Should the US Go to War With Venezuela?

President Donald Trump didn't rule out sending US troops to Venezuela when asked this week, following a recent wave of US strikes on alleged narco-terrorist boats near the country and an increase in US military activity in the Caribbean Sea.

“Two Plausible Alternatives”: “Outside of North Korea, few governments have produced more misery for more of their own people than Venezuela’s," wrote a New York Times Opinion (Left bias) columnist.  "The only thing more shocking than the self-destruction of this once-rich country is the relative indifference to the catastrophe, at least among the usual do-gooders who otherwise like to anguish over the plight of others. Why hasn’t Greta Thunberg set sail to Caracas with symbolic deliveries of food?” He asserted, “Any morally serious person should want this to end,” and suggested two plausible plans: Maduro gifts the US minerals in exchange for his power, or his regime is given one chance to flee the country before being justly captured and destroyed. The writer declared that if Trump stands down in any capacity, he will be seen as weak by Venezuela and other countries. 

“American Vengeance”: An opinion writer for The Intercept (Left) called the Times’ opinion piece a “media warm-up act,” saying it argued that “if a dictator is cruel enough, if his country is chaotic enough, then US firepower is not only justified but prudent and even moral.” The writer emphasized that Trump’s aforementioned “narco-terrorism” label “conveniently sidesteps congressional authorization,” criticizing his lack of transparency and alluding to hypocrisy. He also denounced political rhetoric in media, saying, “It casts Maduro as a stationary object America can strike without consequence, right up until he isn’t. Because the moment a U.S. service member dies in some hillside village… It will become the only war frame Washington and the political media never hesitates to embrace: American vengeance, expansive and unbounded.” 

“Duty to Seek Public Support”: “The White House has still not made the case to the public as to why a military operation against Venezuela is necessary. That’s a tragedy, too, because the case can be made,” wrote Noah Rothman (Lean Right) for National Review (Right). Rothman expressed concern that “the administration’s contempt for Congress’s role as the arbiter of what are and are not lawful ‘lethal kinetic strikes’ could haunt this presidency.” He asserted the Maduro regime’s support of drug smuggling operations sparks “direct threats to US national security,” but “the Trump administration is giving space to the conspiracists” by lacking transparency. He declared the administration can’t “[shy] away from its duty to seek public support for this endeavor for fear that it undermines its political position.”

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