Venezuela

After traveling last Friday, when I woke up Saturday morning I did my normal stretching then went to pay pickle ball for a couple of hours. I came back made breakfast and went to put on a pickle ball clinic for beginners.

I don’t watch morning news programs, but I do normally check headlines on various websites. This day I did not do so so the first found out that the US invaded Venezuela is when my neighbors told me in the afternoon. I thought the last few weeks this was a possibility, but even for Trump Republicans, I thought it was so unethical and ignorant it would not happen. First of all, the US did not invade Venezuela, Trump Republicans did. There was no vote in Congress or advance public discussion. This was solely an invasion led by Trump Republicans.

Let’s be clear, Nicolás Maduro, was a brutal corrupt dictator who did not care about the Venezuelan people. He only cared about enriching himself and his supporters. His reign as President is right out of the dictator playbook. He arrested, in-prisoned, tortured his opponents and violently suppressed their supporters. By all accounts he lost the last election by a large amount but simply stole it anyway. He is evil.

As an aside, my current pickle ball instructor is from Venezuela. She was an architect in Venezuela. One parent was attorney and the other owned a small business. When the economy collapsed, she and they lost everything. We talked more than once about the brutality of Maduro and the horrors he inflected on the people of Venezuela.

But it was not our job to replace him. In fact, in so doing, the US clearly violated International laws and likely violated our own policies.

If the US was in the business of removing evil dictators, we would start with Putin in Russia. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was a violation of international law and caused severe financial hardship in both countries along with deaths of hundreds of thousands in both countries. Putin’s brutality and reign as a dictator started a long time before Ukraine. By all accounts Trump is a friend and supporter of Putin. At one time Trump denied Russia invaded Ukraine which was a lie and was to support Putin.

So we know Trump Republicans did not invade Venezuela to remove an evil dictator since he is friend with another one. Two if count North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. And I am sure there are other dictators supported by Trump.

If Trump Republicans were concerned about illegal drugs, they would know that Venezuela is at best a conduit of illegal drugs. If we stop the conduit there, it will just go someplace else. The reality is the vast majority of illegal drugs come from Mexico primarily thru legal ports of entry. The small percentage which is confiscated at the borders is simply the cost of doing business. Its like shop lifting at Walmart or any other chain. The next reality is the US consumes illegal drugs and even if we stopped all drugs coming from Mexico, the rate of consumption would not change in the US, the drugs would just come from some place. The only way to reduce drug consumption in the US is to reduce demand and that can be done. But it takes the innovative thinking that Trump Republicans simply cannot do.

FTR, Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former President of Honduras who was convicted and sentenced to 45 years for trafficking and weapons charges. Trump’s pardon of a convicted drug dealer proves he has zero interest in stopping the movement of illegal drugs into the US and punishing those who are convicted of so doing.

So we know Trump Republicans are not concerned about illegal drugs from Venezuela. One would have to be a complete and total idiot to think that.

So what was the reason. Oil. Venezuela has vast reserves of oil, estimated to be 17-20% of the total worlds’s reserves, and Trump Republicans want control of it. When Trump states he will manage Venezuela what he is saying he wants control of the oil reserves and the income from them. The average person in Venezuela will soon find out that Trump and Trump Republicans will care no more for them then Maduro did.

And most sad, just like Afghanistan and Iraq, US lives will be lost if Trump Republicans try to govern the country. Don’t think so? Remember President Bush 2 on May 1st, 2003 famously said about the invasion of Iraq, “Mission Accomplished”. After that, over 4,000 Americans died and costs to American are estimated to be $3 Trillion dollars or more. Bush 2 was wrong, very wrong, and for the record he was a much more informed more intelligent President than Trump and a better person than Trump in every possible respect. His advisors were geniuses compared to the very bottom of the class dropouts on which Trump has surrounded himself.

The invasion of Venezuela violated international law, will not affect the US drug consumption nor it will not benefit the general population in Venezuela. It has the potential to make rich people even richer. And will likely cost American lives and likely add billions if not trillions to the federal deficit.