I don’t think it’s consistent with your example, because nobody in or near the boats was an insurgent. I’m not saying that it’s not similar, just that it’s a clear divergence. They don’t have any pretense that anybody on or near the boat was planning to attack them.
I agree, I’m separating the justification of the engagement from how they label people. So the parallel I’m drawing only has to do with how they loosely label people as part of a group based on broad characteristics once they decide a group can be a valid military target, i.e. “insurgents” or “narco-terrorists”.
Declaring drug smugglers as valid military targets is certainly new, but ordering strikes on military targets on the thin rationale of “hey, they look like the group we said we can hit” is not new for the US military.
If it’s not obvious, I disagree with both of these issues.
I don’t think it’s consistent with your example, because nobody in or near the boats was an insurgent. I’m not saying that it’s not similar, just that it’s a clear divergence. They don’t have any pretense that anybody on or near the boat was planning to attack them.
I agree, I’m separating the justification of the engagement from how they label people. So the parallel I’m drawing only has to do with how they loosely label people as part of a group based on broad characteristics once they decide a group can be a valid military target, i.e. “insurgents” or “narco-terrorists”.
Declaring drug smugglers as valid military targets is certainly new, but ordering strikes on military targets on the thin rationale of “hey, they look like the group we said we can hit” is not new for the US military.
If it’s not obvious, I disagree with both of these issues.