Great to have informed reporting on the Venezuela story, which is elusive because no one really covers the internal dynamics of the Maduro regime, and much of what is said about Corina Machado and the opposition is wishful thinking. She is in the competition for the weakest Nobel ever. That said, the opposition candidate indeed won the last presidential election— overwhelmingly— and similar to the Panama invasion you can invade the country, control Caracas and the oilfield militarily and install a legitimate new president. I’m afraid that’s a scenario most Venezuelans could get behind. It would be bloody but not much greater than Panama (23 US military dead)— as long as the fighting is limited strictly to the oilfields and controlling the capital.
Someone shared what I felt was a Russian propaganda video, from a dubious source on YouTube, where Professor Jeff Sachs was discussing why it would be bad to overthrow Maduro, but what was suspicious was the robotic way in which he was talking with no breaths between sentences making it seem like it was created by AI. While a lot of what was being said seemed reasonable, there was also a pro Maduro case that he was making, and that made me suspicious because I have been reading how Russian prop works. It goes with your beliefs and then makes suggestions that push one in a certain direction. The direction of Putin's wishes. Trump is a liar, everyone that works for him is too, and we cannot trust anything they tell us about why Trump is attacking Venezuela, but it seems that Venezuela, Nigeria and Canada have oil in common and that is what Trump cares about and who he works for. The fossil fuel industry.
Great to have informed reporting on the Venezuela story, which is elusive because no one really covers the internal dynamics of the Maduro regime, and much of what is said about Corina Machado and the opposition is wishful thinking. She is in the competition for the weakest Nobel ever. That said, the opposition candidate indeed won the last presidential election— overwhelmingly— and similar to the Panama invasion you can invade the country, control Caracas and the oilfield militarily and install a legitimate new president. I’m afraid that’s a scenario most Venezuelans could get behind. It would be bloody but not much greater than Panama (23 US military dead)— as long as the fighting is limited strictly to the oilfields and controlling the capital.
Someone shared what I felt was a Russian propaganda video, from a dubious source on YouTube, where Professor Jeff Sachs was discussing why it would be bad to overthrow Maduro, but what was suspicious was the robotic way in which he was talking with no breaths between sentences making it seem like it was created by AI. While a lot of what was being said seemed reasonable, there was also a pro Maduro case that he was making, and that made me suspicious because I have been reading how Russian prop works. It goes with your beliefs and then makes suggestions that push one in a certain direction. The direction of Putin's wishes. Trump is a liar, everyone that works for him is too, and we cannot trust anything they tell us about why Trump is attacking Venezuela, but it seems that Venezuela, Nigeria and Canada have oil in common and that is what Trump cares about and who he works for. The fossil fuel industry.
Trump doesn’t care.
That is pretty much the US experience in most "interventions" we have conducted. I would be shocked if the regime change would be orderly.