Clueless in Venezuela

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido says his supporters are seeking to open a direct line of communication with the US military, and would use them for “coordination” of possible military action to impose regime change.

News ID: 444891

Date: 14 May 2019 - 03:11

RNA - The clueless politician says having direct lines of communication between him and the Pentagon regime would put more pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to resign. US Admiral Craif Faller, the head of South Command, also says he “looks forward” to supporting the members of Venezuela’s military “who make the right decision,” which is to say backing the US-supported regime change in the South American country.

This is while crowds supporting Guaido at regular opposition rallies demanding he be made president are getting smaller since the recent failed coup. With Guaido seemingly losing momentum, the Trump administration further claims that ultimately they may need to get more directly involved in invading Venezuela and ensuring his rule.

However, when it comes to the way Washington regime changers think about war and the US military intervention in Venezuela, their past so-called “humanitarian” interventions and bombs come to mind. By threatening Venezuela yet again, it is clear that nothing has changed since 2003 when George W. Bush so confidently inaugurated "Operation Iraqi Freedom".

Today, few members of the foreign policy establishment on Capitol Hill subscribe to the US claims about spreading “democracy” in Latin America at gunpoint under the rubric of overtaking Venezuela and supporting Guaido, thanks to the enlightening statements and policies of Donald Trump who has been displaying Washington's foreign policy naked, in addition to the US scandals in Middle-East wars. Even among most neoconservatives, the phrase regime change has lost whatever allure it once possessed. And apart perhaps from the current national security advisor John Bolton, few advocate regime change war whenever Washington takes a dislike to Maduro.

Even so, the underlying premises of US policy and the forever war that goes with it remain very much intact - the massive military budget, the military-industrial complex, the empire of bases, the preference for coercion rather than diplomacy, with "all options" always "on the table." Apparently, the regime changers have learned nothing since turning Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen into rubble. They continue to define America's interventionist role to keep their hegemonic presence in the world alive.

Apparently, when it comes to a possible war with Venezuela or any other country, they are still unaware of their fait accompli. Just like in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, US forces will fail to eliminate the leadership of elected President Maduro. Intended as a possible brief campaign, the Venezuela war will become a protracted one as well, with no end in sight and only God knows how many body bags will come back home under the US flag.

The events followed after the failed coup had a similar pattern, with the appearance of easy success belied by subsequent developments and failures. The US-backed coup proved illusory, although President Donald Trump keeps telling us the US still possesses military power such as the world has never seen. If anything, Guaido’s opposition base has gained no strength and the campaign remains much in doubt, too.

According to Fars News Agancy, all of this turned out to be hot air – just as it happened in the Middle East. If the American intervention in Venezuela or the war on terror in the Middle East has produced one undeniable conclusion, it is this:

Estimates of US military capabilities have turned out to be wildly overstated. The Trump administration's misplaced confidence in the efficacy of American arms and new military buildups in South America or the Middle East represents a strategic misjudgment that has already cost the country dearly. Even in a volatile country like Venezuela, American military power will be quite limited.

With that combination, the War Party cannot sustain American global preeminence any longer. Henceforth, US forces cannot sustain their reputation for a powerful army either. Trump keeps telling us no one can stop the unstoppable American soldiers. The truth is their reputation has already been called into question in places like Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

To anyone with eyes to see, the events of the past few decades have demolished the so-called invincibility of the American military. With the Afghanistan war well into its 18th year, the US-hurried pullout from Iraq few years after the 2003 scandalous invasion and Trump's decision to retreat from Syria, just about no mission has been possible. The clueless War Party cannot make history in Venezuela or anywhere else.

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