US conflict in the Americas
- Thread starter BasilicaLew
- Start date
100% certain that those supposed boats carrying drugs were unarmed refugees fleeing Venezuela
It will end with manpads on ships... and an oil spill disaster.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
The USN isn’t the Houthis. Putting MANPADs on tankers to shoot at their helicopters is just suicide with extra steps.
The only way to prevent them from seizing ships is either physical escort and daring them to open fire on your warships (which is a bad bet in their home field). Or economic sanctions as countermeasures, which is likely what China’s response will be to the seizure.
An alternative strategy is to sail tankers to Columbia without leaving territorial waters and offload there. But that would require the Colombians to be willing to publicly go against America, so it’s doubtful but not impossible.
.
Tho Manpads on tankers could be a way to deter them from seizing these ships, i wonder if they could dare to destroy a ship causing an environmental catastrophe that won't look good on the news, and on top of that risk a escalation with China when they destroy a Chinese vessels and multiple Chinese Civilians.
The article says nothing about the ship ownership other than Panamanian flag.
Apparently the centuries was part of the shadow fleet operating under a Panamanian flag
source: same article
