After a failed US-backed coup on Wednesday, the Trump Administration is
visibly losing patience on its determination to impose regime change in
Venezuela. While still giving lip-service to the idea that the US can
force a “peaceful” exchange of power through sheer force of will, they
are also talking up direct military intervention.
The always hawkish John Bolton was of course the most open about this
possible US attack, saying that he’s been told by Admiral Faller that US
troops are “on the balls of our feet ready to go” into Venezuela.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others only suggested that invading Venezuela was “possible,” but talking up the intervention in such a way as to suggest that a lot more possible after that failed coup.
Adding to speculation that such a war could be imminent, acting Defense
Secretary Patrick Shanahan has cancelled his planned trip to Europe at
the last minute, with officials saying he needs to stay to coordinate policy on Venezuela.
Gen. Joe Dunford, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that the focus right now is on collecting intelligence on Venezuela. How successful they are being is unclear, as officials seemed to assume that coup was going to be successful.
Seems that the current conflicts in Syria, Yemen Somalia Afghanistan, Iraq, numerous African backwaters and elsewhere just are not sufficient to occupy the minds or resources of this administration despite prior pronouncements to the contrary.
They’re just mad that their stupid little plot turned out to be a trap. They lost a lot of credibility with this “coup”. Dude, seriously tho, if I took some random congresscritter and 30 paid thugs to camp out at the north gate of the local AFB thinking they’d soon rule the whole country, I might just be a gullible fool.
Here is an article that looks at a WikiLeaks document that explains how the United States Army is preparing to help Washington achieve its national strategic objectives:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/04/us-power-wielding-unconventional.html
This Army manual gives us a very clear view of how Washington uses manipulation through its influence on the World Bank, IMF, OECD and other “global” groups to wage unconventional warfare on any nation that doesn’t share its view of how the world should function and that threatens America’s control of the globe, including nations like Venezuela, Iran, Russia and North Korea.
The always hawkish John Bolton was of course the most open about this possible US attack, saying that he’s been told by Admiral Faller that US troops are “on the balls of our feet ready to go” into Venezuela.
Don’t you just love how the good admiral talks about the troops as though they are competing in some sporting event instead of getting ready to go kill people? The propaganda machine has made our lovable, huggable troops to be wanting of battle at all times and to actually crave it. But of course the good admiral won’t ever be in the slightest bit of danger but never mind.
Your average GI would probably sooner chew his own arm off than sign up for a ground invasion of Venezuela. The guys who talk the toughest are the ones least likely to ever catch a whiff of gunpowder. Your average American soldier is some blue collar kid promised a free college education in exchange for a tour playing racquetball in some suburb of Berlin only to find himself pushed by everyone around him to do things that eat at his soul for the rest of his life. If these kids were half as cruel as their leaders back in Washington they wouldn’t be murdering themselves in record numbers with pills and booze.
One of my favorite chants from the Sixties is “We’re not against the soldiers, we’re against the war.” The black-ops creeps are glorified death squads and those drone jockies back in Vegas make me ill but most of these guys are just guilty of being young and stupid and they usually end up paying for it, sooner or later, with their lives.
Making the “tough” decisions. Tough for other people.
If Bolton is claiming 25,000 Cuban troops inside Venezuela (an absurd claim, most likely), obviously the US wouldn’t attack in that case as it would be a debacle.
My guess is the US won’t attack Venezuela. What are they going to do after such an attack? Impose a puppet regime? How long would that last if the remaining Venezuelan military decides to overthrow it? Is the US going to occupy Venezuela? How long would it take for that to turn into another Vietnam or Iraq? Start a proxy war using foreign troops from some other Latin American country? That would be a mess as well.
There simply is no military option aside from some random bombing of the Venezuelan military posts. It’s a lot of bluster with no outcome except to make the situation in Venezuela worse.
Frankly I think Russia and China should send about 5,000 troops each with some major hardware. That would really put the wind up with the US and at the same time make a US invasion very difficult. Sure, the US has the ability to overwhelm any such force – but it would be a bloody mess with lots of US casualties the US electorate wouldn’t like and risk WWIII to boot.
Moon of Alabama had a very insightful take on this fiasco, “There are signs that the government of President Nicolas Maduro set a trap. Several people in the top echelon of the Venezuelan government gave false promises that they would join the U.S. proxy side. They snookered Guaidó into launching his coup to let him fail.” Don’t you love seeing Trump and Pompeo getting played like this? I’m thinking there’s hope for resistance to the evil Empire after all.
Trump is left with very few options other than flinging a few Tomahawk missiles at Venezuela like he did a while back in Syria. This will get Brian Williams creaming in his jeans about the “beauty of our weapons”, but will also solidify Maduro’s standing with the Venezuelan military and with the majority of Venezuelans, exactly the opposite of what Trump and the neocons thought would happen. Turns out Maduro is a pretty good card player while Trump only knows how to play Uno.
Sounds like MoA is engaged in wishful thinking.
It is reasonable to suspect that someone was suckered with an old trick. It is not reasonable to declare it fact without evidence. The suspicion might reasonably lead one to search for facts, but that is all it can do. So far, nobody in public knows much of anything that could pass for fact.
I think saying there “were signs” that that is what happened isn’t the same as stating the whole thing was indeed a trap.
Of course no one knows what happens in the spook world. We do know some things. Cuba did send advisors, likely anti coup/5th column guys skilled with US coup attempts. Their goal, quash the coup and anti regime demonstrations without giving the US spook media “repression” stories. This is what we observe. Where is John Kelly ? Spending time with family no doubt…crime family.
Well yeah, there are signs. I’d certainly be looking out for more.
No more wishful than you Trumpsters thinking that he’s going to turn out to be some kind of libertarian peacenik who will get us out of all these foreign entanglements.
You have proven time and time again in the comments section here that you a complete fool.
Typical response.
Yeah Tom! You a complete fool.
I didn’t know Mr. T had his own Hooked on Phonics.
With you, your standards are either total purity or everything else (which are all bad.)
No one at AWC ever claimed Trump is a “libertarian peacenik.” He is surrounded by the Deep State and the entire Defense killing establishment. But so far Trump has reduced US footprint in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Not intervened in Libya, Yemen, etc. to any great extent. You think la Hillary would have shown such restraint? And poor Gary Johnson, bless his heart, probably doesn’t know where most of these places are on a globe…
Or maybe he’s just waiting for an end to just one of those conflicts you mentioned and not just less of a footprint. Especially while our footprint is getting deeper in Iran and Venezuela. Plus Trumps unconditional loyalty to a foreign country is still a major problem. And I don’t mean Russia.
This must be right. How otherwise to make such claims? I thought that claims may have been made also as a way to introduce doubt and suspicion inside the government. But it would be a risky move — so unless our leadership is truly incompetent, I would rule this out. Remains a ruse, the most likely explanation.
The problem for our warrior leadership is the following. Maduro already has people on his side. The entire native Venezuelan population, and those identifying with them, are on his side. The only opposition are the descendants of European colonizers, priding themselves on their European heritage. But those were out on the streets while it was cool and listened to Guaido speeaches, but now they are home. They know that snipers would love to kill some civilians and blame the government.
Maduro has not yet taken any forces out to the street. Only minor police presence, and the supposed cars running through crowds looks staged. I cannot imagine a car after just driving into crowds, being able to saunter off slowly in no hurry, and no protesters stoned it, or just kicked it, and try to block it. One bus set on fire, and some smoke bombs — no tear gas — that was all the special effects. There are probably some Maduro supporters asking for trouble there, but even with such low level interference by Maduro, Guidado cannot risk being close to crowds.
Maduro is just leaving him alone. Without any masses of people on the streets, the running up and down empty streets of Maduro professional protesters looks very, very thin on the ground.
If they are played, as it looks like, there is a temptation to do something stupid. It is possible that Maduro has some weapons not advertised. After all, Russia tried out a lots of its weapons in Syria, and now has some new ones. Given the low state of relationships, Trump administration, especially the crazed foreign policy team, have nowhere to go. Venezuelan populace is armed, and organized across the country. They are not likely to accept the status quo ante, where their European masters did not give them ID cards, so they could not vote. After Chavez, they willl not likely be put out into the box. This happened in Bolivia earlier. But the attempt to derail native majority failed. It will be very interesting how this will play out.
It may have escaped our elites what is happening around the globe. The countries that are now bucking imposed order are those that had been civilizationally and institutionally organised in the past. Thus, China, Russia, Iran, Hungary, Austria, Turkey. They are drawing on their historic experiences updated for the reality, to chart a course of action that avoids the traps of globalist colonization.
I have it on authority that Trump cheats at Uno.
The world is creaking under the weight of regional conflicts where World War Three might start, adding a South American Spring to that list only increases instability. For now the nuclear powers are only fighting by proxy. The pattern of history shows proxy wars eventually end and the real ones begin.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
You can’t have a coup against an illegitimate leader. That’s what Maduro is.
Oh the satire..please..enough of your utter rubbish. Maduro was elected by the populace. PERIOD!
You might want to look up the meaning of “coup.” Whether or not a coup’s target is “legitimate” has nothing to do with it.
That said, what’s going on is certainly not a textbook “coup.”
And yes, there is in fact a textbook: Coup D’Etat: A Practical Manual by Edward Luttwak.
A “coup” is a sudden stroke in which key communications and logistical elements are seized suddenly and without warning such that the ruler being overthrown is either actually captured/killed or isolated and unable to exercise power.
What Guaido is (so far unsuccessfully) trying to do is publicly get the populace and the military off of Maduro’s side and on his side. That’s not a “coup.” It’s an attempt to foment an uprising/insurrection/revolution. A “coup” might be part of the background plan, but it’s not what we’ve seen so far.
Yes, all good points. Absent any military or armed security forces action against Maduro, or Maduro leaving the country rather than face armed internal opposition, it is no coup.
So far the CIA has failed to undermine the military’s loyalty to the Maduro regime. Aside from large criminal gangs (which seem to operate in many places with implicit local approval) only the military in Venezuela has arms, legally.
It is totally crazy to try to manufacture a coup there from the outside, especially by the US. Fortunately, so far that has failed.
Have you heard of Tulsi Gabbard? She’s a 4-term Hawaii Congresswoman, veteran of two deployments to the Middle East and currently a major in the Army National Guard – now she’s running for President and I’m for her.
f
Tulsi is the only candidate (besides Mike Gravel) who focuses on stopping the US regime change wars around the world. I think this is the most important issue in the election. Tulsi has gotten the 65,000 individual contributions she needs to be in the debates. But now the DNC is raising the br to 100,000 because the field is so crowded. Your donation of $5 or eevn $1 wouldhelp get a real antiwar voice in the debates.
Please click here to learn more about Tulsi and what she stands for — and consider donating to her campaign:
https://www.tulsi2020.com
While some here snark at Tucker Carlson, he has done heroic work lately on the Venezuelan situation. Has had guests, and himself quite forcefully, discuss what a nightmare further US involvement there would be. Carlson accurately discussed the looming quagmire of intervention, the huge worthless expense and likely blow-back from unhappy Venezuelans, who would for decades blame everything there on the US government. Let’s acknowledge the few good voices out there. Fox and Carlson aren’t perfect but compared to everyone else, they are heroic and nearly alone in this stance. Carlson is also usually pro Trump. Here, now he’s sounding an important warning.
If he keeps talking the way he has been talking, Tucker Carlson may have to spend time in a reeducation camp.