The White House has trumpeted a series of lethal strikes — three and counting — against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea. "Certainly, the lethal strikes off Venezuela are an unprecedented change in U.S. actions," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. In the case of Trump administration's first drug boat strike, officials have said publicly the U.S. could have intercepted the vessel but decided to blow it up instead. Losing the intelligence gained from those arrests, Felbab-Brown said, is a "real downside" to the lethal strikes. There's also the possibility of public backlash if U.S. strikes kill innocent civilians, as happened during the war on terror.