Blunder For Plunder

Reposted from Substack.

When I was a kid, not long after I started middle school, the invasion of Iraq began. I was already paying attention to politics- nerd, I know. I’m glad I paid attention then, because what’s happening now in Venezuela makes total sense. There are a lot of similarities, and it boils down to one commodity: Oil.

It’s not like the strikes on Venezuela came as a surprise, though Maduro’s kidnapping was something few people predicted. Similarities between our current situation and the invasion and eventual occupation of Iraq, though there are some distinguishing characteristics. But how do they differ, exactly? Materially, I mean.

First of all, there was not a large scale invasion of Venezuela, and to my knowledge we do not have boots on the ground in a ubiquitous capacity like we did in Iraq. As such, we are avoiding another quagmire and another insurgent hydra we’ll never fully stamp out, no matter how much force or how many war cromies we commit.

Additionally, we aren’t incurring the heavy casualties that the invasion of Iraq led to, both on US military servicemembers and the local population. In Venezuela already, there are at least 100 people dead, plus the other hundred or so taken out during the boat strikes leading up to Maduro’s abduction. That’s far less than the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and thousands of US casualties, but still they represent an egregious abuse of power and a clear violation of international laws governing warfare and combat. When there’s oil to be secured for “American interests” (read: corporate profits), we don’t seem to care what the cost is.

Unique to this administration, however, is the brazen, open embrace of profiteering by the higher-ups and the President himself even that even Bush and Co. wouldn’’t have dared to speak about so openly. They’re very celar when they say we control Venezuela now; we may not be occupying it militarily, but we are economically. Between Trump stating outright we’re taking the oil to Stephen Miller going on a bloodthirsty diatribe on CNN, this administration is very open about their intentions. Rubio and the savvier ones try to dress things up, but the cards are on the table. We know what the score really is.

That’s the key difference. Yes, there’s a lower bodycount. Yes that’s better than the gruesome alternative, but a better alternative is to leave them the hell alone. We have no right to dictate other countries’ foreign or domestic policy, strip their country of it’s natural resources, and steal their wealth for our multinational corporations to plunder. Only this time they blundered into admitting what we have always known: America is a mob boss, and when you don’t pay The Don his protection money there’s hell to pay.

We have so much to protest these days, but open aggression against a sovereign nation has to be a focus. It cannot fall by the wayside. We as Americans and as citizens of the world have to speak up and speak out about this egregious violation of international law, and demand that Venezuela be returned to the Venezuelan people, and our grubby hands kept off their resources.

Thanks for reading!

-Dee