Historically we get the assurance at least from other branches of government and understand that various oversights are in place, not just whims of the executive.

Among other differences, Ukraine is at war with Russia.

This simply isn't true. Getting the populace on board is a standard and important part of democracies initiating military action. Bush and his team spent endless amounts of time briefing Congress and the public on their justifications for the Iraq war for example.

Ukraine has gone to extensive lengths to only target military and, more recently, energy infrastructure in Russia. They aren't blowing up random civilian vehicles or ships, and have a clear incentive to show that they aren't doing that.

Fighting drug smuggling is a flimsy pretext for why the US is blowing up random ships, although it's apparently one some people are willing to believe. Take the same actions but change up the countries and the reactions would be very different. This is about Trump doing yet another tough guy show of force against a much weaker country he feels safe enough bullying.

> Bush and his team spent endless amounts of time briefing Congress and the public on their justifications for the Iraq war

Correction: they spent endless amounts of time lying to congress and the UN about their concocted, pretextual justification for the Iraq war.

> Correction: they spent endless amounts of time lying to congress and the UN about their concocted, pretextual justification for the Iraq war

One, legitimately unclear to what degree Bush et al believed the nonsense.

Two, they bothered to engage. That's OP's point.

Uh, Ukraine (GUR) deliberately blew up a random civilian who was unwittingly transporting explosives for them across the Kerch Bridge. As well as whoever happened to be nearby (fortunately it was early morning so traffic was light). They also randomly shell residential areas in the Belgorod region and Donetsk city using low-accuracy tube artillery and Grad rockets (including cluster munitions and butterfly mines). The fact that Russia is guilty of much worse does not mean these are not war crimes.

He was a horrible drug smuggler. I heard the government said so.

71% of Americans support the boat strikes. It is one of the most popular military actions the US has ever taken.

The populace is very much already on board.

https://harvardharrispoll.com/press-release-september-2025/

It's sad that the most popular military action is the least justified. Maybe they realised that attempts to justify these things only broaden the surface area for criticism.

We shouldn't be in this situation asking these questions. Any questionable boats should be detained and boarded per the last several hundred years or so of maritime law.