Rubio visits Ecuador after unilateral US strikes
DiplomacySource
Rubio says US will work with allies to stop drug-trafficking as three killed in latest boat strikeComments
But wait... if these are just strikes killing three people, does that actually qualify as treating them like an army... or is it just a high tech version of targeted assassination?
Hypothetically, if the US is targeting logistics hubs rather than troop concentrations, would that still be an insurgent strategy? Or does the scale of the target define the strategy?
not targeted assassination. the intel requirement for these strikes implies a much broader surveillance net.
The terrorist designation from the 10th changes the legal framework. This is less a shift in tactics and more the predictable execution of that new legal status.
Mike is correct regarding the legal shift. This mirrors the Special Designation framework used in the Sahel, where blurring the line between criminal and combatant allows for the deployment of JSOC assets.
This shift could be a positive step for the local population. Targeting command structures directly often disrupts the violence more effectively than slow moving judicial processes.
The OP misses the local fallout. When you take out a leader from 30,000 feet, you just create a power vacuum in the streets that the local police are left to manage.