Drugs Don't Equal Terrorism

In the ever-escalating issue of a Caribbean Sea military buildup, it has been revealed that Trinidad and Tobago have approved the installation of a US military radar on the island. While I’m sure the US has guaranteed the island’s safety, is it a smart idea for the island to do so? Do they really want to be drawn into a possible clash between the US and Venezuela?

Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, had attempted to calm concerns about a US C-17 aircraft landing in the country. The cover story was that the aircraft was carrying marines to assist with a road construction project, and she also claimed that no marines remained in the country.

“We’re here! Oh, you don’t want us? We’ll leave right now.” Give me a break! She must think people are stupid. We’re not! Camera apps are everywhere!

Images and videos emerged of US marines at a Tobago hotel and of a radar installation on the island. Eventually she admitted that at least 100 marines were in the country, along with a military-grade radar, believed to be a long-range, high-performance system used for air surveillance, defense, and counter-fire. That would explain an aircraft capable of carrying 102 fully-equipped paratroopers or 84 tons of cargo. She also confessed she withheld details by invoking national security, and to avoid alerting drug traffickers.

The radar installation is a mere seven miles (11km) away from Venezuela at its closest point. It’s part of Trump’s internationally illegal drug trafficking counter-strategy - that murders alleged drug-traffickers without arrest and/or any due process of law. Trump doesn’t even have the military wait to see if the boats reach US waters before bombing them into to bits of scrap and DNA.

The US launched at least 21 airstrikes over three months at alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, killing at least eighty, using terrorism as an excuse. Some Trinidad citizens were among them.

Here lies the problem. Drug trafficking is not terrorism. Bombing a stadium is terrorism. Mailing anthrax in envelopes is terrorism. Hostage taking is terrorism. Shipping illicit drugs into a country where idiot consumers choose to use them... is not. It’s just a disgusting way of providing losers another way to be more pathetic. It’s far easier to avoid drugs… than it is an unknown bomb or a hidden toxin.

The prime minister claims the radar installation is not to support the US’s campaign against Venezuela. Seriously? A former national security minister, Marvin Gonzales, accused his government of misleading the country. “They have sold the soul of the nation for a mess of pottage. Caribbean ancestors … are all turning in their graves for what has befallen our beautiful Caribbean.” Others have accused the prime minister of using the war on drugs to justify her sucking up to the Trump administration. They also fear, quite correctly, that having an installation on the island will subject them to possible attack. I would agree.

I fear Trinidad and Tobago’s ancestors aren’t the only ancestors turning in their graves. Americans should be appalled.

Source used: The Guardian