why did the U.S. invade Iraq when Venezuela is so close?

2/3 of Venezuela’s reserves were discovered/confirmed in the last 20 years.

20 years ago, Venezuela was one of the U.S.'s biggest oil suppliers. 10ish years ago the oil price crashed and sent Venezuela spiralling into chaos. Trump has been grinding them down since then (mostly through sanctions). Biden let them breathe for 4 years.

Is that what’s going to happen soon?

Ummm, yeah. You think they’re posturing over drugs? Trump doesn’t care if the poors die of drug overdoses. He wants that sweet, sweet crude and has been gearing up to pacify invade Venezuela to get it. That’s why he wants Ukraine to surrender. He needs Russia to cool its jets so that Europe/NATO doesn’t drag the U.S. into a war over there. Troops will be on the ground in Venezuela soon, after an indiscriminate blitzkrieg bombing campaign for a few weeks - they will say they’re bombing gangs/cartels. It should start any day now since he “closed the air space” over Venezuela. He’s just waiting for Venezuela to launch one of its fighters (or for Ukraine to capitulate) and the game is on. This is all ramping up because the CIA has failed to eliminate Maduro and install a new leader.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump ultimately hopes to take over the whole country and rename it.