The US has built up its largest presence of naval vessels in the Caribbean in decades (over 10% of its naval assets) in preparation for war on Venezuela. This includes its most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as three Aegis-guided missile destroyers, an amphibious squadron with the USS Iwo Jima, the USS Newport News (a nuclear-powered attack submarine), and about 10,000 troops in Puerto Rico. Needless to say, you don’t need all this firepower to blow Venezuelan fishermen, sorry, drug traffickers, out of the water.
Trump does not seem keen on a congressional vote so he is dressing this up as a “war on drugs” rather than a real war, because the war on drugs has been going brilliantly for the past 50 years…
The US waged a war on Panama in 1989 under an anti-drug pretext and left mass graves across the country. Nobody who cares about Venezuelans would want a repeat, especially under a false pretext. The US State Department and DEA have admitted that virtually none of the cocaine and fentanyl in the US comes from Venezuela, but we all know this is not about drugs. Trump has made no secret that his real goal is to steal Venezuela’s oil, but that has been memory-holed…
Trump has authorised the CIA to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela, including assassinating the Venezuelan president (that would be terrorism). The US even tried to bribe Maduro’s pilot with $50 million to kidnap his president and deliver him to the US!
The CIA has been caught attempting to carry out two false flags in Venezuela as a pretext for war. Consider this: if those actions would have justified war against Venezuela had Venezuela carried them out, in order to be logically consistent, you must say those actions would justify war against the US if the US carried them out.
Trump will probably pretend to bomb drug cartels inside Venezuela and hope he can carry out a decapitation strike on Maduro, knowing neither the media nor Congress would hold him to account. If a decapitation strike failed, Trump would probably hope for retaliation from Venezuela, or try to pull off a false flag to give Congress the excuse for war.
Consider that if war kicked off between Israel and Iran, the US could lose access to oil from the Persian Gulf so it makes sense from a neo-con perspective to get all that oil on their doorstep. They are not supposed to say the quiet part loud though, so they’re coming out with anything…
The demonic Lindsey Graham says the US needs to attack Venezuela because of “Hezbollah”, and honestly, I can’t be bothered to find out what cock-and-bull story he has come up with. Why waste my energy? It’s not just pro-war Republicans that are all in on war though. Anti-war Republicans are too because there is no such thing as an anti-war Republican.
If you thought Marjorie Taylor Greene was some anti-war hero because of her criticisms of Israel, just know that she is gunning for Venezuela. She said on Twitter: “I fully support Pres Trump and our military protecting the American people from illegal deadly drug trafficking into America that kills on avg 100,000 Americans a year.”
The framing in the media is just as absurd. The Daily Mail describes Maduro as “socialist tyrant Maduro” at every opportunity, but doesn’t describe Trump as “genocidal lunatic Trump”. It doesn’t even describe Netanyahu as “wanted war criminal Netanyahu”. You see how the consent manufacturing works?
I’m seeing headlines like “Trump says war with Venezuela is about drug cartels, but democracy could be the victor”. Does anybody seriously think a fascist like Trump gives a damn about democracy?
One of the saddest aspects of this saga is how Maduro was willing to capitulate to Trump. He offered the US a dominant stake in Venezuela’s oil, gold and minerals, and even agreed to cut ties with Russia and China in exchange for peace, but that was not enough. Trump wants everything and he wants Maduro dead.
Trump has increased the bounty on Maduro’s head to $50 million. If anyone takes this seriously, remember it wasn’t long ago that Syria’s Al Golani had a price on his head. Today, the former Al Qaida leader is a “statesman” because in this context, “statesman” means you have sold out your country.
The US keeps telling us Maduro is not a legitimate president, but I would have said the same about Biden, and I would certainly say it about Trump, and I could give reasons that are 1,000 times more compelling: reasons such as genocide.
One argument in favour of regime change in Venezuela is poverty, as though bombing is a good strategy to alleviate poverty! US sanctions have killed over 100,000 Venezuelans by blocking access to medicines. Venezuelans have been unable to access insulin, chemotherapy, dialysis, and vaccines. On top of that, Venezuela is struggling to access fertiliser for crops and import food.
All of this is by design. The US has been explicit that the intention of sanctions is to motivate Venezuelans to force out Maduro: overthrow your leader or starve. If imposing poverty on Venezuelans means you deserve regime change, I have bad news for Trump…
Perhaps you have been lobotomised and you think Venezuela’s poverty is because “socialism doesn’t work”, so ask yourself what would happen to the UK economy if the west were to freeze our assets, block our access to essential resources and medicines, and cut off trade. I think we would be in for an almighty collapse, don’t you? This is not about economic models, it’s about imperialism. Venezuela was thriving until the sanctions started…
Idiot conservatives and braindead liberals are trying to justify war by saying Venezuelan leaders are corrupt. By that reasoning, the people of the US and UK deserve to be starved by crippling sanctions until their natural resources are liberated through a brutal war that leaves millions dead.
What’s that? You don’t think that would be a reasonable way to get rid of our corrupt leaders? Now you know how Venezuelans feel…
Not only are Venezuelans massively opposed to a regime change war, but 8 million civilians have joined militias to defend their land from a US invasion. It seems Maria Machado is the only person in Venezuela who wants her country to be attacked.
Machado is the Nobel Peace Prize winner who didn’t get the usual torch procession through Oslo because the Norwegian Peace Council did not support her victory. Here is what she thinks about Israel’s genocide:
President Maduro: “Israel’s massacres in Gaza are the most horrific genocide since Hitler”
Maria Corina Machado: “The struggle of Venezuela is the struggle of Israel”
Which of the two do you think is more likely to be on the side of their people: the one who defends Palestinians, or the one who supports genocide? The one who wants peace, or the one who wants the US to invade her country?
If you’re feeling despondent about the prospect of war, just know Venezuela might not be the pushover Trump thinks it is. Venezuela’s geography makes a ground invasion highly challenging. If the US relies on air strikes, it will be interesting to see how Venezuela’s Russian-made Su-30 fighter jets and S-300 missile systems can mount a defence. Presumably, Venezuela has tricks up its sleeve because it must have been expecting this day would come.
Despite the US propaganda, Russian military tech is pretty good, and with the right tactics, could cause significant problems for the US. Just look at the problems the Houthis have caused in the Red Sea with less sophisticated tech. All I’m gonna say is it would be amusing if the USS Gerald R. Ford went up in flames. It would surely spell the end of Trump and such a possibility might give him reason to pause…
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Ex-Navy person here…. The United States military would have to have competent leadership to pull this off….I hate to say this, truly I do… but this administration will fire all the good leadership, replace them with under qualified, radicalized 2nd rate commanders and put the odds of a horrible and preventable tragedy happening at damn near a sure thing….they will VERY likely get a bunch of our soldiers and sailors killed… and they still won’t prevail.. never underestimate a population that is fighting for their country…. Look at the Russia Ukraine conflict… the tread is showing on Russia’ ass….they aren’t going to prevail… oh and top this off with what CFDJT thinks he’s going to to do to the sleeping giant in his own country…. A global smack-down is coming and long overdue…
It blows my mind that some people actually consider the USA the good guys when it's supporting genocide. Some people still lap this garbage propaganda up.