The Options Trump Puts on the Table

Is President Trump about to invade Venezuela? His advisors continue to say — in increasingly forceful terms that — “all options are on the table”, and that military intervention to restore Venezuela’s constitution” may be necessary.”

For his part, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a news program last Sunday commented that President Trump could launch a military attack against Venezuela without Congressional approval because “he has all the authority conferred upon him by Article II of the Constitution and certainly any action that we take in Venezuela will be legal”. The man who just boasted of his lies, tricks and thefts, is providing new evidence that back up his confession.

The truth is that the US president does not have the constitutional authority to start a war with Venezuela or anyother country that hasn’t attacked or credibly threatenedthe United States, without the approval of Congress. It’sas simple as that,” says Ron Paul, a former Republicancongressman for the State of Texas and presidential candidate in1988 for the now defunct Libertarian Party.

It is ironic that Pompeo and the rest of the neoconservatives ofthe Trump Administration, who don’t care about theConstitution of their own country, are willing to attackVenezuela “in order to restore its constitution.”

It is striking and hypocritical that while Washington wasparalyzed for two years by the disproved claims that the Russianshad meddled with the elections to elect Trump, Washingtondoesn’t even hesitate to support the actual revocation ofelections in another country!

But without the authority of Congress, any U.S. military actionagainst Venezuela would be illegal and probably an impeachablecrime. Of course, Democrats who talk about impeaching Trump wouldnever dream of getting rid of him for illegally starting a warbecause U.S. Democrats and Republicans alike love the illegalU.S. wars, says Ron Paul.

Unfortunately, Washington is so addicted to war that PresidentTrump would probably have little difficulty in obtainingcongressional authorization to invade Venezuela if he bothered toask.

Likewise, as with the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003,the corporate media are nothing more than uninterrupted warpropaganda.

According to Ron Paul, some Presidential hopefuls described asprogressives , like Rachel Maddow, a radio personality, TVpresenter, and progressive American commentator, are attackingthe Trump administration, not because of its reckless tendencyfor the use of weapons in Venezuela, but because it is notaggressive enough.

The real lesson is that even a “constitutional” waragainst Venezuela would be an unjust action. It would be a war ofaggression that Americans should be upset about and ashamed of.

But the mainstream media are spreading the same old lies in favorof war, while independent media are being attacked by many socialmedia campaigns that have partnered with U.S. government agenciesto decide what news is fake or illegal and which one is true.

The most recent motive for indignation shown by the dominantmedia has been over one of the most sensible things thatPresident Trump has done lately: last week he spent one hour onthe phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss, amongother things, the dangerous situation in Venezuela.

While President Trump’s neo-con advisors are deliberatelytrying to put him in a position where war is the only option, wecan only hope that President Putin may have been able to explainto him that Venezuela’s problems must be solved by theVenezuelans themselves.

Certainly, the United States, perhaps together with the Russians,could help facilitate discussions between the Venezuelangovernment and the opposition as an alternative to theneo-conservative path towards war, which would surely end likeall other wars in a total disaster.

U.S. mainstream media are furious because Trump dared to talk toPutin when Russia and the United States were increasingly atlogger-heads over the situation in Venezuela.

Democrats and neo-cons are pressing for a direct confrontation inwhich Russia may become involved. Republicans agree with both onthis.

Would they really prefer a thermo-nuclear war over Venezuela?asks veteran doctor and ultra-libertarian American politicianRon Paul.

A CubaNews translation by Walter Lippmann.

 

Manuel E. Yepe is a lawyer, economist and journalist. He is a professor at the Higher Institute of International Relations in Havana.