Web Archive link

Over the past two months, the United States has engaged in an alarming buildup of military capabilities in the Caribbean.

These capabilities vastly exceed the demands of even the most ambitious counter-narcotics program.

A report from the Miami Herald (quickly disavowed by the Trump administration) suggested that plans were in place for an extensive military campaign against Venezuela that would target military installations and suspected narcotics transit points on the way to a potential regime change campaign.

Nevertheless, official Trump administration statements have been frustratingly vague regarding the desired outcomes of policy towards Caracas. Are we at risk of drifting into war with Venezuela?

  • Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    54
    ·
    4 days ago

    This is possibly the stupidest policy from the stupidest, most wasteful, inefficient administration ever. These weirdos really need to stop.

    • partofthevoice@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      4 days ago

      Why do you think they’re even interested? Is it practice on political influence by force, before doing something in house? Is it to prevent the spread of something like socialist democracy? If only to beat the drum of local news, why Venezuela specifically and why was the impact on Venezuela planned out so specifically?

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    Also, Venezuela is going to hit US air assets hard, this will be a PR failure all around if Trump tries it as well as stupid and pointlessly cruel.

      • marcos@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        20
        ·
        4 days ago

        Trump stopped attacking Yemen because they threw enough stuff back that it made the US military look bad. Venezuela is way better armed than Yemen.

        The US population expects invincibility, and that doesn’t exist on the real world.

          • marcos@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            4 days ago

            The most expensive loses were from mistakes caused by the constant need to react to their attacks, and the most numerous loses were caused by throwing things at their attacks.

            And that was enough to make the military look irredeemably incompetent inside the US. Imagine what will happen when they fight an adversary that may actually hit something once or twice. Under a different president, or if they had any non-criminal reason to go into war, the reaction would probably be different, but that’s not the case.

      • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        4 days ago

        I am not saying Venezuela will win, I am saying it has invested enough in air defense that the likelihood of the US being able to launch an air campaign without embarassing losses is lower than it appears at least in terms of how the media covers it, and the political consequences of a blundered strike that loses US lives and equipment in a high profile way would be devastating to an already very unliked republican party. Trump and his administration really can’t risk looking any more dumb or incompetent than he does now, a limit is being reached though it is hard to believe one exists, it does.

        If Trump and his cronies launches strikes, he will bungle the US militaries’ advantage, this administration is too dysfunctional to do otherwise.

        • Mihies@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          4 days ago

          You sure though? I’d expect it at similar or lower level as Iran was. I might be wrong, though, certainly hope so. Funnily enough, they have also 2 or 3 F-16s.

          • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            edit-2
            4 days ago

            I think the amount of money in the US military industrial complex that has gone into obsessing over how best to bomb Iran is probably incomprehensible. Venezeula too a degree, but not anywhere as much. There was no way Iran could entirely deny US airpower, but so what?

            This isn’t just a question of strike capable technology vs. counters it is about landscapes and who knows them best and has invested in their idiosyncracies, and I don’t get the feeling Venezuelans have been wasting all this time thinking the US wouldn’t try some shit like this.

            Were the Iran strikes successful? What did they do but confirm to the world the irrationality of US foreign intervention under this administration?

            If the US wants to project actual power into Venezuela it will have to get its hands dirty and that is where the wheels will immediately fall off.

            • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              4 days ago

              Iran invested a hell of a lot more into air defenses and really it was Israel (which has significantly less military power than the US) that cleared the way for the one US air strike there. The effectiveness of that air campaign remains to be seen, but it certainly weakened the Ayatollah, and set back their nuclear weapons program. How much damage it did to their nuke program would be something that would be kept secret by all parties, so there’s no way to know. Doesn’t stop people with a political agenda from speculating of course.

              Of course whether or not the strikes were effective doesn’t change the fact that Israel was able to establish air superiority over Iran rather quickly. The US has the same weapon systems Israel has, and more of it. A lot more of it.

              The US doing air strikes on Venezuela would be stupid for all kinds of geopolitical reasons, but the capability of Venezuela to inflict significant losses on the US military isn’t one of them. Venezuela has older versions of the same weapon systems Iran had since Iran and Russia are their main suppliers.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    At least Cheney had the common sense to rig the attack beforehand so there’s no way it wouldn’t work.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    4 days ago

    If they’re not telling you why it’s happening, they’re lying. Just like Putin amassing military on Ukraine’s border. “Oh, that military buildup? No reason…”