved-second-strike-boat-venezuela-was-well-within-legal-2025-12-01/
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/some-us-republicans-want-answers-venezuela-strikes-despite-trump-2025-12-01/
Aaand (after previously denying it?) the White House confirms that a second strike killed survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat. (Hegseth is joking about it) It even seems the purpose of the second strike was solely to leave no survivors.
Curious that the targeted smuggling boats have large crews, rather than conserving space and weight capacity for drugs...
Anyone have a read on whether or not there are still "Trump is the anti-war President" true believers and, if so, how those people are trying to square the circle?
The stupider this becomes, the more likely it seems that this conflict is a result of Trump's fixation with spoils of war and that he actually thinks we can literally just "take the oil."
I continue to believe that Trump is the real anti-war president, as I did when he bombed an Iranian general, and indeed as I did when he bombed Iran. I will freely agree that he is not as anti-war as I would prefer, but he has in fact been more anti-war than any other president in my lifetime.
I "square the circle" by noting the fact that he has, to date, not initiated any large-scale wars, even in circumstances that it seems likely other presidents would have. A good example would be his bombing of Iran, followed promptly by him announcing that there was no need for further engagement, and actually declining to engage further, following which the ongoing and escalating war actually petered out.
By that logic, Biden should be the real anti-war president. He didn't bomb anyone we weren't already bombing, got us out of a war, and wasn't making threats against Greenland, Venezuela, and Canada.
I consider this a serious argument, and have praised and defended Biden regarding the Afghanistan pullout debacle for precisely this reason. The weightiest counter-argument, in my opinion, would be his administration's handling of the Ukraine conflict, and his administration's continuity with the Obama administration. I would not consider these counter-arguments decisive by any means. I am very frustrated with the first Trump administration's inability to end the war in Afghanistan, and appalled by the degree to which the senior brass lied to and disobeyed his orders to keep their pocket wars going.
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