What's really crazy (even by today's US standards) is how Trump and his clique speak as if he annexed Venezuela and he can do whatever he wants.
It was discussed 100 times here already, but the damage to the myth of US as the 'good guy' that is immense. I personally see the US now, as the same that say China or Russia and have no intention of going there again, unless absolutely necessary. If you told me that some years ago, I would think you're crazy.
What's different this time is the total lack of effort (or ability to?) to construct a narrative justifying it.
You’re absolutely right with your assessment but beyond that this is also a rolling back of the clock to thinking from decades ago.
Right now it seems like totally unnecessary destabilization. Don’t even get me started on proposing to seizing NATO territory by force in Greenland.
Even in the last 25 years the US has fought in Afghanistan, bombed Libya, ISIL held territory, Syria, blockaded Yemen and probably more.
The world today is going back to a cold war like rivalry between the US and China so we can expect both sides to use much the same tactics.
Oddly in this case the US government seemed to do something that many Venezuelan expats support. We'll see if it helps the lives of regular Venezuelans at all.
Also a number of sci-fi from the last decade or two predicted or imagined the US in a war in Venezuela in the 2030's. It makes more sense to view it not for oil but more to keep Chinese and Russian influence out of the US's "backyard". Apparently both had been getting close to Maduro.
... but now it seems as if people got bored of those lofty narratives, and the US can't even prevent its own domestic jihadis from overrunning the country with backwards fundamentalism. So now we're staring down their equivalent of Sharia law while they rally around regime-sponsored murderers ramping up sectarian violence.
He did and can though. Venezuela is now a US colony, with its resources available to whomever is ready to invest. Heck, that's exactly what the article is saying.
Setting aside what this does to the image of the US, this also just isn't grounded in reality. The US conducted a singular operation with a narrowly defined goal of extracting their president and his wife. They then declared that they were putting the Venuzuellan vice president in charge. I don't know what happened behind the scenes, but that looks a lot more like them getting behind a winner instead of dictating it.
Sure, the military operation was a tactical success; and will probably make Venuzuella more subservient in the near term. But I see no evidence we have done anything close to annexing them.
People don't live under a rock. The US is an empire and has acted like it for at least 80 years if not more. The fantasy that the US is part of the good guys depends on how much you believe the propaganda.
The US USP was essentially just its success as a consumer economy, with relative prosperity compared to Rest of World and nice things to buy.
And there used to be nominal free speech. You could criticise the government, and nothing would happen unless you became organised enough to start threatening capital, in which case you might well be murdered.
That's the good news. The bad news is that non-whites in the US have always had a much worse time of it, and the veneer of freedom has always been very thin for them.
Now the US has stopped pretending to be a creative economy and has decided not to hide its addiction to violent extraction.
So we'll see how that works out for everyone.
As for Russia, it fights for its existence after the west has effectively hired Ukraine as mercenaries in 2014 (if you want to be honest about it), Ukraine which had been for centuries an integral part of Russia.
Now tell me, what kind of connection US has with Venezuela besides the infinite greed of its capitalists? None of course. And neither had Iraq, Lybia, and a long list of other countries. Under the "good" "democrats".
And you dare to compare yourself to China and Russia..
The Ukrainian people wanted to align more with the EU. They have a sovereign country which isn't part of Russia. They had no plans to invade Russia and even if they had joined NATO they wouldn't have had because NATO is purely a defense platform and so diverse they can't even agree how to fold their napkins. It is not a credible threat to Russia unless Russia attacks them.
In Putin's own speech before the war he described the Ukrainian people as subservient to Russia, a people who have no legitimacy of their own. Just good enough to be a "crumple zone" for mother Russia.
Are you really surprised they chose to align with the EU instead?
And how is Russia fighting for it's existence in taking over a country that wasn't part of it?
What's really pathetic is seeing people brainwashed by political conglomerates. Believing any crap they're peddled on TV or by their oligarch of choice. So politics driven yet so politically ignorant, willingly being the peons, to their detriment.
Looking at your other comments it's clear this is a pattern of behavior.
Want to play a game? I give you quotes/actions from trump and you have to reason why he still is eligible for office. Gosh, i'd wish this was a game show. The longer you make it, the more price money is to win. 'Grab'em by the facts!' and the top price is your very own 747 plane.
He's eligible because he was elected by the People. End of story.
Thankfully he is (somewhat) doing the job we wanted him to. I wish he'd deport more illegal aliens faster though. We still have more than 10 million of them who all need to be deported.
I'm aware of that. Nevertheless, this is not a growth industry, and expecting riches from it in 10 years time or more is thinking mired in past. It's not serious.
More serious commentary on that:
https://www.politico.eu/article/the-problem-with-donald-trum...
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/08/climate/china-venezuela-o...
https://electrek.co/2026/01/03/electric-vehicles-will-end-oi...