Can anyone give an overview of what has happened in Venezuela since Maduro took over and what the beef is between him and Trump? Looks like US going to start exporting Freedom again..
1. Deaths by overdose, especially of Fentanyl is through the roof (it has surpassed road accidents, heart attacks, etc.)
2. We have got to do something
3. This is something
4. The president has something to offer as a solution. For everything. (It is unusual to have a president who is so willing to try to solve everything.)
5. No one commenting in the news has enough info of the plan (or of the future) to offer a useful appraisal of this particular something.
Whether or not this something is actually a useful and good thing [and whether or not it will lead to other good things, and if those other things will be good...] will definitely be biased by your view of the administration, your policy towards war, and you risk tolerance.
As someone who has lost family members to Fentanyl, I at least recognize my bias :/
That's a mistake. We need to do something with good results. Doing something with bad results is worse than doing nothing.
> Whether or not this something is actually a useful and good thing [and whether or not it will lead to other good things, and if those other things will be good...] will definitely be biased by your view of the administration, your policy towards war, and you risk tolerance.
You're accusing random people of bias - you don't even know who they are. It's a way to shut down discussion and reason.
Whether or not it's good and useful doesn't depend on bias, but on reality. We can talk about reality here, without shutting each other down.
From what I understand, fentanyl doesn't come by boat, and few drugs do.
> 5. No one commenting in the news has enough info of the plan (or of the future) to offer a useful appraisal of this particular something.
If that's true, it's a major problem in democracy, where the people have sovereignty. Their elected representatives in Congress decide on wars, not the White House.
If you look at this article with a squint - it seems to be a publicized threat from the US government to the Maduro regime, loosely veiled as an independent news article?
NATO has a clause that says it does not fuck with anything happening in the southern hemisphere. This was done at the request of the US who did not want to defend European colonies.
- Demonstrable ties with US adversaries Hezbollah and Iran.
- Close ties with US adversary Russia.
- Close ties with US adversary China.
- Indisputable drug production and transit.
- Threatened neighboring Guyana and previously Columbia.
- Rigged at least one and likely two elections.
- Ruined its economy for most of its citizens.
- Strategically aided illegal immigration of criminals into US.
No responsible government would permit a country this hostile to US interests to persist. This build up is part of a high stakes negotiation to peacefully change regimes in VZ. If Maduro rejects it, he and his cronies will be forcibly removed.
In HOI4, you got to level up your troops and generals with amphibious assault experience with a minor nation to prepare for the war with the major nation down the road.
I like to think everything is about prepping for what happens when China takes its rightful place in the sun.
Venezuela is a narco dictatorship failed state, but its true crimes are violations of the Monroe Doctrine. America's hegemony in Europe, Asia and the Middle East is in serious decline, so it's become all the more important to flex muscle in our hemisphere and make an example out of someone. Pour encourager les autres. Or, from the horse's mouth:
Over the past decade, 12 of China’s 17 loans to Venezuela have been specific to the energy sector—a total of $55 billion. China’s most significant commitment to Venezuela’s oil sector was its investment in the Orinoco Belt, one of the world’s richest oil areas, which produces extra heavy crude oil and sits across central Venezuela. In 2010, China’s national oil company signed a 25-year land grant for a 40 percent investment in one portion of the Orinoco Belt. The energy industry is at the heart of Venezuela—economically, politically, and socially. Oil accounts for 95 percent of the country’s exports and provides the cash to import everything else. Therefore, China’s focus on the energy sector could be viewed as a “power play” to gain authority over the political and social structures of Venezuela, as well as its extensive oil reserves.
A lack of basing infrastructure also creates opportunities for adversaries to gather intelligence on U.S. movements. Several of the ships currently deployed to the Caribbean on counternarcotics missions called into ports where China exercises influence. The Arleigh Burke–class destroyer USS Sampson docked at Manzanillo, Mexico, in July, where Hong Kong–based conglomerate CK Hutchison operates a terminal. More recently, the USS Lake Erie, a guided missile cruiser, docked at Hutchison-operated Port of Balboa in Panama before transiting the Panama Canal on its way from the Pacific to the Caribbean theater. Naval port calls represent potential intelligence vulnerabilities where China can gather data on U.S. standard operating procedures and patterns of life that could be applicable to the Indo-Pacific.
The more I read into this, the more I'm inclined to support the American stance, as long as it's a quick and dirty operation as the admin states. If the allegations are true (highly likely) that Maduro heads the Cartel of the Suns, then he is directly complicit in the overdose crisis.
It would be surprising if a terrorist state that engages in ethnic cleansing at home (terror on the home front) would not also engage in international terrorism.
24 comments
[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 45.5 ms ] threadThis is going to be a repeat of this if the Americans decides to invade Venezuela.
2. We have got to do something
3. This is something
4. The president has something to offer as a solution. For everything. (It is unusual to have a president who is so willing to try to solve everything.)
5. No one commenting in the news has enough info of the plan (or of the future) to offer a useful appraisal of this particular something.
Whether or not this something is actually a useful and good thing [and whether or not it will lead to other good things, and if those other things will be good...] will definitely be biased by your view of the administration, your policy towards war, and you risk tolerance.
As someone who has lost family members to Fentanyl, I at least recognize my bias :/
>3. This is something
Killing random people extrajudicially is not "doing something".
You could use your argument to justify the Holocaust...
That's a mistake. We need to do something with good results. Doing something with bad results is worse than doing nothing.
> Whether or not this something is actually a useful and good thing [and whether or not it will lead to other good things, and if those other things will be good...] will definitely be biased by your view of the administration, your policy towards war, and you risk tolerance.
You're accusing random people of bias - you don't even know who they are. It's a way to shut down discussion and reason.
Whether or not it's good and useful doesn't depend on bias, but on reality. We can talk about reality here, without shutting each other down.
From what I understand, fentanyl doesn't come by boat, and few drugs do.
> 5. No one commenting in the news has enough info of the plan (or of the future) to offer a useful appraisal of this particular something.
If that's true, it's a major problem in democracy, where the people have sovereignty. Their elected representatives in Congress decide on wars, not the White House.
- Demonstrable ties with US adversaries Hezbollah and Iran.
- Close ties with US adversary Russia.
- Close ties with US adversary China.
- Indisputable drug production and transit.
- Threatened neighboring Guyana and previously Columbia.
- Rigged at least one and likely two elections.
- Ruined its economy for most of its citizens.
- Strategically aided illegal immigration of criminals into US.
No responsible government would permit a country this hostile to US interests to persist. This build up is part of a high stakes negotiation to peacefully change regimes in VZ. If Maduro rejects it, he and his cronies will be forcibly removed.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I like to think everything is about prepping for what happens when China takes its rightful place in the sun.
Over the past decade, 12 of China’s 17 loans to Venezuela have been specific to the energy sector—a total of $55 billion. China’s most significant commitment to Venezuela’s oil sector was its investment in the Orinoco Belt, one of the world’s richest oil areas, which produces extra heavy crude oil and sits across central Venezuela. In 2010, China’s national oil company signed a 25-year land grant for a 40 percent investment in one portion of the Orinoco Belt. The energy industry is at the heart of Venezuela—economically, politically, and socially. Oil accounts for 95 percent of the country’s exports and provides the cash to import everything else. Therefore, China’s focus on the energy sector could be viewed as a “power play” to gain authority over the political and social structures of Venezuela, as well as its extensive oil reserves.
A lack of basing infrastructure also creates opportunities for adversaries to gather intelligence on U.S. movements. Several of the ships currently deployed to the Caribbean on counternarcotics missions called into ports where China exercises influence. The Arleigh Burke–class destroyer USS Sampson docked at Manzanillo, Mexico, in July, where Hong Kong–based conglomerate CK Hutchison operates a terminal. More recently, the USS Lake Erie, a guided missile cruiser, docked at Hutchison-operated Port of Balboa in Panama before transiting the Panama Canal on its way from the Pacific to the Caribbean theater. Naval port calls represent potential intelligence vulnerabilities where China can gather data on U.S. standard operating procedures and patterns of life that could be applicable to the Indo-Pacific.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/when-investment-hurts-chinese-...
https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalation-against-maduro-regi...