US Boards Un-sanctioned Tanker, Cites 'Rules-Based Order'
The U.S. military boarded an un-sanctioned tanker with Venezuelan oil, a brazen act of economic warfare disguised as 'tightening a blockade.' Axios presents this as sending a message to 'Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro,' who they dutifully remind us is 'indicted as a 'narco-terrorist' and wanted by the U.S.' This narrative conveniently bypasses the inconvenient fact that boarding a vessel not
under international sanctions, in international waters, constitutes an act of piracy, an 'unprecedented armada' off a sovereign nation's coast, one might say. This aggressive posturing rings hollow when contrasted with the U.S.'s muted response to, say, Saudi Arabia's blockade on Yemen, which has manufactured one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history. The 'rules-based international
order' championed by Washington appears to be highly selective, primarily applying when it serves to destabilize governments out of favor, particularly those sitting on vast oil reserves. One might wonder if 'international law' is truly about sovereignty, or merely about who controls the spigot.