The hypocrisy behind the cartel airstrike outrage
By Easton Martin | December 2, 2025
In recent months, the United States military has carried out a series of airstrikes against vessels alleged to be carrying illicit drugs, mostly in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific.
The campaign began in September 2025, when a strike reportedly sank a Venezuelan‑linked boat, killing all aboard, then expanded rapidly.
These military actions have sparked outrage, with claims of unjust killing and lack of due process. The legality and morality of these actions are still under review, but have we forgotten what the Obama administration did? Or rather, do people just not care?
Between January 20, 2009 and December 31, 2015, the U.S. carried out 473 “counterterrorism” air and drone strikes in countries outside declared war zones such as Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia. According to the government’s own report, these strikes killed between 2,372 and 2,581 people identified as “combatants,” and between 64 and 116 civilians.
Watchdogs and independent investigators argue these official figures undercount civilian deaths by a large margin. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that between 2002 and the mid-2010s, drone campaigns in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia killed roughly 492 to 1,100 civilians, far above the government’s low-end count.
That gap between official tallies and independent estimates reveals a stark moral double standard. When likely or suspected drug smuggling boats are stopped from entering the U.S, many cry injustice and demand accountability. Yet far fewer demand consistent outrage when strikes carried out by our own government in distant countries kill even more people, often civilians including children, under the banner of “security.”
