The Pentagon says it has blown up three more boats in the eastern Pacific, killing eight people. Black-and-white video posted to social media Monday by U.S. Southern Command shows three vessels erupting in flames. The Pentagon claimed, without evidence, the boats were carrying drugs in international waters. The latest strikes bring the Pentagon’s announced death toll to 95 since early September. The ACLU and other rights groups have condemned the strikes as “murder” and state-sanctioned killings of civilians who were denied due process. The attacks came as President Trump signed an executive order Monday declaring fentanyl to be a “weapon of mass destruction.”
President Donald Trump: “No bomb does what this is doing. Two hundred to three hundred thousand people die every year, that we know of. So we’re formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.”
Virtually no illicit fentanyl comes to the United States from either Colombia or Venezuela. Last year, the CDC reported about 48,000 deaths from synthetic opioids — not the 200,000 to 300,000 deaths claimed by Trump.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s government has accused Trinidad and Tobago of participating in piracy, after it aided the U.S. government’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker last week. Trinidad and Tobago officials said Monday they would grant U.S. forces access to the Caribbean nation’s airports in the coming weeks, as the Pentagon continues to build up forces ahead of a possible attack on Venezuela.
On Capitol Hill, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are urging fellow House lawmakers to back resolutions seeking to prevent President Trump from launching an unauthorized war on Venezuela.
Even if the military operations are carried out precisely to Pete Hegseth’s “genius” plans and devastate Venezuela, I just don’t see how that will suddenly make all of the human beings in Venezuela say “We give up!” especially when the populous is so educated and infuriated about what the US is blatantly attempting to do.
There is no win condition here, at most what can happen is a symbolic series of strikes that destroy important infrastructure and assassinate important leaders but even if that plan goes off perfectly what then? Now you have a country that is absolutely sure they hate your guts. I mean Trump and cronies are clearly hoping this will compel Venezuela to strike back in a way that can justify even more bullshit and violence but I see no indication Venezuela will take the bait dangling in front of them as it is clear from a game theory perspective that it doesn’t really accomplish anything.
The US cannot exact regime change on Venezuela when it has no legitimate handhold to get a grip on the society of Venezuela and thus it makes any and all military strikes strategically impotent at a fundamental level no matter how effective they are tactically.