Maduro using the USA as a bogeyman is a lot different from going to war with the USA.
At this point, the USA is looking for an excuse to go to war and Maduro has backed down from a lot of positions to keep the USA from having any excuses.
Under any other president, I would say, “Why would the US bother?” But, unfortunately with Trump, you never know.
But, by the numbers…why would they bother? Maduro has already agreed to allow US oil companies to take their oil…so, why invade when you are already getting what you want from the current administration?
What the US is doing out in international waters, is performative theater for their base at home. They sit out there and blow up a few smuggling boats, and all the brain dead MAGAts at home, cheer. The US still gets the oil, and also gets to claim they’re being “tough on Maduro”, without risking a single US soldier.
Maduro on the other hand, is hemorrhaging support at home. People are catching on, to the fact that he is completely corrupt and has no intention of helping them. He’s getting richer every day, thanks to US investment, and none of it is “trickling down” to the people. He’s had to crack down on dissent after he lost the last election and refused to leave office, and now even his allies are losing faith in his administration.
What he needs is for the boogeyman to do something real. He can’t keep relying on flimsy conspiracy theories and conjecture. He needs them to “prove” that they are a real threat, or else no one is going to keep believing his bullshit anymore. And, if a few Venezuelans have to die in the process…well, that’s just a sacrifice I’m sure he’s willing to make.
The first Trump administration did the same thing to Iran that this administration is trying to do to Venezuela, get the weaker nation to do something that would be construed as a casus belli to justify regime change. Trump wants to be a wartime president without being the aggressor.
Maduro may be bleeding support, but Venezuela can’t win a war against the USA and Trump is looking for any excuse to go to war. Having an American ship parked off shore should be enough to pull in some patriotic support. However, any aggression against the USA now could be used as an excuse for regime change.
Except there was no regime change in Iran. They just rattled their swords for the crowd, which is all they’re doing now.
And for the record, the US has a long history of losing to so-called “weaker countries”, when asymmetrical warfare is involved. The only war they actually managed to “finish” recently, was the invasion of Iraq…and that was largely because the Iraqi population wasn’t actually trying to fight back. Venezuela would not be the same.
And I’m not trying to say this would be a smart move by Maduro…just desperation. Right now, half the population in Venezuela don’t even believe the government when they say there’s an American fleet parked offshore. The government has been saying shit like that every other week for the last 12 years, and it always turns out to either be totally overblown, or straight up bullshit. People there just aren’t buying into the propaganda like they used to. Which is never a good sign for a dictatorship that relies on fear mongering, in order to maintain loyalty.
Maduro using the USA as a bogeyman is a lot different from going to war with the USA.
At this point, the USA is looking for an excuse to go to war and Maduro has backed down from a lot of positions to keep the USA from having any excuses.
Under any other president, I would say, “Why would the US bother?” But, unfortunately with Trump, you never know.
But, by the numbers…why would they bother? Maduro has already agreed to allow US oil companies to take their oil…so, why invade when you are already getting what you want from the current administration?
What the US is doing out in international waters, is performative theater for their base at home. They sit out there and blow up a few smuggling boats, and all the brain dead MAGAts at home, cheer. The US still gets the oil, and also gets to claim they’re being “tough on Maduro”, without risking a single US soldier.
Maduro on the other hand, is hemorrhaging support at home. People are catching on, to the fact that he is completely corrupt and has no intention of helping them. He’s getting richer every day, thanks to US investment, and none of it is “trickling down” to the people. He’s had to crack down on dissent after he lost the last election and refused to leave office, and now even his allies are losing faith in his administration.
What he needs is for the boogeyman to do something real. He can’t keep relying on flimsy conspiracy theories and conjecture. He needs them to “prove” that they are a real threat, or else no one is going to keep believing his bullshit anymore. And, if a few Venezuelans have to die in the process…well, that’s just a sacrifice I’m sure he’s willing to make.
The first Trump administration did the same thing to Iran that this administration is trying to do to Venezuela, get the weaker nation to do something that would be construed as a casus belli to justify regime change. Trump wants to be a wartime president without being the aggressor.
Maduro may be bleeding support, but Venezuela can’t win a war against the USA and Trump is looking for any excuse to go to war. Having an American ship parked off shore should be enough to pull in some patriotic support. However, any aggression against the USA now could be used as an excuse for regime change.
Except there was no regime change in Iran. They just rattled their swords for the crowd, which is all they’re doing now.
And for the record, the US has a long history of losing to so-called “weaker countries”, when asymmetrical warfare is involved. The only war they actually managed to “finish” recently, was the invasion of Iraq…and that was largely because the Iraqi population wasn’t actually trying to fight back. Venezuela would not be the same.
And I’m not trying to say this would be a smart move by Maduro…just desperation. Right now, half the population in Venezuela don’t even believe the government when they say there’s an American fleet parked offshore. The government has been saying shit like that every other week for the last 12 years, and it always turns out to either be totally overblown, or straight up bullshit. People there just aren’t buying into the propaganda like they used to. Which is never a good sign for a dictatorship that relies on fear mongering, in order to maintain loyalty.