Yet another 'You Couldn't Make It Up'.

[JBR]

Getting back to the UK not sharing intelligence with the US.  Not sure of the wisdom of doing that.

I agree.  Like it or not, this country is becoming defenceless against a future attacker without the military support of the US, and this applies also to the entire 'Western' world.  This incompetent government seems to want that to happen.

[Michael Rolls]

Perhaps this stupid government's daftest move yet

[Vlad]

A part of a longer post from the other side of the pond, the last paragraph should be of interest 


Good morning! The world's largest aircraft carrier slid into Latin American waters this week like a symbol of everything that's gone wrong with the American psyche, loud, overcompensating, and armed to the teeth. The USS Gerald R. Ford, a floating $13 billion monument to dysfunction, has arrived off Venezuela under the banner of "anti-drug operations." Washington swears it's there to "bolster capacity" against illicit actors, which is Pentagon-speak for "we felt small and needed to flex."
From Caracas, the view looks different. President Nicolás Maduro, who has spent years perfecting the art of dictatorship, suddenly finds himself playing reluctant David to Trump's Goliath at sea. Venezuela's military is on what it calls a "massive" defensive deployment, two hundred thousand troops, militias, missile brigades, and a smattering of Soviet-era hardware wheeled out for nostalgia. No one in Caracas actually saw military activity, but never mind, this is theater. Both sides are acting: Trump pretending it's about narcotics, Maduro pretending it's about sovereignty.

The collateral damage is real. Since September, U.S. forces have bombed twenty boats in international waters, killing seventy-six people, none of whom appear to have been charged with anything. Human-rights observers call it extrajudicial killing; Trump calls it leadership. Russia, always eager to play the moral authority in somebody else's hemisphere, condemned the strikes as "lawless." Which is true, though coming from Moscow it sounds like a mobster lecturing you on ethics.

[klondike]

coming from Moscow it sounds like a mobster lecturing you on ethics.

There's a very good reason for that....

[JBR]

The collateral damage is real. Since September, U.S. forces have bombed twenty boats in international waters, killing seventy-six people, none of whom appear to have been charged with anything. Human-rights observers call it extrajudicial killing; Trump calls it leadership. Russia, always eager to play the moral authority in somebody else's hemisphere, condemned the strikes as "lawless." Which is true, though coming from Moscow it sounds like a mobster lecturing you on ethics.

That is interesting.  Can you expand on that?  Which international waters, and where?

[klondike]

Hmmm....

[Scrumpy]

Hmmm....

By gum he's well handsome....

[Vlad]

That is interesting.  Can you expand on that?  Which international waters, and where?

From AI

[color=var(--m3c9)]3
[/font][/color]
[color=var(--m3c11)]
[color=var(--m3c11,#001d35)]

International waters begin beyond a country's territorial sea, which is typically 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) from the coast. The area between 12 and 24 nautical miles is the contiguous zone, where a country can enforce customs and immigration laws. Beyond the 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone, up to 200 nautical miles from the coast, is the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), where the coastal nation has rights to natural resources like fish, oil, and gas. Any waters beyond a nation's EEZ are considered high seas or international waters, belonging to no single country. [/color][/font][/font][/color]

[Dextrous63]

The international waters in this case include the Caribbean and the east Pacific

[Vlad]

Yeh, so I gather

[klondike]

Will the Yanks be bombing me? What's that big grey thing that's turned up? Must be pongy - there's big silver flies on and off it all the time.

[Vlad]

Will the Yanks be bombing me? What's that big grey thing that's turned up? Must be pongy - there's big silver flies on and off it all the time.

Do you have any oil in your garage?

[klondike]

A garage. Yes I remember them. I even had a double one once with my car in it. Trouble was I drove it out to go to work and by the time I got home that side of the garage was full of crap too so it never returned. Just as work expands to fill the time available crap expands to cover the garage floor space available. This is known as klondike's extension to Parkinson's law. 

I do have a bottle of rape seed oil I think but insufficient to make an invasion profitable.

[JBR]

From AI
[color=var(--m3c11)][color=var(--m3c11,#001d35)]

International waters begin beyond a country's territorial sea, which is typically 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) from the coast. The area between 12 and 24 nautical miles is the contiguous zone, where a country can enforce customs and immigration laws. Beyond the 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone, up to 200 nautical miles from the coast, is the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), where the coastal nation has rights to natural resources like fish, oil, and gas. Any waters beyond a nation's EEZ are considered high seas or international waters, belonging to no single country. [/color][/font][/font][/color]

Thank you.  That's very interesting.  So if something has been creating a threat of some sort just beyond twelve miles from the shore, America could be expected to attack it and destroy it, if it was perceived to be a threat.
Good for Trump.  I wish we had a leader like him.

[Michael Rolls]

Me too