OPINION and ANALYSIS
Is President Trump going to invade Venezuela? Should we? Is destroying Venezuelan boats and killing some of its sailors the right thing to do in a fight against drug trafficking?
First of all we strongly emphasize that we applaud general efforts to stop the flow of illegal drugs into this country.
Secondly, what follows is not intended to sound like an endorsement of the Maduro regime. As everyone knows, we are very much against dictators. We are also against drug traffickers.
What needs to be questioned in the U.S/Venezuela situation are the real objectives of the Trump administration and the appropriateness of the methods it is employing to fight drugs.
Here are some random thoughts on the quickly escalating situation with Venezuela.
Initially, in the age of Trump, one must consider whether Trump is “creating” a foreign conflict to divert attention away from the quickly escalating Epstein file situation and the economic difficulties regular Americans are facing with the seemingly endless series of price increases they’ve faced since Trump took office. Diversionary, rally-the-public-around-the-flag tactics have been typically employed by many unscrupulous leaders throughout World history.
But let’s assume in arguendo, that Maduro is a drug trafficking dictator.
What proof do we have that the boats being attacked by our Navy are delivering narcotics? If we don’t have proof we are acting like a bullying, thuggish, if not outright terrorist nation. Doing so makes us no friends and makes it easier for our enemies to rally foreign countries to their cause and to oppose us elsewhere. Then there’s the question of international law being violated by blowing these alleged drug boats up and killing their crews with no proof of wrongdoing. And morally speaking, don’t we care about the possibility of the loss of innocent life? Our reputation matters a whole lot more than too many folks, especially on the political right, now think. And simply put, if we treat the lives of foreigners as being expendable, it is infinitely more likely that they will treat the lives of Americans as expendable as well. What goes around comes around.
At one time we were the leader of the free world and much of our appeal to other nations was that we stood for liberty and a strong sense of justice and the rule of law. Under Trump, tragically, this is no longer the case and just blowing up a foreign nations boats and killing their crews only exacerbates the bad reputation we are gaining internationally. Thus, we are losing our ability to engage in moral suasion with other countries.
If these really are drug trafficking boats being blown up then the Trump administration needs to do a much better job of proving it to the world. In this regard, it seems to us that blowing the boats up destroys the evidence the Administration needs to prove its case that these attacks are justified.
Here’s a huge question: Why isn’t the U.S. Coast Guard (not the U.S. Navy) just stopping these boats first to search for drugs? Wouldn’t that be a more traditional and less confrontational and costly way of stopping any drug trafficking destined for the U.S.? If the Coast Guard can’t do it why not the U.S. Navy but with smaller ships that are better suited for simple policing actions?
In this regard, it is not the most effective use of one of the world’s mightiest military assets (the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier) to be cruising around Venezuela. The Ford should be cruising somewhere around other more important strategic hotspots in Southeast Asia, the mouth of the Persian Gulf or the Mediterranean….or perhaps to protect, Britain, NATO and the North Atlantic near Norway. The Ford’s magnificent strategic and nuclear capabilities should not be wasted in the northern end of the Gulf of MEXICO. Destroyers, frigates, the U.S. Coast Guard with perhaps a much smaller aircraft/helicopter carrier (for air support) are all that’s really needed for anti-drug trafficking operations near Venezuela.
Regarding the possibility, as some have suggested that Trump is really after Venezuelan oil, that of course raises the issue of whether we should support what would amount to being outright theft and/or
the unprovoked conquest of another country. Naturally, there would be more justification for some kind of aggressive action if Maduro truly is behind, or actually supports, the trafficking of drugs to the U.S. The problem here is that the claims that Trump makes about anything must be taken with a grain of salt because he is very prone to lying and to operating with ulterior motives in mind. In this case, is alleged drug trafficking merely being used as pretext to invade to capture oil producing assets?
But here’s the problem. Even if Maduro is assisting in the trafficking of drugs, if we invade, history has shown we normally have initial success. But then “we own it”. And Afghanistan and Iraq have both shown we’ve not been very successful in establishing healthy new regimes. We couldn’t do it in Vietnam either. A big issue not discussed, is what if Maduro is successful in getting either the Chinese or the Russians to give him a significant amount of military assistance–or worse, an actual military presence (by Russia and/or China) in South America? I remember as a young kid….no lie…climbing down into the well in our backyard to figure out if my dad could build a bomb shelter there. Yes, a bomb shelter right there in suburban America. This was during the 1962 Cuban Missile crises. There is already evidence that Maduro has recently purchased some more sophisticated weaponry from Moscow in response to Trump’s actions. My point being if the Russians and/or Chinese establish any kind of military presence in South America or the Caribbean then guess what… we will be at risk of constant (nuclear) war and/or we’ve got to keep the Ford aircraft carrier and other hugely important assets in the Gulf MEXICO heaven forbid a war starts down there and the Chinese or Russians have any involvement in it at all. Nukes? WWIII? Another Cuban Missile Crises might not end as well for the U.S. as the cliffhanger we had in 1962. Another endless foreign war? What will it cost? What about the federal deficit? Are we wasting precious federal dollars?
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