"For the last two months, US forces have amassed outside Venezuela and carried out a series of lethal strikes on civilian boats. The Trump White House has ordered these actions in the name of fighting narco-terrorists a label apparently applicable to anyone suspected of participating in drug trafficking near Latin American coastlines. More than 80 people have already been killed in these pre-emptive strikes, and war hawks are calling for expanded military action to depose the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro."
"Watching this play out, I am reminded of a passage from the geographer Stuart Elden's award-winning 2009 book, Terror and Territory. In discussing how to study the war on terror, Elden observed that it did not make sense to study terrorism as something unique to non-state actors. States clearly operate in ways that terrify, Elden said. The terrorism of non-state actors is a very small proportion of terrorism taken as a whole, with states having killed far more than those who oppose them."
"Researchers with Brown University's Costs of War project, for example, have found that US-led interventions in the war on terror from 2001 to 2023 killed over 400,000 civilians in direct war violence. They also show evidence that when considering indirect deaths for example, people in war zones dying from treatable medical conditions after clean water or medical infrastructure was destroyed death toll estimates rise to at least 3.5m."
US forces have assembled outside Venezuela and carried out lethal strikes on civilian boats ordered by the Trump White House under the label of fighting 'narco-terrorists.' More than 80 people have been killed in these pre-emptive strikes, and war hawks seek expanded military action to depose Nicolás Maduro. Stuart Elden observed that terrorism is not unique to non-state actors and that states have killed far more than their opponents. Brown University's Costs of War project estimates over 400,000 civilian deaths from US-led interventions (2001–2023), with indirect deaths raising totals to at least 3.5 million. A Lancet study found sanctions (2010–2021) caused up to 500,000 excess deaths annually.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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