Venezuela: Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3?

Following my email to my Congressional representatives (see earlier post), I received a prompt response from Senator Britt. Unsurprisingly, she supported the military incursion into Venezuela, the rationale being eliminating the head of Venezuela’s drug cartel, restoring democracy, and reducing the influence of China and Iran.

Beginning with the president’s news conference last Saturday, we’ve heard an incoherent string of rationales and intentions for what’s next, undermining the logic of Senator Britt’s response. I couldn’t resist replying to point this out:

Senator Britt,

Thank you for your response to my email opposing the U.S. intervention in Venezuela. While not surprised, I was disappointed in your full-throated justification of the administration’s talking points — which compels me to respond.

Maduro was a brutal dictator, yet his brutality primarily harmed countless Venezuelans. He did not “wage war” on Americans for decades. Maduro’s support of the drug trade didn’t justify a “necessary mission” at enormous cost and potential risk to our service men and women just to capture him for trial.

If stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S. was truly the objective — a narrowly targeted “law enforcement operation” — why did the president pardon the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of similar drug crimes and was serving a long sentence in prison? Stopping the flow of drugs is not a credible argument.

You wrote “the United States intends to oversee a peaceful transition and a return to democracy in Venezuela.” Yet, the administration has anointed Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president and now president, to lead the government. This leaves Maduro’s corrupt government and military in place and places no restraint on the drug cartels. Standing up democracy is not a credible argument.

It didn’t take long for the president to clearly state his motives: “oil, oil, oil.” He told The New York Times that the U.S. will be running Venezuela and extracting its oil for years, and he will decide how the proceeds will be divided among Venezuela and America, I suspect with a cut for himself. We’ll likely hear of a new Trump resort being planned for the Venezuelan coast, further enriching his family.

With a reality-TV demonstration of military power, the president has returned U.S. foreign policy to the colonial era where powerful countries dominate weaker nations. The U.S. has no legal right to the oil in Venezuela, yet we can threaten military force to establish a “deal” that gives us the “right” to plunder their oil. Stephen Miller affirmed that philosophy in a recent CNN interview, and the president told The New York Times that the only limits on his power are “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

I’m disappointed you didn’t join five of your Republican colleagues to support limiting further military action in Venezuela without Congressional approval. I pray you will have the courage to vote for the resolution next week. If Republicans continue to bow down, I fear the president who sees himself as God may well end the American democracy before the country reaches its 250th anniversary.

They Are Rolling Over in Their Graves

I sent the following to Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville and Representative Mike Rogers:

I oppose the president's invasion of Venezuela. There's no legal or moral justification to invade the country to capture President Maduro, even with the U.S. indictment.

The president’s claim that the U.S. will run Venezuela is absurd. It will defocus the administration from priorities at home and lead to another longterm engagement like Iraq, likely with the tragic loss of American lives.

The president has no legal basis to unilaterally claim Venezuela’s oil for the U.S., regardless of the business losses when the Venezuelan government nationalized its oil industry in 1976.

The president’s military action is giving Russian president Putin justification for his invasion of Ukraine and emboldening China to invade Taiwan. His threats against Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Greenland, and Canada are deranged, the dreams of an imperialist madman.

I urge Congress to respond strongly to limit the president’s actions. If you remain acquiescent and continue fealty to this president, you are abdicating your responsibility to the Constitution.

The Founders must be rolling over in their graves.