Poor Tobago Fishermen Need to Avoid Subs

Letter to Ephesians: As the US deployed the Ford carrier strike group to combat narco-terror in Western Hemisphere, the traffickers’ predictable pleas on behalf of the poor fishermen in Tobago & Trinidad predictably fall on deaf ears.

Of course, we all grieve along with their families IF any poor fishermen have mistakenly died in any of the 9 US’s attacks on high-speed boats or submarines its military determined as being manned by drug traffickers headed for US shores. But the WSJ story titled “Fear Grips a Caribbean Nation in the Shadow of US Boat Strikes” is disingenuous in that it suggests, without proof, that some natives are sticking “closer to shore” because ordinary row, sail or putt-putt boats have been sunk by the US. Oh, no doubt, the paper interviewed some locals who are afraid. But not because any of their comrades trying to make a living off the coasts of nearby Venezuela have been hit by US missiles. But the fear more likely stems from KNOWING the real bad guys will or have been using them as dupes, i.e., for cover against US military might.

Is there any shock that the WSJ now reports saying “Protesters have gathered outside the US Embassy in Trinidad, decrying the airstrikes … [and that] Reports of local men killed in the airstrikes have begun circulating”?  We’re also told “Fishermen & local media outlets here have named two men killed in US airstrikes, but families in coastal towns worry there are more.” Not to say the “reports” are all fake. Yet, the paper also revealingly concedes, “The narrow waterways between Trinidad & Venezuela have long been used for smuggling not only cocaine but also cheap Venezuelan products – subsidized fuel, cigarettes, cheese & even bushmeat like armadillo.” What’s a legitimate poor fisherman to do then as the US ups the stakes even more by sending a carrier strike force among them? Naturally, they would be smart to stick to shore & avoid high speed boats & submarines.

Davd Soul