Does the United States have the right to decide who governs Venezuela? The answer is a simple and resounding “No.” Those who respond in any other fashion are followers of the discredited doctrine of Manifest Destiny and are equally discredited themselves. Reactions to the Donald Trump coup attempt are quite revealing and prove that this country is indeed very, very sick. We can now see that most politicians are either cynical cowards who will go along to get along, or are true believers in imperialism like Trump and his presidential predecessors.
The regime change effort against Venezuela is anything but new. It is the latest in a long line of crimes that have taken place not only in the distant past but repeatedly in the 21st century. All have been carried out with a variety of results, but it is significant that the lies don’t change, corporate media carry water for whomever sits in the oval office, and both Democrats and Republicans assert rights that their government doesn’t have.
In 2003, the Bush administration insisted that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a tyrant with an arsenal of chemical weapons to be used against his own people and against us too. The U.S. invaded Iraq and killed up to 1 million people but the dreaded weapons of mass destruction were never found.
Those lies didn’t stop Barack Obama from using similar arguments against Libya in 2011. This time Muammar Gaddafi was the villain and we were told that he was planning a massacre. Obama’s colluders included the human rights industrial complex, the corporate media, and his fellow Democrats. The only massacre that took place in Libya was carried out by U.S. jihadist proxies.
Flush with success after that war crime Obama moved on to Syria. Once again there were tales of mass murder and this time the partners in crime actually killed civilians and tried to finger Bashar al-Assad for the crime.
Anyone who repeats the Trump administration talking points about starvation and tyranny in Venezuela is not to be trusted. The rationales for promoting a war crime may vary. Florida senator Marco Rubio intersperses his bible verse posts on twitter with threats to murder Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Rubio is a dyed in the wool fascist and doesn’t shrink from proving it on a daily basis. Rubio is joined by Democratic colleagues like Chris Murphy, who called Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro an evil man and who criticizes Trump for style points only. He wants a more elegant intervention but he is no better than his Republican colleague.
All of the criminals have joined in the attack. Like a pack of predators they have lined up to assist in the kill. Democrats Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, and Dick Durbin have all repeated Trump’s assertions. Hillary Clinton may give Trump side eye in public, but she goes along because she agrees with him that Venezuelans have no rights that need to be respected.
Other Democrats are mealy-mouthed like Bernie Sanders and claim to oppose intervention but never speak of Venezuela without condemning Maduro with Trumpian falsehoods. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was silent for weeks and finally posted a video describing Venezuela as a “failure of democracy” and repeated Trump claims of Maduro’s supposed authoritarianism.
Most political leaders in this country believe that Venezuela is in their “backyard” and they can decide to mow the lawn whenever they choose. There are old school ugly Americans like Rubio and cowards like members of the Congressional Black Caucus who are conspicuously silent. There are phony resisters who have spent two years calling Trump a racist, fascist, lying, traitorous maniac who will destroy the planet and yet they now find reasons to support the newest war crime. It is clear that most people in this country believe in the right to kill and steal as long as the crime is carried out by someone in the White House, even if that person is someone they claimed to dislike.
No one in the corporate media or among so-called progressives will dare to point out what we have all lived through in very recent times. None of them have asked why the process repeats itself over and over again. But of course they don’t want to ask. Doing so would quite literally put them out of business. The corporate media and their friends among the ruling classes need puppets in government to give the criminal enterprise some legitimacy.
Venezuela is the very definition of a litmus test. The line of demarcation is clear and all means of intervention, including sanctions, must be opposed on principle. Wafflers and enablers are as bad as Trump and should be treated no differently. It is time to end all talk of Manifest Destiny, the Monroe doctrine and all other excuses for criminal behavior. This American sickness must be cured once and for all.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
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Freedom Rider: Venezuela reveals America’s sickness
The Democrats agree with Trump that Venezuelans have no rights that need be respected by the United States.
Posted on March 1, 2019 by Margaret Kimberley
Does the United States have the right to decide who governs Venezuela? The answer is a simple and resounding “No.” Those who respond in any other fashion are followers of the discredited doctrine of Manifest Destiny and are equally discredited themselves. Reactions to the Donald Trump coup attempt are quite revealing and prove that this country is indeed very, very sick. We can now see that most politicians are either cynical cowards who will go along to get along, or are true believers in imperialism like Trump and his presidential predecessors.
The regime change effort against Venezuela is anything but new. It is the latest in a long line of crimes that have taken place not only in the distant past but repeatedly in the 21st century. All have been carried out with a variety of results, but it is significant that the lies don’t change, corporate media carry water for whomever sits in the oval office, and both Democrats and Republicans assert rights that their government doesn’t have.
In 2003, the Bush administration insisted that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a tyrant with an arsenal of chemical weapons to be used against his own people and against us too. The U.S. invaded Iraq and killed up to 1 million people but the dreaded weapons of mass destruction were never found.
Those lies didn’t stop Barack Obama from using similar arguments against Libya in 2011. This time Muammar Gaddafi was the villain and we were told that he was planning a massacre. Obama’s colluders included the human rights industrial complex, the corporate media, and his fellow Democrats. The only massacre that took place in Libya was carried out by U.S. jihadist proxies.
Flush with success after that war crime Obama moved on to Syria. Once again there were tales of mass murder and this time the partners in crime actually killed civilians and tried to finger Bashar al-Assad for the crime.
Anyone who repeats the Trump administration talking points about starvation and tyranny in Venezuela is not to be trusted. The rationales for promoting a war crime may vary. Florida senator Marco Rubio intersperses his bible verse posts on twitter with threats to murder Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Rubio is a dyed in the wool fascist and doesn’t shrink from proving it on a daily basis. Rubio is joined by Democratic colleagues like Chris Murphy, who called Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro an evil man and who criticizes Trump for style points only. He wants a more elegant intervention but he is no better than his Republican colleague.
All of the criminals have joined in the attack. Like a pack of predators they have lined up to assist in the kill. Democrats Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, and Dick Durbin have all repeated Trump’s assertions. Hillary Clinton may give Trump side eye in public, but she goes along because she agrees with him that Venezuelans have no rights that need to be respected.
Other Democrats are mealy-mouthed like Bernie Sanders and claim to oppose intervention but never speak of Venezuela without condemning Maduro with Trumpian falsehoods. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was silent for weeks and finally posted a video describing Venezuela as a “failure of democracy” and repeated Trump claims of Maduro’s supposed authoritarianism.
Most political leaders in this country believe that Venezuela is in their “backyard” and they can decide to mow the lawn whenever they choose. There are old school ugly Americans like Rubio and cowards like members of the Congressional Black Caucus who are conspicuously silent. There are phony resisters who have spent two years calling Trump a racist, fascist, lying, traitorous maniac who will destroy the planet and yet they now find reasons to support the newest war crime. It is clear that most people in this country believe in the right to kill and steal as long as the crime is carried out by someone in the White House, even if that person is someone they claimed to dislike.
No one in the corporate media or among so-called progressives will dare to point out what we have all lived through in very recent times. None of them have asked why the process repeats itself over and over again. But of course they don’t want to ask. Doing so would quite literally put them out of business. The corporate media and their friends among the ruling classes need puppets in government to give the criminal enterprise some legitimacy.
Venezuela is the very definition of a litmus test. The line of demarcation is clear and all means of intervention, including sanctions, must be opposed on principle. Wafflers and enablers are as bad as Trump and should be treated no differently. It is time to end all talk of Manifest Destiny, the Monroe doctrine and all other excuses for criminal behavior. This American sickness must be cured once and for all.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.