What would the US position have been if in the middle of WWII, a US company chose to build a company location in Japan or Germany? We are at war. Undeclared or not, we are at war. We are fighting an asymmetrical war, but war never-the-less.”
Under an official declaration of war, I see no problem with trump’s action here. Without one, it’s an entirely different situation. We are NOT at war with the country of Venezuela. In this instance, Trump is doing more harm to an American company than either Chavez or Maduro. Chevron has a long standing presence in Venezuela which predates it’s recent dictatorships. Even with Chavez and Maduro, they are still in business there while Trump wants to put them out of business entirely. In earlier times when our government didn’t like the leader of another nation it took him out in some form or fashion. Now, it seems, we take out American companies and punish their share holders. Something is wrong with this picture.
Having an American presence there of some sort has strategic value to the national security interest of this nation. Chevron doing business there represents some semblance of American presence without the burdens that come with trying to engage their leaders on a diplomatic level. Why throw this asset away by running them out of the country
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A lot of words and not a whole lot of thing said. You should run for office
Ok, I'll break it down for you.
1. You asked about what "if" this was during WWII?...and I simply made the point that there has been no declaration of war made so it doesn't apply.
2. I noted that Chevron has invested in Venezeula long before Chavez and Maduro came along and that their presence there deserves to be considered in this light. They didn't do anything to warrant being punished by an American President simply because they had a long standing investment in a country that only recently had come under a dictatorship. Those two dictators have already punished Chevron for being there but at least have allowed Chevron to remain in business. Trump wants to pull the plug entirely. What is worse for Chevron?
3. I pointed out that our government has other resources of it's own to deal with diplomatic issues that it wants to resolve and has done so repeatedly in the past. We taxpayers have already paid a handsome amount of money funding these resources. Why should the share holders of Chevron stock be forced to lose 2.6 billion dollars as a result of our government not liking the leader of another country? Is Trump going to force all American companies currently located in China to close and lose everything they have invested there? China has done much more economic and health related damage to this country than Maduro ever could dream to.
4.Chevron, as an American based company being there in Venezuela has strategic value to the United States in a time when our diplomatic efforts are strained. They represent our "troops on the ground" so to speak without us having to actually deploy militarily. To deploy militarily would require a confrontational level of action that would possibly lead to a much larger and worse situation than what we are currently dealing with. Chevron being there already is an asset in this regard and throwing this asset away is not a wise decision.