The World Affairs Discussion Group

President Trump clearly intends regime change in Venezuela, and by escalating use of American military power. How did I divine this? Trump himself and other top Administration officials keep telling the press! Maybe they are hoping threats will lead to Venezuelans taking matters into their own hands. But this pattern rarely unfolds. Besides, we have been attacking them for weeks.

Sure, Venezuela's President Maduro is by all accounts a cruel authoritarian dictator who has wrecked his country to stay in power. But overthrowing a foreign leader with direct U.S. power is destructive and risky. Often it is not easy to do at all, and regime change seldom turns out how U.S. leaders want it to go anyway. How can we not know this after the last 30+ years? Oh, and it is illegal to invade and overthrow a foreign country's government because illegal drug imports emanate from it.

American Presidents have started wars many times before without following the rules, like the Constitution (that vests the power to declare war with Congress), the War Powers Act and other U.S. laws, and/or international law. Still, this seems different.

First, Trump desperately needs to distract the public from many scandals and bad news. Second, Secretary of State Marco Rubio allegedly is the big driving force behind threatening and using military force all over Central and Latin America, and he is a long time uber hawk. The President has ordered a large naval buildup in the Caribbean, and our Navy has sunk 20 Venezuelan boats on the high seas.

Perhaps most importantly, President Trump has issued executive actions to justify attacks inside Venezuela. Administration officials casually talk about it all, including how special forces are going in soon!

What if war on this large South American country occurs for these tenuous reasons AND there is no real domestic pushback, especially by Congress or the courts? Will this President and maybe future ones feel free to attack anybody, anywhere in the world for any reason or no reason?

Don't misunderstand. Not all U.S. wars are unjustifiable. IMO the United States is not by default the bad guy bully every time it uses military power. But what President Trump is doing here seems...different. Especially thinly justified, dog-wagging, and precedent shattering.

What do you think? We all may know a lot more on December 14 than I do (or think I do) as I write this on 11/19. Either way, unilateral presidential use of force is an issue that is not going away. Every U.S. President in my lifetime has done it. You didn't think THIS president would be different, did you?

Background optional readings:

-- TBA. Depends on what happens, of course.