Trump says US has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela

You posted a link talking about armed conflict. Was the US in an armed conflict with the ship/Venezuela?

No.
Are we fighting with Venezuela?

No, at least not yet.
Pretty simple to grasp that you are trying too hard to defend Trump.
Trump has a duty as President to stop piracy and smuggling on the high seas, just like his predecessors. That was and is what he was doing in this case. He had a rogue merchant ship smuggling goods boarded and seized in accordance with international maritime law.

The ship wasn't Venezuelan, it was flagged and registered to a shady company in the Marshall Islands. It was flying a false, Panamanian, flag rather than a flag of the Marshall Islands as required by maritime law. It wasn't running its transponder as required by maritime law. It was headed with a load of oil to a port known for smuggling and trade on the black market.

So, Trump essentially served a warrant on the ship, then took it as a prize for the United States in accordance with international maritime law because it was acting criminally.
 
Hey Tbird, just for the edification of the board, what was your branch of service, rank, and MOS? Let's put this to bed once and for all guy.
US Navy from 1969 to 1973
I started out as an ST " o" then we got our own rate of OT , and I was an OT2 I could have been an OT 1 but I would have had to re-up and if I did that I would have lost my job at one of the Big 3 auto makers and I wasn't going to do that.
Our unit got a Navel Unit Commendation, an award I thought was a BS type award until a friend of mine told me it wasn't a BS award but was equal to a silver star , And it is,
We were also nominated for The Presidential unit comm ( we didn't get it ) and that is an award just below the Congressional metal of honor . So I am a highly decorated Vet.
OTs ran the SOSUS system that tracked Russian subs and every other ship in the ocean , It was secret from the early 1950s till decommissioned in 1995.
 
Back
Top