So, I Guess We’re at War with Venezuela 🇻🇪 Now 🫤

 

(This is the flag of Venezuela 🇻🇪.)

I didn’t expect to be writing about this as my first post of 2026. The year’s barely even started, and already I’m breaking the glass and doing an emergency post 🚨. It’s always something with this fucking administration 😒. I was either going to write about Eternal Darkness, or I was going to review Nobody 2, either by watching it on streaming, or waiting until my grandma gets her social security money 💵 next Wednesday (not this coming Wednesday, but the Wednesday after that, on January 14, 2026) to see if I can find the Blu-Ray 💿 or 4K 💿. Ideally, the 4K 💿 since I have a PS5, which I haven’t opened yet, it’s still in the box, and that can play 4Ks 💿. The only thing I need is a 4K TV, which my aunt said that she would get for me, but hasn’t yet. She said that she’s having difficulty finding a 4K TV that’s the same size as mine, since I guess they don’t sell many small 4K TVs. But, even if the TV’s slightly bigger than the one I’m currently using that’s fine with me, as long as it can still fit in my room, on my dresser, and as long as I finally have something to hook my PS5 to, I’m good. 

 

But, here we are. Trump just conducted airstrikes in Venezuela 🇻🇪, and overthrew its dictator, Nicolás Maduro, and arrested him to stand trial in the US 🇺🇸. Hey MAGA 🇺🇸, I thought you were against regime change wars, aren’t you going to say anything about this? Or are you just going to go along with it just because it’s Trump doing it and not some you hate like Biden or Obama, or even George W. Bush? Trump just pulled a George W. Bush only way stupider, and without Congressional approval. At least when Bush invaded Iraq 🇮🇶, he did so with the approval of the majority of Congress, and the majority of the American people 🇺🇸. That’s one detail about the US invasion of Iraq 🇺🇸🇮🇶 that people like to ignore, and pretend didn’t happen, the majority of the American public 🇺🇸 actually supported the invasion, and only turned against the war, when the occupation dragged on and the insurgency began. Trump himself even flip flopped on the war, at first saying he supported it, and then congratulating the US 🇺🇸 for removing Saddam Hussein, and then saying he didn’t support it when it started going bad, and pretended like he never supported it afterwards. Though, given his recent actions, I think his natural inclination is to support regime change, so as it’s the US 🇺🇸 doing it, and as long as he himself gets something out of it. Trump just did this with no approval whatsoever. I guess I needed to do another political post after doing three movie related posts in a row. 

 

Trump is always throwing curveballs at us, ruining our plans, ruining our country really. Certainly ruining or country’s reputation abroad. No country’s ever going to trust the US 🇺🇸 after this, not as long as Trump is in office. The world might start viewing us as a rogue state, the thing we’ve labeled other countries as in the past, like Iraq 🇮🇶 (when it was under Saddam Hussein), North Korea 🇰🇵, Iran 🇮🇷, and even Russia 🇷🇺 to a certain extent. Though, you’ll never hear Trump call Russia 🇷🇺 a “rogue state,” he views it as one of the “good” countries, one of the “normal” countries, and as one of the ideal countries. He wants to emulate Russia 🇷🇺, he wants the US 🇺🇸 to be more like Russia 🇷🇺, as in, a dictatorship with him at its head. Even when Trump is out of office, and trust me, there will be a time when Trump is out of office, either because he’s forced out or he dies, it’ll still take a long time for the US 🇺🇸 to regain that trust, particularly with our allies and partners, who are all now wary of us, who now consider us a potential threat to their national security. 

 

It’s going to take a lot more than just one Democratic administration to fix everything, it’s probably going to take multiple. The damage that Trump managed to do in just one year, the first year of his second term, will take years to fully undo or replace. And given how the two party system works, and how the pendulum keeps swinging back and forth, we probably won’t have Democratic administrations all the way through. We’ll probably end up with at least one or two Republican administrations in-between, reversing whatever gains we might’ve made under those Democratic administrations. I don’t think Republicans deserve to win another election 🗳️ again after what they’ve done, what they’ve enabled Trump to do, and how utterly spineless they are about standing up to him, and saying “no” to any of his policies, no matter how bad they are.

 

I mean, they’re starting to show a little bit more backbone and resistance now, like they stood up to him about the Epstein issue by voting to release the files, and Lauren Boebert recently stood up to him by vetoing a decision he made to not fund a clean drinking water project 💦 in her district. But, it’s not enough, it’s not still not enough to make a difference, and end Trump’s presidency for real. I don’t see any of them suggesting we invoke the 25th amendment and remove him from office, even though that’s probably what should happen at this point. But, there are still people out there willing to vote for Republicans, which baffles me to no end, like why would you continue to vote for a political party that acted against your own interests, that continues to vote for policies that will do harm to you and your family? I certainly wouldn’t, which is why I will never vote Republican. You will never convince me to ever vote for Republicans. 

 

Even when Trump is gone, there will be this authoritarian and fascistic element within the Republican Party, that’s been built up and festering for way too long for it just go away overnight. The authoritarians and fascists within the party will try to implement these policies to try to turn the US 🇺🇸 into a fascist dictatorship, a white supremacist nation (which some would argue it already is). But, even if the US 🇺🇸 already is white supremacist, it still isn’t a Christian nationalist theocracy ✝️, which the extreme parts of the Republican Party still want to turn it into. They want to turn it into a fascistic Christian nationalist theocratic state ✝️. They want to end the two-party system, and replace with it a one party state, with them as the sole political party in power. The sole political party allowed to have power. It’s just that Trump won’t be the face of it anymore once he’s gone. It’ll be probably be guys like Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson. 

 

But, hopefully, Laura Loomer’s right and this will hurt Republicans’ chances of winning future elections 🗳️ if they go full Nazi. Nick Fuentes is so overtly Nazi, that it’s hard to really deny it, and it might actually turn some people off, and make them stop voting for Republicans if he, or people like him, become the new face of the party after Trump’s gone for good, and we don’t have to ever think about him again or say his name, except for in the past tense. Like, hey, wasn’t it crazy when he was president? It’s like our country became dumber for having him as president, but now the country’s back on track…hopefully 😬. I don’t think the post-Trump Republican Party will have a singular figurehead, or a singular leader. That was just a one time thing with Trump, he created a whole cult of personality around himself that no other Republican politician will ever be able to replicate. It will probably be multiple leaders, or it’ll be kind of leaderless, and just be the party itself. Which, could work for them, I guess, but it won’t work as well as having a singular leader who’s guiding the whole thing, who puts a face on the whole thing. Right wingers tend not to be as good as left wingers are at being leaderless opposition, right wingers are so hierarchical that they need leaders, they need a central figure running the whole thing, giving them some sort of direction. Without a leader, the party will just devolve into purity tests of people trying to see who’s the most extreme, who’s the most bigoted, and will excise those who aren’t extreme or bigoted enough. 

This will be 198th post. I know it currently says “199 posts” on my creator page, but that’s only because of my still unpublished Nobody 2 review which is still in Draft mode, this is the 198th published post on my blog. I still need to do my 199th post after this. Hopefully, I can do Anaconda (1997) for my 199th post just to maintain that synergy of doing a creature feature before my big milestone post. Because like I said in my 2025 New Year’s Message, I did Deep Blue Sea for my 99th post before doing The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 🧽 for my 100th post. It especially worked there because they were both underwater movies 💦 that were set entirely in the ocean, and dealt with sea creatures. They even both came out in 1999. I mean, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 🧽 actually came out in 2004, hence I chose to do it for my 100th post, because it happened to land on that film’s 20th anniversary. But the series, SpongeBob SquarePants 🧽 premiered in 1999, so even if the movie itself didn’t come out in 1999, the show did, and it happened to premiere the same year Deep Blue Sea came out. As well as Lake Placid and Bats 🦇 (1999), which I also plan on reviewing at some point, but not for any sort of milestone post, or I guess, the prelude to a milestone post. It would be cool to maintain that, and make that a tradition, by reviewing a creature feature before my big milestone post. 

 

Right now, the next movie I have planned for my next milestone of 300 posts is Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, but that’s if I can obtain it by then, either by buying or renting it on streaming, or buying the Blu-Ray 💿 because this movie still doesn’t have a 4K Ultra HD release 💿. I don’t know what creature feature I might do before that one, for the 299th post, maybe Komodo vs. Cobra 🐍, but that’s only if I manage do Curse of the Komodo before then. But then again, I am thinking of reviewing The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 🐉🇹🇼 before reviewing The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns, so maybe it’s okay if I review movie series out of order, or review the sequel before I actually review the first one. And if not that one, then maybe Boa vs. Python, but hopefully after I review New Alcatraz AKA Boa (2002) and Python (2000) and Pythons 2, since that’s what this movie is a crossover of. But, even if I don’t review them first, I could still just review Boa vs. Python for my 299th post, and then review afterwards. 

 

I don’t know how long this post will be, I’m just gonna keep writing until I run out of things to say. This is still a developing story, so I will give updates later on if there’s anything notable worth talking about. It won’t always be in a dedicated post because I may not have enough to say about it, it may be in other posts, like in forewords to reposts. Nothing else has happened so far other than the US 🇺🇸 conducting airstrikes in Venezuela 🇻🇪, mainly in the capital, Caracas, arresting Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores and transporting them to the US 🇺🇸 to stand trial for drug trafficking charges, and Trump doing a press conference where he said that we would “run” Venezuela 🇻🇪. Implying that he may deploy troops into Venezuela 🇻🇪 to occupy Venezuela 🇻🇪 until a new government can be formed, one that is loyal to US 🇺🇸 and more conducive to Trump’s interests, which is mainly to make money 💵 🤑. 

I didn’t even know any of this went down until last night when one of my local news stations, KOB 4 posted two videos on their YouTube channel talking about the reactions to the strikes and the removal of Maduro from people here in New Mexico, specifically, Albuquerque, since that’s where KOB 4 is based. The first one they posted was about local Venezuelans 🇻🇪 (Venezuelans 🇻🇪 who live in New Mexico, specifically, Albuquerque) celebrating the ouster of Maduro, and then the second one was about non-Venezuelans reactions to the strikes and ouster of Maduro, and the protests 🪧 that started because of it. People are really against what the Trump administration did because they do not want to go to war. The American people 🇺🇸 are sick of war, and don’t want our military to sent in to other countries to occupy them, and try to nation build, only to then fight a fierce insurgency that ends up claiming the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of US servicemen and women 🇺🇸♂︎♀︎. 

 

People have Iraq syndrome 🇮🇶, the experience of Iraq 🇮🇶 completely turned off most people to the idea of invasions and long-term military occupation of foreign lands. Too much risk for very little reward. The war in Iraq 🇮🇶 costed us $1.1 trillion 💵, according to a report from the Watson Center at Brown University, or 1.474 trillion 💵 according to the Defense Department, though that figure also includes direct spending in Afghanistan 🇦🇫 and Syria 🇸🇾 as well as Iraq 🇮🇶, it’s all direct spending since September 11, 2001. Either way, it cost us trillions of dollars 💵 to occupy and fight in Iraq 🇮🇶, and what did we get for it? Sure, the government we technically helped put in place is still there, but at what cost? Was it worth all the blood 🩸 and treasure lost fighting in that war? Most people would probably say “no.” And even if the Iraqi government 🇮🇶 we helped create is still in place, it’s still heavily influenced by Iran 🇮🇷. 

 

Iran 🇮🇷 gained greater influence over Iraq 🇮🇶 after the US 🇺🇸 invaded and removed Saddam from power, largely thanks to the Shia militias, which fought the US 🇺🇸 during the war, and later fought ISIS, when they arose in the aftermath of the war. So, by getting rid of Saddam, and haphazardly creating a new Iraqi government 🇮🇶 from scratch, instead of getting a US ally 🇺🇸 and US-style democracy 🇺🇸, we gave Iran 🇮🇷 another vassal state. I think at this point, people would only be okay with us going to war if there was a really good justification for it. Like, if we were attacked first, or if we were going into defend one of our actual allies. Like, if Taiwan 🇹🇼 were attacked, I’m sure the majority of Americans 🇺🇸 would’ve been okay with us getting involved to help them, or if we had intervened in the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦, or if one of our NATO allies were attacked by say, oh I don’t know, Russia 🇷🇺 😑. Then, after I learned about these strikes, I went to watch some videos on MS NOW’s YouTube channel, terrible name BTW 🙄, I don’t know why they changed the name to MS NOW, they should’ve kept it as MSNBC, to learn more about what happened. 

When Trump won the election 🗳️ back in 2024, and he first took office back in 2025, I thought the first country that he would invade or take aggressive military action towards would either be Mexico 🇲🇽, Greenland 🇬🇱, or Panama 🇵🇦. Okay, Greenland 🇬🇱’s not technically a country, it’s an autonomous territory of Denmark 🇩🇰, but still, you know what I mean. Because kept threatening those countries, especially Greenland 🇬🇱 and Panama 🇵🇦. He wouldn’t shut up how he wanted to “buy” Greenland 🇬🇱, and how he wanted to “take back” the Panama Canal 🇵🇦. He even sent Marco Rubio there to try to negotiate the return of the Panama Canal 🇵🇦 to the US 🇺🇸, which ended badly. There was no way Panama 🇵🇦 was just going to hand the canal back to the US 🇺🇸 after they legally got it from them. 

 

There was even talk that he may even go to war with Canada 🇨🇦 because he kept talking about wanting to make it the 51st state, and there was no way that Canada 🇨🇦 would just willingly become apart of the US 🇺🇸. Some people on the so-called “anti-war Left” (they’re not really anti-war since a lot of support Russia 🇷🇺 in their war against Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙄) said that he might invade Iran 🇮🇷 since that’s been a Republican project for a long time, to invade Iran 🇮🇷 and do regime change there like we did in Iraq 🇮🇶. There was even a hint that it might happen since he conducted airstrikes in Iran 🇮🇷, alongside Israel 🇮🇱, and there was real concern that he might push further, and invade the entire country. But alas, the country he ended up doing regime change in first was Venezuela 🇻🇪. 

 

Some people said he might take military action in Venezuela 🇻🇪, and might even remove Maduro from power, but I just didn’t believe it because I had watched Sarcasmitron’s old video about Venezuela 🇻🇪 (which he made during Trump’s first term), and believed that Trump benefited more from having Maduro in power than having him out of power, and having a mini cold war between the two countries. And Maduro’s a dictator, and Trump likes dictators, so maybe he would’ve spared him. But, I guess not. I guess I was wrong, and Sarcasmitron was wrong. He’ll have to make a follow up to that video, talking about these events, and how profoundly stupid and illegal they are. He did post a new video finally, back in December, on December 26, 2025, the day after Christmas 🎄, where he talked about how the Ukraine war 🇺🇦 has gone down in the past four years, and what it looks like now. He said he’d be more productive in the coming year, which is now, chop chop buddy, make a video about this. 

I guess we should’ve seen this coming since the US 🇺🇸 had been ramping up military activity against Venezuela 🇻🇪, first blowing up boats that the Trump administration claimed were transporting drugs to the US 🇺🇸, and then parking aircraft carriers and other warships right next to Venezuela 🇻🇪. It wasn’t just intimidation or false bravado, it was preparation for a military attack. And certainly, drugs were used as the excuse for these airstrikes and the removal of Maduro, that was the false pretense for Trump to start a war in Venezuela 🇻🇪. Don’t forget, Trump started the new year in 2020 with an assassination of one of Iran 🇮🇷’s generals in Iraq 🇮🇶. So, this man ♂︎ like starting off the new year with unprompted and unprovoked military strikes in other countries. Only this one was to remove a dictator from power. It is pretty eerie though how similar the images of the strikes in Venezuela 🇻🇪 are to the ones during the opening of Operation Iraqi Freedom 🇮🇶, the actual invasion of Iraq 🇮🇶 in 2003. You know, the shock and awe campaign, it looked eerily similar to that. 

 

This whole thing has Rubio written all over it. He’s been wanting to topple Maduro for quite some time now, and now that Trump was back in office for a second term, and was less constrained than he was in first, he saw it as his opportunity to make his dream come true, and convinced Trump that conducting airstrikes in Venezuela 🇻🇪, and arresting Maduro was a good idea. That seems like the case with a lot of things in the second Trump administration, the people who are in the administration are just using Trump to pursue their own pet projects, or to push their own personal agendas, knowing that Trump is a guy ♂︎ who is completely unconstrained by morals or the law, and is a senile old man ♂︎ who likely has dementia (among other health problems), and will pretty do much do anything so long as you can convince him, and he gets something out of it. Can you see why having such a transactional president is such a bad idea? Can you see why having a old demented president is such a bad idea? This is the most corrupt and lawless administration in American history 🇺🇸, hands down, no contest. Nothing else comes close. Maybe in other countries, but certainly not the US 🇺🇸 itself. If Rubio wasn’t involved in the administration 

This operation had no justification whatsoever. They had no legitimacy whatsoever. These actions were done entirely without the approval of Congress, or even of the American people 🇺🇸, and are thus morally wrong, but also unconstitutional. So, Trump not only violated international law by doing this, but also violated US law 🇺🇸 by doing this, not that Trump cares since breaking the law is kind of his thing. Elect a convicted felon as president, expect a lawless presidency. So, this is for all intents and purposes, an illegal war. Like, the Iraq War 🇮🇶 was more legal in comparison to this war, because at least Bush still asked for Congressional approval for he invaded another country unnecessarily. 

 

I really hope that when this is all over, and Trump is finally out of office, and if he’s still alive by then, that he gets arrested by ICC ⚖️ and tried at The Hague as a war criminal, because he is a war criminal at this point. He was a war criminal the moment he authorized the bombing of those civilian boats. It doesn’t matter if they were carrying drugs into the US 🇺🇸, not I’m convinced that they are, it’s a still a war criminal, a crime against humanity to just blow them up and treating it like a military operation, instead of treating like it a law enforcement operation, and stopping the people on the boats and arresting if they looked suspicious, if you found evidence they were carrying drugs. We have this thing called due process and innocent until proven guilty, that way we won’t accidentally execute innocent people in some kind of extrajudicial killing, which what Trump did. 

 

Now, he’s even more of a war criminal now by starting a war in Venezuela 🇻🇪, arresting the sitting president, and basically declaring that he will occupy it. I know he said “run it,” but how can you run something without having an actual physical presence there? Without having actual troops there? This isn’t like Panama 🇵🇦, where we had an actual military presence there prior to hostilities breaking out, we have no military presence in Venezuela 🇻🇪, which means we have to establish a presence if we are to actually do what Trump, which is to run the country, now that it has no government. And he refuses to back the opposition leader, María Corina Machado, and allow for a peaceful transfer for power, with her becoming the new president of Venezuela 🇻🇪, even though she won the previous presidential election 🗳️ fair and square, until Maduro stole it from her. 

 

Me thinks the only reason Trump hates Machado, and refuses to back her despite her being the most obvious and logical choice to succeed Maduro as leader of Venezuela 🇻🇪 because she’s a woman ♀︎, and he’s a misogynist and hates women ♀︎, doesn’t respect them, doesn’t think they should be in power, and is also still pretty sour about her winning the Noble Peace Prize instead of him, because Trump is obsessed with winning the Noble Peace Prize for some stupid reason, I don’t know. Probably just his own narcissism, and his desire to be admired and win every single award imaginable. So, he remembers and resents her for winning that award instead of him, an award that he believed he deserved and no one else did (even though literally anybody deserved that award more than him), and refuses to back her, and let her become the new president of Venezuela 🇻🇪. That’s why. Well, he’s certainly not going to get that award now because he just started a war. Can’t win a Noble Peace Prize if you start wars, the complete opposite of promoting peace. Plus, she’s a pro-democracy figure, she wants to promote democracy, not just in her own country but in other countries around the world, and Trump hates democracy. Why would he support an opposition leader who supports democracy? 

 

As for why he decided to do this, a lot of people have different ideas. Most of them tend to be oil 🛢️, like he just conducted airstrikes in Venezuela 🇻🇪 and removed its dictatorial president from office so he can get Venezuela 🇻🇪’s oil 🛢️. Venezuela 🇻🇪 has one of the largest oil reserves 🛢️ in the world, and a lot of it still untapped because Maduro got rid of a lot of their skilled oil workers, and technicians, the people who’d actually know how to get to oil 🛢️ since it largely exists as bitumen. And Trump likes oil 🛢️, he likes fossil fuels, and he likes the money 💵 that they provide 🤑, so of course, he want to get to the oil 🛢️. But, I only think that’s part of it. I also think he did it as a distraction. Not just from the Epstein files, but also other domestic issues. His approval ratings are in the toilet 🚽, he is pretty much underwater 💦 on every thing. The economy, prices/inflation, jobs, immigration, you name it, if it’s a domestic issue (a so-called “kitchen table issue”) that a lot of Americans 🇺🇸 care about, he’s underwater 💦 on it. He even managed to surpass his own low approval ratings in his previous term. He is the most unpopular president in American history 🇺🇸. 

 

So, he wanted to distract people from all that, from the failing economy, the rising prices, the high unemployment, and of course, the Epstein scandal, by starting a war in a foreign country, by invading a foreign country. This is a common thing, especially amongst dictators and wannabe dictators like Trump, they always start wars as a distraction from whatever domestic problems are happening at home, and it usually never works because all that war does is just make the already existing domestic issues even worse. Like, nice try, Trump, but you we already know that you’re in the Epstein files and you’re a pedophile, you’re certain a rapist, and we can see that inflation is getting worse, and prices are rising instead of dropping when we go to the grocery store, and we can tell that the economy isn’t too well for all the unnecessary tariffs you imposed. If this was meant to a distraction, it didn’t work at all, those problems still exist, and you starting this war will just make them worse. And they’re just giving people another reason to hate you, and to oppose you and your party. 

Republican’ chances in the midterms looked pretty rough already from the failing economy, the rising prices, and the government shutdown, but now Trump had to go and start a war in Venezuela 🇻🇪. They’re going to get shredded in the midterms, or at least, that’s what should happen if this is still a just world where bad people get punished for the bad shit they do. And if they do, then Trump will have no body to blame but himself for it, not that he will 🙄. He’ll find someone else to blame for why the Republicans lose the midterms, and won’t actually take any responsibility for dooming their chances even more. Foreign wars always had fuel to the fire 🔥 when it comes to disliking what the party in power is doing. Midterms are kind of like a referendum on the current party in power, and even the current president in power, and right now, the American people 🇺🇸 (the majority of them anyway) do not like what the Republicans are doing. They think they’re doing a bad job, and making their lives worse instead of better, which is true, there’s untruthful about that, it’s all true. 

So far, it seems that the majority of people oppose the military actions in Venezuela 🇻🇪 authorized by the Trump administration. The majority of Democrats oppose the strikes, so do some Republicans, and the American people 🇺🇸 overwhelmingly disapprove of this, and see it for what it is, a lame distraction from what’s going on here. And of course, the majority of countries in the world are against this, especially the ones that have dictatorships such as Russia 🇷🇺, Iran 🇮🇷, and China 🇨🇳. But, even some western countries like France 🇫🇷 have opposed this, and of course, other countries in the region like Mexico 🇲🇽, Brazil 🇧🇷, and Colombia 🇨🇴 and spoken out against it. The only country that isn’t opposed to it is Japan 🇯🇵, but they never go against the US 🇺🇸 on anything. They supported the invasion of Iraq 🇮🇶 back in 2003, they’re our most loyal ally, and they’ll stick by us no matter what. Even when we do bad things such as this. But, that could be because Japan 🇯🇵 has a weirdo right-wing conservative government of its own, so maybe they see some kinship with the Trump administration because they share very similar beliefs, not that Trump himself really believes in anything. 

 

Even some of Trump’s supporters in MAGA 🇺🇸 opposed this, even though the majority of them fell in line even though it is completely contrary to what they said they supported Trump for, the fact that wouldn’t get us into another unnecessary foreign war and do regime change. That was the whole logic or justification behind making JD Vance the vice president and Tulsi Gabbard the Director of National Intelligence, the fact that they apparently opposed regime change wars. But, I guess they took a sick day that day, or perhaps they were lying and were never against regime change at all. Some MAGA 🇺🇸 have been principled and have publicly disagreed with Trump on this on social media, and even some have turned against Trump entirely over this because they feel he betrayed one of the core tenets of the movement, of America First 🇺🇸. Invading Venezuela 🇻🇪 and toppling its leader, and possibly occupying the country is not America First 🇺🇸 no matter how you slice it. Could you believe that some people actually thought that the military would actually refuse to carry out this order because it was an illegal order? I had little faith that the military would actually do the right thing and oppose an invasion of Venezuela 🇻🇪, because they’re still the military and Trump is unfortunately the Commander-in-Chief, they have to follow an order like that, even if it is technically illegal and even if they personally disagree with it. No body in the military opposed the invasion of Iraq 🇮🇶, even though that was illegal and against international law. They just carried that order as told to them. 

 

Speaking of Iraq 🇮🇶, the only person who seems to like this is John Bolton, but he’s always supported regime change in any country that opposes the US 🇺🇸 and isn’t a democracy. He still wants to do regime change in Iran 🇮🇷. Just because he hates Trump, and is a vocal critic of him, doesn’t mean he’s a good guy with good values. People who do support what the Trump administration did in Venezuela 🇻🇪 are pointing to the fact that Venezuelans 🇻🇪, but in the country and abroad actually supported what the Trump administration did and were happy that Maduro was finally gone. So, what? That doesn’t mean anything. The Iraqis 🇮🇶 supported the US 🇺🇸 at first for removing Saddam, until the US 🇺🇸 just stayed there, and then did other things like disbanding the entire Iraqi military 🇮🇶, and banning Ba’ath Party members from participating in post-Saddam Iraqi politics 🇮🇶, and capturing and imprisoning people in Abu Ghraib, and torturing them when they got there. 

 

So, just because Venezuelans 🇻🇪 support the US 🇺🇸 now, doesn’t mean they’ll continue the US 🇺🇸 anymore, and some of them have already stopped supporting the US 🇺🇸 after Trump did that press conference where he suggested that he might occupy the country, kept talking how he wants the oil 🛢️, and didn’t at all support Machado, even though she’s probably the most well liked politician in Venezuela 🇻🇪 right now amongst the people, the people who opposed Maduro. And if he goes through with an occupation, the Venezuelans 🇻🇪 will really start hating the US 🇺🇸, and may even take up arms against them, depending on what the US 🇺🇸 does while it’s there. 

I saw a lot of people comparing this whole operation to Operation Just Cause, the US invasion of Panama 🇺🇸🇵🇦 in 1989 and 1990, but it’s not really like that at all. Superficial it is, but in execution it is not the same at all. Noriega actually was engaged in drug trafficking, he was a narco dictator, while Maduro was not. Maduro was a dictator, yes, but not a narco one. The Trump administration is accusing him of being a drug trafficker, but have produced no evidence to suggest that he actually is. Really, the drug thing was just a lie, and was a pretext to remove Maduro from power. It’s not like the Trump administration actually cares about taking drug dealers and drug traffickers, since Trump’s pardoned a couple of them already. While, Operation Just Cause did go off without a hitch, and didn’t result in any widespread chaos in Panama 🇵🇦, and the country becoming a failed state, that doesn’t this operation carried out by Trump and his goons will. It will end badly for them, and for the people of Venezuela 🇻🇪, especially if what people say is true, and they really have no plan for post-Maduro Venezuela 🇻🇪, and continue to throw the opposition under the bus. 

 

But, right now, we don’t know what will happen next. It’s still too early to say, but given how everything else the Trump administration has attempted to do has gone, I have no confidence that this won’t end badly. There’s a good chance that the country may descend into chaos, depending on what the US 🇺🇸 chooses to do, or not do. If any of the usual fuckery we’ve come to expect from this administration takes place in that country. I hope it doesn’t, but this is the Trump administration, so I have a feeling it will. If the US 🇺🇸 does occupy the country, there’s a good chance that an insurgency may take place, and Venezuelan rebels 🇻🇪 may start killing American soldiers and marines 🇺🇸. As for any other countries Trump may try to invade and try the same thing in, there’s always a possibility. Now that the precedent has been set with Venezuela 🇻🇪, he may decide to cease either Greenland 🇬🇱 or the Panama Canal 🇵🇦 with military force. He may even do strikes in Mexico 🇲🇽 too, and even use the same excuse that he’s after drug traffickers. I doubt he’ll invade Canada 🇨🇦 though, that seems way too big and daunting, even for him, and he would definitely lose. But, this is Trump we’re talking about, so you never know 🤷‍♂️.