By Richard Steigmann-Gall, Associate Professor of history at Kent State University, USA
The overriding temptation on the left is to frame Trump’s criminality as another instance of Uncle Sam meddling in Latin American affairs. Big Continuity, which implicates all our imperial presidents since McKinley. I don’t think this fits Trump’s pattern, however. And this does not mean Cuba is next.
Maduro is not Noriega and Venezuela is not Panama. The better comparison point is Iran and the assassination of Soleimani in 2020. Venezuela is Iran. Trump wanted to take him out as a demonstration. To say he did it. To shake the tree and see what fell out. Turned out, it did not change the structure of power in Iran and did not alter the system of the ayatollahs. So, he bombed Iran again to forestall its nuclear weapons program. Another flashy “demonstration” with no invasion or further military escalation.
For all the chicken hawk posturing in the Caribbean and blowing up of innocent fishermen at the hands of criminal fratboy KegsBreath, this operation was a smash-and-grab. No boots on the ground – no regime change. Maduro’s VP becomes acting president. His army was not engaged in fighting. There is no Desert Storm. Our Dementia Patient in Chief and the Moronocracy he oversees don’t have the attention span for it.
If I were Mark Carney or Claudia Sheinbaum, I’d build a new bunker stat, in the greatest secrecy. And if I were the Danish PM, I’d move the entirety of my little 8000 person army to Greenland immediately. But Trump’s idea of being a global hero is to pluck low-hanging fruit. Soleimani’s assassination elicited no outrage. And Maduro has been a deeply corrupt caudillo. Donnie wants as much acclaim for as little effort as possible. I suspect next week he will have moved on to his 250th anniversary commemorative coin.
All hat, no cattle. Just like everything else Trump does. The Epstein Files must be worse than we thought.
Cartoon, Kovács K. Dávid.
