Can We Bomb Puerto Rico?
by Clinton Tankersley
The following thought experiment is a work of fiction. Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious.
1:00 PM - October 7, 2001
Pensive and sitting rigidly upright in the Treaty Room of the White House, President George W. Bush began his address to the nation.
"Good afternoon," he said robotically as his hands awkwardly gesticulated. "On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan." The prominent American flag lapel pin and blood-red necktie sent their own, slightly more subtle, messages. He went on to describe the operation, spotlighting the key allies -- Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany, and France -- that had joined the endeavor.
President Bush closed his speech with an acknowledgment that "the battle is now joined on many fronts," which would later be viewed as almost prescient after a new "front" was shockingly opened up on the homeland itself later that evening...
8:24 PM
The speakers blared the sound of a whooshing air blast as the word ALERT zoomed dramatically across the screen, ending with a single, ominous bell tone. The red, white, and yellow intro animation cut to a sharp-dressed newscaster behind a desk.
"This is a Fox News Alert. I'm Shepard Smith. There's been a mass shooting at a music festival in Miami, Florida tonight, with HUNDREDS reported dead and even more injured. This is a fast-moving situation and we are working to gather more information, but there appears to have been more than one shooter and..." He paused briefly as he raised his hand to his earpiece, listening intently.
He nodded almost imperceptivity and continued, "And we are seeing just now across the wires that there have apparently been TWO shootings in Florida tonight, not just the one in Miami. We are hearing reports of a separate, but similar, incident in Palm Beach County at a fall festival filled with kids and families..."
10:30 PM
EXCERPT FROM JA MAS STATEMENT ON FLORIDA ATTACKS
“Self-governance and self-determination are fundamental human rights, recognized by all peoples and nations the world over, yet Puerto Ricans continue to be denied those basic rights by an oppressive colonizer that flaunts her own 'liberty' while denying the same to us, her people.
“This will stand no more. We demand self-determination now! Not just for Puerto Rico, but for all of the oppressed, colonized, and ghettoed peoples of the so-called United States of America.
“Ja Mas calls on all of the downtrodden men, women, and children who continue to be ground to dust by the capitalist-coddling war machine of the American Empire; we call on you all to rise up in armed rebellion against this tyranny!
“We do not wish to die in endless wars overseas -- we want freedom at home, the same freedom enjoyed by billionaires and the political class. And that is what we fight for.
“From sea to shining sea, America will be free!”
10:40 PM
"Hello again everybody. And for those of you joining us now, we have been on the air since shortly after 8:00 PM this evening when news first broke about two separate deadly shootings in southern Florida." The calm and confident tone of veteran news presenter Peter Jennings belied the utter chaos of the night's events.
"Local authorities have secured the scenes and have confirmed several key facts, first and foremost being that 878 people are dead from these devastating attacks, with hundreds more injured and fighting for their lives. Authorities expect the death toll to rise, as they continue to search for survivors and recover the dead.
"The two separate scenes have been secured. However, several of the shooters have yet to be apprehended, with a manhunt stretching across large swaths of central and south Florida tonight.
"There is no official word yet on the identities of the shooters, but just moments ago a para-military nationalist group based in Puerto Rico calling themselves "Ja Mas" released a statement that claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We will not be publishing any words from their manifesto, of sorts, but they seem to have been motivated by hatred for the United States, and a desire for Puerto Rico to be an independent nation, instead of a US territory…”
2:21 AM - October 8, 2001
The Alex Jones Show
"The Illuminati strike back folks! I mean holy hanging chads Batman! I am so angry right now. These traitors, these LIARS in the mainstream media are out there talking about this Ja Mas blah blah blah when the clear and obvious answer is staring us all in the face: IT WAS AL GORE!!!!!!!! He is so bitter and he HATES America, just like all you pinko commie godless Democrats out there, and he blames, I guess, Florida for him losing the election, so he must have convinced these COMRADES in Puerto Rico to uh to uh... to strike back on those counties that stopped counting, stopped the recount or the uh re-recount or what have you. It was an inside job!!!!!"
6:37 PM - October 15, 2001
“And now for analysis of the week in politics, we turn to the expertise of Shields & Brooks. That is Mark Shields, syndicated columnist at The Washington Post, and David Brooks, senior editor with The Weekly Standard. Welcome to you both,” PBS NewsHour host Jim Lehrer said, with his usual mix of confidence and solemnity.
“Mark, I’ll start with you. Earlier this week, in response to the October 7 attacks, President Bush began a full-scale military assault on Puerto Rico, to root out the terrorist group Ja Mas that has allegedly infiltrated all levels of the Puerto Rican government. With the US already at war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, has the president bitten off more than he can chew?”
The camera switched from a wide-angle shot of the trio to a close-up on Mr. Shields. The aging, overweight, bespectacled gentleman, who had an open binder with colorful papers splayed before him, flattened his hands onto the desk in front of him, atop the mess of papers, and began.
“Boy, I hope not. These were horrendous, heinous acts perpetrated by a small but powerful group of Puerto Rican separatists, and they must be stopped. I think that the president is doing the right thing in responding the way that he has.
“All law enforcement resources, from the Puerto Rico Police to the FBI, were leveraged to round up these terrorists, but they found that their efforts were stymied by local corruption as well as the Puerto Rican territorial government being infiltrated by Ja Mas operatives.
“Nobody wants to see these kinds of air raids and boots on the ground on American soil, against American citizens, but what else can you do when the enemy uses innocents as human shields and operates out of schools, churches, and hospitals?
“The United States has a right to defend itself, especially after such a horrific attack, as was committed by Ja Mas on October 7….”
November 13, 2001 - ABC NEWS, EXCERPTS
Top UN Expert on Puerto Rican Territory Takes Aim at Global Response to War
The international community is “epically failing” in its response to the US-Puerto Rico war as innocent civilians continue to die, the UN special rapporteur for Puerto Rico has told the National Press Club in Canberra.
In her address, human rights lawyer Franco Albani also criticised governments, including Australia's, for having “amnesia”, “myopia” and “living in an alternative reality” when asked about its response to the war, as the death toll from the conflict surpasses 12,000 people.
“The international community is almost completely paralysed [and] I am being generous when I say almost,” she said.
“The UN [is] experiencing its most epic political and humanitarian failure since its creation.
“Individual member states, especially in the West – and Australia is no exception – are on the margins, muttering inaudible words of condemnation … or staying silent in fear of restraining the American self-proclaimed right to self-defence – whatever it means.”
She said under international law, the United States had the right to protect itself, but not the right to wage a war, in this particular scenario.
“With your permission, I will clarify what is self defence under international law, so that everyone can understand why there is not such a thing that the United States could claim.
“So, in common language, self-defence might be understood as the right to protect oneself. But, however, Article 51 of the UN Charter that America has invoked is not just the right to protect itself --- self-defence under international law is a legal term of art and means the right to wage war, which the United States doesn't have.
“And this is consolidated jurisprudence of the supreme judicial organ of the United Nations.
“And I understand that state practice might diverge, but the law remains the law and this is what we should follow.
“So, the right of self-defence can be invoked when a state is threatened by another state, which is not the case here; the United States has not claimed that it has been threatened by another state.
“It's been threatened by an armed group --- qualify it the way you want, but it's an armed group within occupied territory.
“And, frankly, even saying the war is between Puerto Rico and the United States is wrong, because Puerto Rico is not a stand-alone entity, it's part of the occupied territory.
“But so in particular, the United States cannot claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from the territory it occupies, from a territory that is kept under belligerent occupation.
“And not only does this exist in the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, in general, it's also been said in the case of the occupied Puerto Rican territory.
“When an occupation is already in place (as in Puerto Rico), the occupying state (the United States) cannot use militarized force in response to an armed attack; it can only use police force to restore order.
“If America’s claim of the right to self-defence is taken as valid under international law, then it would lead to the legitimacy of the authority of the occupant state (the United States) to use its military along with police over the occupant territory (Puerto Rico).
“Thus, it is unclear how the United States as an occupant can claim the right to self-defense when it has been controlling, policing, and governing in Puerto Rico since 1898.”
https://youtu.be/XAnn07kilFk?si=1lyCEGH994anN9zg&t=1580
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Related question (?)--Could the US Bomb South Carolina after the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861?
https://www.thefp.com/p/sheryl-sandberg-i-was-wrong-about