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MaddowBlog-Key questions go unanswered as U.S. military strikes on civilian boats claim more lives
Roughly five months later, the strikes have become so common that the coverage has moved off front pages, but the underlying questions haven’t changed.
As deadly military strikes against civilian boats in international waters continue, we still don’t know
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-18T15:43:27.762Z
- who we’re killing
- whether they’re guilty
- whether any of this is legal
The developments no longer appear on front pages, but the questions still need answers.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/key-questions-go-unanswered-as-u-s-military-strikes-on-civilian-boats-claim-more-lives
Week after week, the operations kept going. From the late summer through the fall and into winter, the administration kept targeting these boats and killing much of their crews.
This week was no exception. The Associated Press reported:
A related report in The New York Times noted that Monday’s strikes marked the first time since the military campaign began that the administration bombed targets on both sides of the Panama Canal on the same day.
The developments increased the total number of U.S. strikes to 42 — or, more to the point, 42 strikes that we know about as a result of Pentagon disclosures......
Perhaps most importantly, we don’t know whether any of these extrajudicial killings have been legal, though a great many legal experts have argued that they are not. Indeed, NBC News reported in November that the senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing the lethal strikes reached the same conclusion.
Around the same time, Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA analyst who served multiple tours in Iraq, told The New York Times that she had heard from active-duty troops who were concerned about the legality of the administration’s boat strikes, with some wondering whether they could be held personally liable for the operation’s many deaths.
Just because these questions are no longer dominating headlines doesn’t mean they don’t need answers. The need for congressional oversight in a controversy like this one seems obvious.
This week was no exception. The Associated Press reported:
The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on three boats accused of smuggling drugs in Latin American waters, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration’s monthslong campaign.
The series of strikes conducted on Monday brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls ‘narcoterrorists’ in small vessels in early September.
A related report in The New York Times noted that Monday’s strikes marked the first time since the military campaign began that the administration bombed targets on both sides of the Panama Canal on the same day.
The developments increased the total number of U.S. strikes to 42 — or, more to the point, 42 strikes that we know about as a result of Pentagon disclosures......
Perhaps most importantly, we don’t know whether any of these extrajudicial killings have been legal, though a great many legal experts have argued that they are not. Indeed, NBC News reported in November that the senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing the lethal strikes reached the same conclusion.
Around the same time, Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA analyst who served multiple tours in Iraq, told The New York Times that she had heard from active-duty troops who were concerned about the legality of the administration’s boat strikes, with some wondering whether they could be held personally liable for the operation’s many deaths.
Just because these questions are no longer dominating headlines doesn’t mean they don’t need answers. The need for congressional oversight in a controversy like this one seems obvious.