While insisting that US military intervention against Venezuela remains
on the table, Senate Armed Services Committee chief Sen. James Inhofe
(R-OK) has also claimed on Tuesday that the US would be obliged to intervene if Russia were to move weapons to Venezuela.
“We’d have to, not go to war, but use force,” Inhofe told reporters.
This claim appears not to be an actual obligation, but part of the idea
of the Monroe Doctrine that the US generally does intervene against
other countries getting involved in the entire Western Hemisphere.
And while Inhofe doesn’t appear to want to rule out attacking Venezuela
just unilaterally, as the administration is hoping to impose regime
change there, it is clear he views the war even more favorably if it can
somehow be turned into a proxy war against Russia.
Russia hasn’t suggested preemptive intervention in Venezuela like this
in the first place, of course. Indeed, the only Russian comments on the
power struggle in Venezuela have been to reject US demands for an
unconditional regime change.
Sen. Inhofe: US Could Attack Venezuela If Russia Had Weapons There
Says US would 'have to' intervene against Russia
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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