Posted on 05/12/2019 9:37:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
After self-declared interim President of Venezuela Juan Guaido failed in calling on his nation’s military to oust dictator Nicolas Maduro, the attempted revolt appeared to have been strangled in the cradle. Only a handful of military leaders came over to his side and the civilian protests in the major cities fizzled for the most part. Guaido himself still hasn’t been arrested, but his deputy and several other opposition party leaders in the National Assembly have been locked up. This week, Guaido seemed to be getting a bit more nervous and he sent out an even more emphatic “invitation” to the United States. This announcement is as close as he’s come to a direct plea for American troops to ride to the rescue and take Maduro into custody themselves. (Associated Press)
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Saturday said he’s instructed his political envoy in Washington to immediately open relations with the U.S. military in a bid to bring more pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to resign.
The leader said he’s asked Carlos Vecchio, who the U.S. recognizes as Venezuela’s ambassador, to open “direct communications” toward possible military “coordination.”
The remarks, at the end of a rally Saturday, mark one of his strongest public pleas yet for greater U.S. involvement in the country’s fast-escalating crisis. While Guaidó has repeatedly echoed comments from the Trump administration that “all options” are on the table for removing Maduro, few in the U.S. or Venezuelan opposition view military action as likely nor has the White House indicated it’s seriously considering such a move.
Guaido’s desire to have a military “coordination” plan is understandable, given his current position. He certainly holds the moral high ground and enjoys some broad support among the citizenry. There’s also a definite argument to be made that he is technically the interim president, though a more formal recognition process would have been helpful. But the fact is that without the support of the military in his own country, he lacks the ability to exert true control or rule the nation.
And that should remind us that what Guaido is looking for is not military “coordination” between our two countries. He’s asking for an invasion, but the military doesn’t answer to him and would not follow his directives. Meanwhile, Maduro has not only the military leadership in his corner but also the secret police, armed militia units, Russian special forces, and Cuban troops.
I would love to see Maduro gone as much as anyone else. The guy is a monster, growing fat off of the plundering of his nation’s coffers while his people literally starve in the streets. But if he’s to be removed, it needs to be done by Venezuelans, not a foreign invasion force. Even setting aside our country’s history of military misadventures in South America, this is obviously not a war we want or deserve. The presence of foreign military units in Venezuela complicates it even further.
We should stand ready to support Guaido if he is able to take power and perhaps even give Maduro a free lift to safety (as the President has suggested) if that helps ends the conflict peacefully. But sending a squadron of B-2s to conduct a midnight bombing run on Caracas would simply not end well and could very likely subject us to the law of unintended consequences.
“In Caracas, Venezuela, however, things took a dangerous turn. A large crowd of angry Venezuelans who shouted anti-American slogans stopped Nixon’s motorcade through the capital city. They attacked the car, damaged its body and smashed the windows.”
They must have been those gallant Venezuelan people who are longing for freedom.
I always think of the movie Bananas:
“Good afternoon. Wide World of Sports is in the little republic of San Marcos where we’re going to bring you a live, on the spot assassination. They’re going to kill the president of this lovely Latin American country and replace him with a military dictatorship. And everybody is about as excited and tense as can be. The weather on this Sunday afternoon is perfect; and if you’ve just joined us, we’ve seen a series of colorful riots that started with the traditional bombing of the American embassy - a ritual as old as the city itself.”
“When I grew up we supported freedom and wanted to spread the values we embraced”
The problem is, freedom to do what?
When people are given their “freedom”, the first thing they do is trash the values we embrace.
Freedom is not a policy, it’s a tool.
The slave doesn’t dream of freedom, he dreams of being Master.
Research “Are sanctions an act of war”. They are according to the sources which came up on Bing.
Back in 1941, Roosevelt sanctioned the sale of scrap metal and oil to Japan.
Japan considered that action to be an act of war. That action precipitated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The President is in the process of destroying Iran. It is a very big deal
Regime change reared its ugly head under Clinton, and got way out of control under GWB and Obama. Now, it's even worse. We're not even pretending the Venezuelan usurper was elected. How hypocritical is it that we say we have a claim to our "neighborhood" of Central and South America, but are in Russia's face in Ukraine, especially Crimea and the Black Sea? And who can blame Iran. We almost toppled a legal stable gov in Syria that supported Christians and minorities, caused chaos in Iraq, and we still support their enemies.
Ike warned us about the military-industrial complex. So did President Trump. What the heck happened?
We've been on the wrong side, and still are, in too many situations.
“How hypocritical is it that we say we have a claim to our “neighborhood” of Central and South America, but are in Russia’s face in Ukraine, especially Crimea and the Black Sea?“
It’s not just hypocritical, it’s also incredibly dangerous.
“What the heck happened?“
Very bad people still have enormous influence.
heck no
Guaido is also a socialist. Hard to get excited about switching one socialist for another.
*** The legislature of Venezuela removed Maduro from office and installed Guaido as the interim President. He is the legal commander in chief,***
Wrong, interim presidency lasts 30 days. Venezuela’s Supreme Court ruled Guaido’s supposed presidency was illegal and unconstitutional.
Let Guaido go back to his CIA handlers, and neocon masters.
What he’s done so far, is smoke out who was not supportive of Maduro, so they could be eliminated.
Things are going to stay crappy there until there’s no more oil to steal.
My heart breaks for all the beautiful Americans we lost in the gulf / Iraq /afghani wars. Enough. No more.
If it were up to me...
After we finished building our wall, we’d build one around Venezuela.
Then mount cameras on top so the neighboring countries could watch the misery and degradation of the people therein.
Let Venezuela stand as a moral story to all the others in that AO of what happens when you go stupid socialist.
Maybe the locals outside the walls could even make some money on sports betting. Which starving zombie eats the other first.
And therein lies the problem with the USA going in there to effect "regime change".
It is evident that they support socialism, just not the inevitable end results.
Were the USA to go into Venezuela, in 20 years it would be about the same mess that it is presently, except the USA would be on the hook to PAY for it.
Yeah, the Ron Paul crowd thinks it’s an act of war. In the real world, no country is beholden to another to trade with it. Sanctions are not an act of war. As for the Japanese in WWII, or the Germans too for that matter, anything that stood in their way was a act of war as far as their leadership was concerned.
Not my problem. Do we care if we airdropped AK-47s to the wrong side in Syria? No. But the Kurds could benefit from it, that's for sure.
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