And now we are conducting "military operations" in Ecuador

[92tide]

just damn

https://twitter.com/x/status/2029011785567572285

 

[crimsonaudio]

Imagine a central and south America that is uniformly safe and prosperous…

 

[Tidewater]

just damn

https://twitter.com/x/status/2029011785567572285

I've got news for you, my friend, the 7th Special Forces Group has been conducting ops in Latin America almost continuously since the 1980s. Many of those are merely training alongside friendly armies in the region, but a certain number of them involve combat advising friendly armies. And sometimes whether a particular op involved shooting or not depends on the bad guys.

 

[crimsonaudio]

I've got news for you, my friend, the 7th Special Forces Group has been conducting ops in Latin America almost continuously since the 1980s. Many of those are merely training alongside friendly armies in the region, but a certain number of them involve combat advising friendly armies. And sometimes whether a particular op involved shooting or not depends on the bad guys.

Circa 1987:

 

[92tide]

I've got news for you, my friend, the 7th Special Forces Group has been conducting ops in Latin America almost continuously since the 1980s. Many of those are merely training alongside friendly armies in the region, but a certain number of them involve combat advising friendly armies. And sometimes whether a particular op involved shooting or not depends on the bad guys.

yeah, i’m aware of that. and the fact that we are still having to do this seems to speak somewhat to the effectiveness of such efforts. but regardless, i don’t trust the folks in charge not to monumentally screw it up and we are, or at least seem to be in a very precarious position that does not seem to be getting any better

maybe we can bring back ollie north to oversee things to make sure it goes well

 

[92tide]

US and Ecuador launch military operation against organized crime groups

The Pentagon says that the United States and Ecuador have launched a joint military operation against organized crime groups in the South American country.

apnews.com

 

[Tidewater]

yeah, i’m aware of that. and the fact that we are still having to do this seems to speak somewhat to the effectiveness of such efforts. but regardless, i don’t trust the folks in charge not to monumentally screw it up and we are, or at least seem to be in a very precarious position that does not seem to be getting any better

maybe we can bring back ollie north to oversee things to make sure it goes well

Is Ollie still alive?

The thing about regimes in Latin America is that they tend to have spotty (at best) records on human rights which ticks people off, and drugs make a lot of money so if you wipe out a drug running organization today, if the money is still there tomorrow, a new organization will crop up.
Thus, judged by that standard, ops will not stop until (a) Latin American regimes are generally seen as legitimate by the vast majority of the people of the country and (b) Americans stop buying drugs (or we get something pretty close to a hermetical seal on drugs entering the country).

 

[92tide]

Is Ollie still alive?

The thing about regimes in Latin America is that they tend to have spotty (at best) records on human rights which ticks people off, and drugs make a lot of money so if you wipe out a drug running organization today, if the money is still there tomorrow, a new organization will crop up.
Thus, judged by that standard, ops will not stop until (a) Latin American regimes are generally seen as legitimate by the vast majority of the people of the country and (b) Americans stop buying drugs (or we get something pretty close to a hermetical seal on drugs entering the country).

according to the googles he’s still with us

for my previous job i traveled a bit in argentina, chile, and ecuador. argentina and chile were always nice to visit but i grew to hate ecuador with a passion. my last trip there was in 2019 and i got stuck for two days in the hotel as guayaquil was going sideways for some reason. i was eventually able to get a seat on a flight to miami and suffered nothing more than complete boredom. we shipped bananas out of there for years and the drug smuggling via the port was always a problem. thankfully we only had a couple of shipments lost during that time, but it was always hanging over your head

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I had a military friend of mine say something interesting the other day when talking about the Iran events. He said "You know why the U.S. is good at war? Because we stay in war." LOL! Practice makes perfect...I guess.