Peace President Seeks Regime Change in Venezuela and Surrender in Ukraine
Europe threatens major destruction to the United States if the president bails on Ukraine.
No matter who is president, the US just cannot seem to keep itself from starting, at least, one new regime-change war for each president. Trump has now made it clear that is what he is really aiming for in Venezuela by telling Venezuela’s President Maduro that trouble can be avoided if he and his simply leave Venezuela for good.
The arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford gives the US Joint Task Force established in the region the option to launch a high volume of attacks against land targets, should Trump give the order. According to media reports, there are now 15,000 troops in the region…. This massive deployment has, arguably, sought to convince Maduro’s loyalists that US action is now an option on the table.
Trump has made it pointedly clear that voluntary regime change is what it will take to avoid this high-intensity attack. He didn’t tell Maduro, “Start rooting out the drugs.” He said, essentially, “Maduro, get out of there!”
As Washington prepares to launch land attacks inside Venezuela, a long-awaited phone call between the White House and Caracas aimed at defusing the crisis carried a blunt message for strongman Nicolás Maduro: You can save yourself and those closest to you, but you must leave the country now, sources familiar with the exchange told the Miami Herald….
Washington demanded that Maduro and his top allies leave Venezuela immediately to allow the restoration of democratic rule, while regime leaders proposed handing political control to the opposition but retaining command of the armed forces.
According to the sources, the U.S. message to Maduro was direct: Safe passage would be guaranteed for him, his wife Cilia Flores, and his son only if he agreed to resign right away.
Notice how the Trump administration followed the US Military Industrial Complex playbook in order to make this imperial takeover sound noble to the US public “allow the restoration of democratic rule.” It is always about fighting for democracy because then, we are told, the people of the land we ripple with bombs and riddle with bullet holes will welcome us as great liberators.
That’s something they don’t often do as they think, instead, about their sons, brothers, and husbands and uncles whose dead bodies fill the ground and their house that was badly damaged, and the streets that have become almost undrivable, the beautiful buildings destroyed, the years of hell, etc. Assuming the former dictator never killed this many of their family members, nor so badly destroyed their towns, they feel the US is worse.
These things we know, due to considerable experience, never go quickly, quietly or easily. However, we never seem to learn from what we know in a manner that guides our next leader. It typically turns out the regime can fight a lot longer and harder than we thought it could, as happened in Afghanistan and Iraq. Or it turns out that nations like Russia decide to step in and defend their ally, as happened in Syria. By the time we accomplish the regime change, the entire nation has been devastated.
In all of these wars, US presidents used old powers ceded long ago by congress to the president to fight the war on the basis of “terrorism.” Democracy is just the argument used to get the support of the American people so congress can approve the war. However, with this impending war, terrorism is pretty hard to find, so riding on old approvals to go after terrorists won’t cut it. Perhaps war can somehow be authorized on the basis of Reagan’s War on Drugs. That seems to be the other side of the argument Trump has used. However, I think authorization of wars for that purpose were largely terminated.
Or maybe congress will, once again, simply abrogate its power and authority (and responsibility) and just let the president do whatever he wants. That seems to be the new norm. By the time the Supreme Court ever gets around to deciding if the president actually had this power, Maduro will be dead anyway. At least, so the hope likely goes in the halls and ballrooms of the White House..
As the administration intensifies its pressure campaign on the country … questions mount about whether the military is exceeding its lawful authority.
Of course it is. Hence the “treasonous” video by General Kelly, one of Trump’s past generals (and his past chief of staff at the White House) and others telling troops they can and should disobey unlawful commands. But when has that mattered with Trump, who will always push the extreme limit on what is legal by going beyond it to find out through the courts where the limit actually is? Since Maduro has now made it clear he’s not leaving at Trump’s command, I would anticipate we are on a quick path to another regime-change war as the Peace President imperils his Nobel Prize hopes for the sake of power and empire.
Note that President Trump has already made it clear that he intends to take over Venezuela’s oil production since Venezuela has as much oil as it has drugs. The spoils of war, you know? But of course; that is the other thing. Behind it all, these regime-change wars are usually “about the oil.”
One former diplomat just told Fox News that she expects military operations to begin right away.
“I think the operations will start imminently,” former Venezuelan diplomat Vanessa Neumann told Fox News Digital.
“The clearing of the airspace is an indication and a very clear public warning that missiles might be coming to take out command and control infrastructure or retaliatory infrastructure,” Neumann said.
In other words, it’s time for some “shock and awe.”
Europe threatens nuclear option
Speaking of “shock and awe,” Europe has announced it may use the nuclear option against the United States if it abandons Ukraine to Russia. Not the Hiroshima kind, but what many refer to as the financial nuclear option that some nations can use against the US.
The EU and the UK are talking about dumping all their holding of US debt. That’s a vulnerability the US has that would cripple it deeply if it were to happen, hugely increasing the cost of financing Debt Mountain. We’re talking $2.34 trillion in US debt between the EU nations and the UK. (Of course, Europe will have to shoot both of its financial feet off to do that because to sell that much in Treasuries in order to raise interest rates on US Treasuries, will require taking massive losses by discounting those Treasuries, which is what forces the US to do the same when issuing new Treasuries—leaving room for much higher yields.)
Trump’s plan to capture the Nobel Prize with a Russia-Ukraine peace deal has …
allegedly intensified concerns among European officials that the White House is poised to compromise the continent’s safety for American economic advantage….
How could they even think Trump would do such a thing?
(Or how could they not?)
A swift sell-off could potentially trigger a crash in the value of the US dollar, instigate a liquidity crisis across the banking system, and cause a significant surge in borrowing costs.
It could also plunge the American financial sector into a paralysis more severe than the 2008 crisis. A prominent European economist described the plan to the WSJ as a potential financial backlash that could hit the US harder than any external shock in modern history.
It would be like a nuclear electro-magnetic pulse to the financial system; but the reality is that it would hit the whole world.
Like I say, the Europeans will have to shoot off their own financial feet by setting off the nuclear option in their own sovereign treasuries right at the time when they will be needing all their treasure in order to take over the Ukraine war without US help. So, we will see whether they are willing to act like trapped rabbits and chew off their feet to escape the trap they are caught in.