“Screw Venezuela. Let it go up in flames. Why do we care? It’s not a threat to the US.
I’m tired of butting in when it’s none of our business. If it becomes a risk to the US, then we go in and level the place, full on. No holds barred. Until then, this is yet another civil war.”
As for it not being a threat to us - yeah, I don’t see Venezuelan mechanized divisions ready to invade Texas. But it isn’t them I’m worried about, nor what happens next week. I’m worried about the Russian, Chinese and Cuban interest in the place (really, in its oil) - because THEY are a threat. Plus, Venezuela could be turned into another Cuba in the sense of sending soldiers all over the place to fight for their and the Russians’ interests (it should be noted that Cuba has about 11 million people, and Venezuela nearly 32 million - so they can muster far more troops and cause far more trouble).
It is one thing to avoid getting involved in every conflict in every corner of the world (we SHOULD avoid that). But this one is different - it is near our backyard, and it involves hostile foreign powers and a very big player in a key economic commodity (perhaps THE key such commodity), so it IS different than some random shithole 5,000 miles away.
It’s easy to forget the Venezuelans chose socialism. It was theirs to enter and, if they choose to do so, it’s theirs to exit. If we intervene militarily, we face a certainty of hundreds of thousands of hostile Chavistas joining the already untenable numbers of other Central Americans accessing this country.
We should’ve learned from the debacle in Iraq that what looks like early success can, without nearly flawless execution, morph into an intractable quagmire in short order. What should NEVER be overlooked is the fact that, while many Venezuelans disapprove of Maduro at present, what will unite that country is opposition to a hostile foreign power launching a military intervention. We would pay a very steep price for a military adventure in Venezuela.