You aren't getting it. Basically every country on earth hates the cartels and wants them dead. They aren't going to complain when somebody is making that happen, and they don't much care how it's done as long as it isn't happening on their soil. And they care even less that the people doing it aren't saints themselves because nobody is. Nobody is going to stick their neck out for a cartel.

Interdict the vessels!

Why resort to madness and slaughter?

I can think of few people on earth who deserve madness and slaughter more than the cartels.

We're powerwalking towards regime change wars over cocaine. It strikes me as completely absurd to employ our significant military power to destroy tiny vessels at sea instead of targeting operations and finances. It seems just as amoral and egregious to make a show of such wanton and asymmetric destruction. I have a number of questions about this like:

- Is our military intelligence now being used to conduct international police work and enforce international or domestic law?

- Should we expect our police mandate to extend to foreign countries?

- Are these military operations undermining existing narcotics operations and international cooperation with DEA?

- When these civilians dissolve back into the population, will we chase them there with cruise missiles and drone strikes?

- If the cartels load a brick onto FedEx freight, will we destroy the aircraft? Why not just blow it up?

- Does it matter who is captaining the vessels, if the cartels (as ruthless as they are, and I am on board with this sentiment 100%) force/threaten/coerce a person to mule for them, how would this victim convert to a valid military target?

- This is whataboutism or close enough, but it is more than reasonable: Didn't our previous interventions in these exact regions train thousands of elite paramilitary operators who would later become the very mercenaries and thugs running the show today? (School of the Americas, Los Zetas)

- Why does it feel like we are replaying 2 or 3 of our worst policy blunders since the 1980's over the blowback from the very same?

Really? I can think of lots

That's not justice. And that attitude can easily be turned on anyone you know or care about.

Because surely the people running drugs across international water in boats are certainly hardened cartel members that make decisions and not just whatever poor saps they can find that are desperate for money?

This is just about people wanting to be seen as strong men in their own country and attacking citizen from other countries they know cannot retaliate.

Cartels will be fine though, do not worry. USA credibility, less and less.

Yes, but the question was "why does the world stand by and let this happen?" and I was answering that.

I realise my comment is not super clear. I meant that the world seems to stand by because nobody is in position of escalating against the US.

Those operations have nothing to do with cartels and everybody knows that. Nobody knows if those boats are remotely linked to cartels, there's reason to doubt that the US army even does. Cartels are irrelevant here and the murder of random people is not why the world stands by and let this happen.

When there are survivors we've just been sending them back. Likely some haven't been smuggling drugs at all, and even less to the US given the distance and the range of the boats. In 25% of coast guard drug suspicion induced stops near the US, the coast guard fails to find any drugs. Would you be ok with the US national guard going into Appalachian cities and killing doctors suspected of running pill mills without trial, by aerial bombardment, and with high rate of mistakes?