A Trump administration official says U.S. Headed Toward Blockade of Venezuela.
Donald Trump is serious about a possible U.S. blockade of Venezuela, a senior administration official said Friday, saying that the country’s president Nicolas Maduro has a short window to voluntarily leave power.
Trump told reporters on Thursday that he was considering a blockade or quarantine of the Latin American country, where the U.S. has been trying for months to unseat Maduro. He didn’t elaborate.
But the official said Trump’s statement should be taken seriously and is the direction U.S. policy is headed with regard to Venezuela. The official asked not to be identified as a condition of participation in a briefing for reporters.
Maduro Not a Good Guy
OK, Maduro is not a good guy. Neither are Putin, or Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the king of Saudi Arabia, or dozens of other global leaders.
Recall that US cozied up to Sadaam Hussein and Bin Laden on the idiotic policy the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
War Threatened
Since when does not being a good guy require war?
Make no mistake, a naval blockade is war. And isn’t Congress supposed to declare war?
End the Wars and the Warmongering
We should pull all of our troops home, let Europe and Japan defend themselves, and in general mind our own damn business.
The US and the rest of the world would be better off if the stopped being the world’s policeman.
If the EU is worried about Russia, let the EU defend itself.
Our military budget is insane because of insane policies.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
For the record and in advance
I was against the war in Vietnam, the war in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq, the war in Syria, Libya, etc etc.
Mind you – in advance – and correct – not after the fact arm-chair quarterbacking
“Mish, how did that work out under prior administrations ?”
Poorly
“I just love you all armchair quarterbacks who think they know it all. “
And I just love you jackasses who support every war that comes your way.
How can the US continue to plunder the globe ($3/4 TRILLION every year) without “policing” it?
Are we the bad guys?
If ‘we’ means the US military/foreign policy establishment, yes. Millions dead or maimed for life all over the MENA during the past 30yrs – for NOTHING. 100s still die every month in Iraq.
The article comment – ‘Recall that US cozied up to Sadaam Hussein and Bin Laden on the idiotic policy the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ Mish, how did that work out under prior administrations ? I just love you all armchair quarterbacks who think they know it all. Comical to read the input. One thing, YOU aren’t the POTUS. That’s a good thing.
Which arm chair quarterbacks? The ones outside the government or the ones inside the government?
I see Steve Mnuchin put the k abash on Trump meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister too. How many theaters can the MIC support when they all erupt simultaneously? This is going to hell in a hand basket faster than I can keep track of it.
No worries, all this warmonger is good for corporate $$profits$$….Ka-Ching! But remember we can’t afford MidicareForAll because it would save us $2 dollars for every $1 it spends giving healthcare to everyone in the US including immigrants legal or not
Lets hope Trump has the common sense to send lots of CIA agents to box up Maduro’s weapons, ship them to “moderate” terrorists in Syria, get the US ambassador killed, and then blame the whole thing on a YouTube video.
If Trump does that, he can say with a straight face that there were no controversies during his 8 years.
Here’s hoping it’s another bluff.
Not worried on this one, his boss, Tsar Vladimir, won’t allow him to blockade Venezuela.
Would someone please bomb the shit out of America so the world can live in peace?
I remember JFK’s first budget, in 1960, with 50% of federal spending on defence. That’s surely too high, but China proved in 1839 that nothing is far too little.
Had the Brits found the Yangtze bristling with gun emplacements, they’d have gone back to London demanding negotiations, not war.
“Our military budget is insane”
What is your definition of “insane?”
America currently spends about 3.2% GDP on defense. Historically (going back to the 1970s after the Vietnam War ended), this is about the historical average. There are 21 other countries that spend more (as a percent of GDP).
America spends about 17% of the Federal Budget on defense (2017). America also spends about 66% of the Federal Budget on entitlement spending (2017).
As a comparison – in the 1950s, during the Eisenhower administration, America spent more than 50% of its Federal Budget on Defense.
You have to be severely propagandized to want to defend MIC bloat. Yes, over $700B per year is extremely wasteful.
But the numbers aren’t even the main problem. What do they do with that money, besides enrich contractors and buy stuff like $14,000 toilet seats and $1200 coffee mugs? It’s not just inefficient, it’s intentionally inefficient.
Then there’s the whole problem of propping up Forever Wars, promoting “moderate” terror groups, and keeping conflict going as long as possible to encourage yet more spending. If you want to spend trillions trying NOT to win wars, be my guest, but a lot of people aren’t going to like it.
To anyone who does not directly benefit from MIC spending, the whole thing looks ridiculous at best, but it’s probably more accurate to call it psychotic.
And that’s not including nuclear weapons. Or the VA. Or the interest. Or Homeland Defense. Or the spy agencies that keep the trouble coming. Or contingency war spending.
I think if you tallied spending on all military related activities as well it would easily be double that $700B
“America currently spends about 3.2% GDP on defense.”
‘Defense’. Yeah, right.
As Mish use to say the party is over and you cannot hope to survive.
Just to be clear, I don’t view The Donald as a warmonger, so much as just another megalomaniac who finds it impossible to prevent a thought arising in his brain from escaping in near-real time to Twitter. Not the way to conduct foreign policy; it’s not a reality game, but real people can get killed if we keep it up.
Many of those “real people” who get killed…for nothing…turn out to be our sons and daughters and husbands and wives…., etc.
Presidents live in a bubble of advisors who are the warmongers of the Deep State. The information they receive is pretty much from this group. Result we have been at war, constantly, for decades.
Wow. All these comments calling Trump a “warmonger” when he has yet to actually start a single war?
And these same folks who just gushed and loved obama – when he started wars in Syria and Libya and sent 100,000 troops to Afghanistan in his failed “surge.” And not a single word in criticism.
And obama actually said “I am pretty good at killing people.” Good thing he had that Nobel Peace Prize or we would have really been in trouble.
And Hillary wanted a war with Russia (and still wants one – along with most of the democrat presidential candidates). Hillary also voted for the War in Iraq when she was a senator. So did Biden.
Gosh – Trump is looking like the least warmonger of the pack.
Obama bombed more nations than Hitler and assassinated American children and per the U.N. caused the greatest humanitarian refugee crises since WW2. And Democrats are just with that.
He is more of a Clintonian Warmonger. Billery talked a big talk and backed it up with Ships and Planes. For instance Billery waged war on Iraq for 8 years, but since he never put boots-on-the-ground, he was a great peace-lovin president – ha haa.
And don’t forget that Obama has two distinctions that separate him from other Nobel Peace Prize winners :
Yes, but do tell us how sanctions that operate on the broader population of a country or, better still, a naval blockade, are not crimes against humanity as they were laid out in the brief given to the Nuremburg Tribunal. Hint: They are crimes against humanity, and Trump has proliferated them.
Unfortunately, the Democrat’s goat rodeo of far leftist candidates virtually guarantees Trump’s re-election…baring a depression beginning now and lasting through next November.
It’s virtually impossible to dislodge an incumbent president in this country. Slick Willie Clinton did it last with help from both a recession and Ross Perot’s quixotic campaign siphoning off 19% of Bush senior’s voters. In fact, Clinton took office in the second quarter of the Bush recovery.
The Democrats are busily gearing up for a redo of 1968 when national reaction to their Chicago riots led directly to election of Richard Nixon.
Its absurd, though somewhat amusing, that if things keep going the way they are for the Dems that Trump will be the moderate candidate contesting the 2020 election
Anyone paying attention knew we wouldn’t stop after the Guaido fiasco. You don’t appoint a neocon like Abrams to be “special representative” to a country if you intend to build peaceful relations with them.
This Venezuela saga will be an ongoing headache for Trump supporters for multiple reasons. It makes him look like a warmonger, it runs contrary to his campaign, regime changes are exorbitantly expensive, and worst of all it makes Ilhan Omar look good for publicly criticizing the Abrams appointment.
Candidate Trump, we hardly knew ye.
Wait until refugees from Venezuela flood the U.S. Trump voters will live that.