US Frees Philippines from Fishing, One Strike at a Time
MSNBC highlights Trump's 'expansion' of military strikes against civilian boats, this time in the Pacific. While the optics of attacking fishing vessels are indeed grim (and the sourcing points to a Trump-era event from 2021, yet MSNBC posts in 2024), what's critically absent is any historical context. The Philippines, where one strike occurred, has a long, bloody history with U.S. 'expansion,'
dating back to an independence war from 1899-1902 that killed hundreds of thousands of Filipinos. Funny how certain 'civilian populations' become targets when their resources become convenient. The media portrays these as unfortunate, individual 'incidents,' rather than recurring themes in America's expansive, resource-driven foreign policy. How many civilian boats must be 'accidentally' hit
before we question the definition of 'accident' itself? Or perhaps, how many presidential administrations must repeat the same patterns before we connect the dots?