“It’s a mark of good character to avert quarrels, but fools love to pick fights.” Proverbs 20:3
Theologians the likes of Augustine and Aquinas formulated what we call today “Just War Theory.” It provides the basis for exercising what some believe “ethical restraint” in war. It requires a just cause to go to war to begin with, just conduct between parties during the war itself, and a just conclusion to the war, i.e., the best way to accomplish peace when it’s over.
Our administration uses a number of excuses for invading Venezuela––drugs, defense, decency and democracy. These are simply distractions. In my view, dominance and dollars are the real motives. It isn’t about energy or solving America’s drug problem or the toppling of a dictator from power or out of compassion for an oppressed Venezuelan people. Millions of Americans (not including me) would dance a jig if Donald Trump were treated similarly. But that wouldn’t make it a righteous thing.
Solomon recommended that “Plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without wise advice” (Proverbs 20:18). Whether or not Trump’s action to attack without congressional approval was illegal is for legal minds to ponder and debate. But to make this anything but yet another muscle-flexing distraction from the real problems our president and his administration have instead of for profit and power is in my opinion simply ridiculous.
Drugs?
The excuse they pawned was to stop the flow of drugs from Venezuela to the U.S. is paper thin, since most of Venezuelan drugs went to other parts of the world, most of which is cocaine. Venezuela is not a major source of fentanyl, the killer drug of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Did you notice how the evolution of comments from the administration went from, “We have this big fentanyl problem, and we need to do something about it,” to “We’re bombing these boats that are allegedly smuggling cocaine”?
I read somewhere: “Thou shalt not lie.”
Yes, I’m against illicit drugs and what they do to God’s beloved. I used them as a teenager and have spent many years doing my best to help addicts in the Bay Area. But drug abatement from Venezuela is a smokescreen.
Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in federal court of facilitating hundreds of tons of cocaine shipments around the world, makes the rationale for taking out the Venezuelan president hard to defend with a straight face. You can’t very well wage war on narco-states while liberating convicted narco-presidents!
Defense?
Speaking of a “straight face,” no self-respecting national security expert could honestly claim that Venezuela was a mortal threat to the United States six months ago. Bombing boats and kidnapping their president because our public safety is at risk is asinine.
Not to mention what this says to Putin that all you need to do if you want to go into Estonia is to say that the leader of Estonia is a bad person. You don’t even need to make a particularly good case. And to overtake Taiwan, all China has to do is paint Lai Ching-te in a bad light and go ahead and conquer the island. It’s not defense. It’s called imperialism. We’re pretty good at it, by the way.
If it’s not about drugs, defense, or democracy, what in the world are we doing in Venezuela? It’s obvious to me and I think most Americans and people around the world know that our president put us there for profit and power.
Power
Trump, drunk on his own power cites the Monroe Doctrine, “Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.” How much clearer do you need it?
In spite of his long time “America First” rhetoric, Trump is bent on conquering as much of the world as he can with the time he has left. There’s nothing isolationist about attacking a sovereign country and claiming to “run” it.
Trump’s deputy chief of staff, xenophobic Stephen Miller said the world is governed by “strength, force, and power,” and the U.S. must act as a superpower to secure its interests, including seizing control of Greenland by military force if necessary. In other words, “Might makes right!”
God makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. And says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’” Psalm 46:9-10
Venezuela is not about compassion, but control. Like a mob boss, Trump seeks to place his palm print on a new world order through his very own “Donroe Doctrine,” whereby he becomes the regional strongman.
Profits
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.” James 4:1-2
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on CBS Evening News: “We spent decades and decades and purchased in blood, and got nothing economically in return, and President Trump flips the script.” Now, says Hegseth , the U.S. can ensure it has access to “additional wealth and resources, enabling a country to unleash that without having to spend American blood.”
Besides the play for power, the president expects the U.S. to benefit financially by giving American oil companies access to vast reserves. He wants to generate revenue from selling Venezuelan oil in the global market. Stock shares in U.S. energy companies and related service providers have seen boosts as investors anticipate future contracts and market dominance.
Profits and power. Dollars and dominance. That’s what Venezuela is all about.
I’m with David French who said: “I am relieved that Maduro is gone but the ends don’t justify the means. And the means are so alarming that they overwhelm the virtuous elements of the ends.”
barney wiget 