"V" is for Venezuela
My friend Alex Holstein shared this and I find quite interesting and may be instructive...
"V" is for Venezuela
And "X" marks the spot...
Mar 22
We don’t need the full article in Foreign Policy to know why the United States should paint a big red “X” over the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
It’s time for the White House to get serious about toppling the illegal and belligerent regime of Nicolás Maduro. Forget making nice-nice with him to beg for oil we can produce ourselves, or even get elsewhere (at least from other SOBs who are, at least, our SOBs). Removing Maduro would not only clear the way for Juan Guaidó, the country’s legitimately recognized president; but would also be a huge blow to Russia, which has been backing up the Maduro regime with billions in military and economic aid, and considers Venezuela a key strategic ally and frontline point of projection in America’s backyard.
A match made in hell as far as U.S. national security is concerned.
Take out Maduro, leave the old Reds red-faced, and watch Cuba come to heel.
Sheer jingoism at its worst.. and exactly “How” does Holstein propose to carry this out? I presume he will volunteer to be in the “first wave” of invaders or the usual mercenary fascist brigades our neocon State and misnamed “Defense Department” hacks love to bankroll to do our dirty work! And of course we are just innocent Little Red Riding Hood in Ukraine…supporting “democracy” as usual by sacrificing others in the name of “US Foreign Policy” and supporting despots who make lucrative deals with the IMF and the Mobsters at the World Bank by selling their country out….to us!
Wow, I could not disagree with this more. Venezuela has internationally monitored elections--every time. Venezuela has a free press, including American tv and press, a freer press than we do. VZ has many political parties, including a party of hyper-capitalist oligarchs. VZ has built 3 million new subsidized apartments in Caracas. Everyone has free internet. VZ has free food and toiletries for the poorest people every two weeks. They have no homeless. But more than all of that, VZ is a SOVEREIGN COUNTRY. The US only seems to care about that when OTHER countries violate sovereignty. The US declared the VZ democratically elected government invalid and selected our own handpicked president, someone who has never run for office and has no governing experience whatsoever. He is a clown--Guaido. The Venezuelans hate him, and they hate us. Our interest in VZ is their huge oil reserves. We don't like their government because they won't allow us to take it over and rob them of their sovereign resource. Maduro is no more corrupt than any other president--certainly no more corrupt than our own. We have overthrown the governments of most of the South American countries repeatedly, some multiple times. Every time we have installed a miserable dictator. Presidents on both sides of the aisle have done this. We've overthrown VZ THREE TIMES, and your friend thinks we should do it again?