Are We in the Final Days Before the Trump Administration Invades Venezuela?

In the wake of the Washington, D.C. shooter, who was an Afghan national seeking asylum in the United States after having partnered with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), taking the lives of two West Virginia National Guardsmen and President Donald Trump gaining justification to deploy 500 additional troops to further turn the capital city into a militarized zone, the current administration announced that airstrikes on land targets within Venezuela are coming “very soon.” With the official designation of the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, Operation Southern Spear is now ready to take on the next phase of the war and eliminate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.

Cartel de los Soles may or may not even exist as a real organization, and it is very likely just a ploy in order to fake a connection between the Venezuelan government and drugs and to have justification for regime change. It is possible that there is some corruption and that the Venezuelan government and military is receiving money from drug trafficking, but this would need to be proven and presented to the American people and Congress for a debate on whether this constitutes a threat that is worth sacrificing American troops. Yet, the Trump administration cares little for accountability and would prefer to act in any manner that it chooses and without any sort of checks on its power.

The narcotics finding their way into the United States to contribute toward the opioid crisis are actually centered around Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, and Central America, not Venezuela. In fact, most fentanyl, for example, is supplied from China, manufactured in Mexico, and crossed over the border into the United States (largely via legal ports of entry that could be stopped by vigilant and competent government agents, but instead, the government blames Venezuela). Very few drugs are produced and trafficked in Venezuela, so this is clearly a rally-around-the-flag situation to persuade the naïve populace (and blind supporters of the president) that military action is necessary so that the yearslong mission to oust the Maduro regime can finally be realized. As I have been saying, this is just the precursor to another Iraq or Afghanistan that will drag us into a commitment to the profits of the military-industrial complex for years to come. The fact that roughly half of Americans cannot see through this is concerning because it means that war propaganda from the state continues to be effective.

Further complicating the issue is that President Trump has already begun striking alleged Venezuelan drug boats without congressional approval, as the Constitution requires. The several airstrikes that have killed at least eighty people so far, are illegal under international law and the Constitution, as they do not provide any form of due process or evidence proving that American citizens are under imminent danger. In fact, Senator Rand Paul pointed out that roughly one-quarter of all Coast Guard seizures of boats result in finding absolutely zero drugs, so if that statistic holds true with the president’s new military adventure, around twenty or so of the suspected drug runners intentionally killed in airstrikes were actually innocent (probably fishermen). Plus, consider that these drug boats would have to stop at several Caribbean islands along the way and refuel at least twenty times in order to make it hundreds to thousands of miles to Miami (according to Rand Paul), and this just is not practical. It is unlikely that these boats have anything to do with drugs, and even the United Kingdom has stopped sharing intelligence with the United States related to this operation because it believes that the airstrikes are illegal.

Additionally, one specific airstrike (on September 2) was followed up with a second strike after it was determined that there were still survivors (witnesses) clinging for their lives to the damaged boat. Yes, the United States military slaughtered the remaining unarmed men who had no way to defend themselves, and now, congressmen demand answers for this incident and want accountability generally on these airstrikes (of which the Trump administration has been unwilling to adhere to). Of course, Secretary of Defense (War) Pete Hegseth is denying any wrongdoing and suggesting that the second strike never occurred or that the commander who ordered it did it without his knowledge but was under legal authority to do so, and since it has been recorded that the secretary ordered that everyone on that ship be killed before the strike began, he is ultimately responsible. Either way, a war crime has been committed because destroying unarmed targets is not acceptable under any rules of engagement.

More generally in the Caribbean Sea, the Trump administration has deployed ten warships, the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, which contains seventy aircraft, two naval guided-missile destroyers (USS Gravely and USS Stockdale), two guided-missile cruisers (USS Lake Erie and USS Gettysburg), a Wasp-class amphibious assault vehicle (USS Iwo Jamia also contains six Harrier II attack aircraft), and 15,000 American troops, including 5,000 stationed in Puerto Rico and 2,200 Marines (among other troops, equipment, and vehicles). For the last couple of months, B-52 bombers have been circling around near Venezuelan territory in order to intimidate Maduro and government officials and civilians (if you frighten people enough, maybe they will want to rebel against the government). Additionally, President Trump closed Venezuela’s airspace completely (after the Federal Aviation Administration put out warnings for travel and flight risks to Venezuela), meaning that the government may be prepared to shoot down any aircraft, civilian or military, that enters the country’s airspace (including repatriation flights for American citizens stuck in that country and migrants being sent back?). This is clearly an act of war (equivalent to a blockade or a no-fly zone) and a violation of international law (and the Constitution, as Congress has not permitted the president to act in this manner).

With this massive amount of firepower and the troop buildup, there can be no doubt that the United States executive branch is prepared to invade the South American country and bomb it to the ground. In fact, President Trump gave Maduro an ultimatum: resign as president and leave the country or face the full force of the American military. This equates to bullying and terrorism against a weaker nation, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense (War) Pete Hegseth, and other administration officials are in their joy. They get to topple a dictator that other United States presidents tried and failed to eliminate (including Trump in his first term), and the military-industrial complex and the deep state, which every president ultimately works for, gets to keep pumping out weapons and vehicles to bolster the bloodshed. In response, Maduro has vowed to launch a long-term guerilla-style defense campaign against the United States, should it invade, and the regime has set up the framework for “anarchisation,” which would include using intelligence resources to cause enough chaos in Caracas that it would be impossible for any puppet leader that the Trump administration installed to rule the country.

As American troops train in Trinidad and Tobago (only a few miles off the coast of Venezuela) and Russia has condemned the aggressive campaign against Maduro (it would be ironic if Russia sent weapons to Venezuela to repel the American invasion as the United States did to Ukraine to assist that country in reducing Russia’s advance), we must ask ourselves if another endless war is what we really want. Will an invasion of Venezuela make American lives better, or will struggling Americans have to fork over more of their hard-earned dollars to support an expanding military operation? Senators Tim Kaine, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, and Rand Paul plan to force a war powers resolution through Congress that would require President Trump to get congressional approval to act in Venezuela; and although what the president is doing is highly unconstitutional, where were the Democratic congressmen when their party was busy bombing the Middle East into smithereens?

It is good to see these senators stepping up and opposing unilateral war actions by the executive branch (the president is commander-in-chief but does not have the power to declare war or engage foreign targets without congressional approval), but we have drifted so far from the Constitution at this point that trying to restrict the executive branch from abusing power seems almost like a lost cause. We have created a military culture in the United States that tolerates authoritarianism and cheers on conflicts in weaker nations, and presidents have been allowed to declare wars on their own whim. Our backwards way of thinking in foreign policy has brought us countless wars and covert regime change operations, and Operation Southern Spear is just another war that Americans will overlook and eventually learn to accept. We the people have the power to stop this and to say enough is enough, but we have been so conditioned and become so complacent with our ordinary lives that most of us will simply not care to do anything in response. Therefore, until we stand up, the no-new-wars president will continue engaging in his new war.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.