Read these words slowly:
Invading Venezuela “falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.”
Read that again: “. . . protect U.S. personnel from actual or imminent attack.”
Wow.
This statement, via Politico, came from Secretary of State Marco Rubio per Sen. Mike Lee’s having sought the rationale behind bombing Venezuela and kidnapping its president.
Sadly, predictably, the Utah Republican bought it.
“Yes, Master. I will obey.”
Many’s the psychoanalyst who’s come to compare MAGA to a cult. See it now in action.
This president believes he can say anything, tell any lie whatsoever, and get away with it.
Does he forfeit his FIFA Peace Prize for this?
He who denounced the incursion into Iraq, who decried “forever wars” and the “regime change” mentality, said just a year ago, “I’m not going to start wars. I’m going to end wars.”
Now, by his orders, people have died with whom we have no grievance. We’ve attacked a country that’s no military threat.
Our president has spat on international law. He’s ignored Congress’s role in authorizing war. He’s ignored clear public opposition to such a drastic and dumb decision.
If there is any justice in this world, and with the Hague’s pronouncement, he and Vladimir Putin will share a bunk and four walls off which to bounce conquest tales to the end of their days.
If “Iraqi Freedom” was constructed around a three-letter lie – “WMD” – the three-letter lie used to justify attacking Venezuela is “DEA.”
It’s all about drug enforcement. You bet. In brilliant framing, Nicolas Maduro was detained in the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters.
Did the administration dust Maduro’s mustache with white powder for effect?
A Washington Post editorial called the “narco-terrorism” claim “particularly ludicrous.”
Venezuela “is not a meaningful producer of fentanyl,” and what cocaine emerges from its bowels gets consumed primarily in Europe.
No, this is not about drugs. It’s about oil. Our con-man-in-chief barely hides it.
Baloneyous claims would assign this adventure to the sway of hawks like Rubio and Pete Hegseth. We can be assured, however, that those speaking loudest in the war room were Koch, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Shell.
In this grievance-fueled presidency, our president opts for hemispheric chaos to settle half-century-old petro-grudges dating back to when President Rafael Caldera — who? — nationalized oil.
For such a one-time critic of war adventurism, the president clearly has not learned the lesson of wars that don’t serve our national interest.
His statement that he’d “like to do it quickly” — that is, transform and stabilize a nation with 28 million people, an active military, and allied Cuban fighters – sounds like Dick Cheney saying the Iraqi resistance would be subjugated in a “relatively short period.”
Lies, lies, and damn lies. Innocents dead. Which of our military personnel will be sacrificed on the altar of valor?
In my state of Colorado, MAGA-fied Congressman Gabe Evans was reading right from the party memo to say that because of this venture, “Americans are safer.” Kool-Aid, Kool-Aid, tastes great.
So, Mr. President, you will run Venezuela. Weren’t Gaza and the Kennedy Center enough?
It’s good to see one Republican, Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, say, “The only country that the United States of America should be ‘running’ is the United States of America.”
The “make us safer” pitch was used to justify intervening in Vietnam (58,281 U.S. dead) and rolling tanks into Iraq (4,576). The only things made safer by either were investments in the war machine and the raw materials that powered it.
Venezuela may not be a comparable bloodbath, but it won’t be as clean as glittering U.S. rig equipment.
Neil Sheehan’s 1988 book about Vietnam, “A Bright Shining Lie,” focuses on Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, a valiant but ultimately disillusioned warrior.
Vann could have been speaking to the MAGA hawks and oil companies today when he said of that quagmire, “It is not true that we are here to solve problems. We are the problem.”
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email him at jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
