Are the citizens of Venezuela better off under Maduro or Rubio, is the bottom line. Am betting if they were asked, the would overwhelming say the later is preferable. It is also, undoubtedly, temporary.
The temptation for many to assume every Trump action must be evil, is hard to overcome, but even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut. Besides, Trump is a temporary President with nearly 75% of his terms behind him.
Many seem to forget, in the time it takes for a new born baby to legally buy a beer, Venezuela went from the wealthiest nation in South America, to citizens shedding, on average, 18lbs, due to a government caused starvation, not GLP1s.
Once well educated ,Venezuela has lacked a functioning school system for 2 decades. Millions of its' most ambitious and young, fled to the US. Maduro carried on Chavez's plunder. Maduro's death would have surely brought the 3rd dictator, in the unfortunate trilogy.
Venezuela, could be the sunnier, larger version of Norway, free and crazy wealthy. All, while helping stabilize neighboring nations and providing the world with energy, data centers will demand.
Much can still go wrong, but this isn't imperialism. This is a transition back to a free and prosperous nation. Venezuelans will return to rebuild their country and reclaim their oil wealth birthright. Venezuela has 2 potential leaders that appear to be honest, and enough eventual oil revenue to finance their return to stability, and then maintain it. There are more reasons to be hopeful then not, but change will take awhile.
Venezuela was a cheap victory…up until the earthquake. Now we will end up spending more rebuilding than we will ever get from its oil. Cuba would have cost $5 billion had we invaded it in 2003 instead of Iraq…now we will probably spend $500 billion to get it back to 2003 status. Good thing East Palestine OH is doing so great and doesn’t need any funds for rebuilding. /sarc
This is all very high-minded, but it refuses to engage seriously with most pressing strategic challenge of Maduro's Venezuela, namely that it was well on its way to becoming a huge Chinese vassal state in the Western Hemisphere. Academic arguments and appeals to abstract principles for the most part, as here, fail to contend seriously with the very real threats this represents to long-term American interests.
Once one reads this essay through, and eliminates the contrived non-sequitur"scholarly" quotes from George Kennan , W J Bryan, Thomas Jefferson, and allusions to Ancient Athens, you're left with the notion that Mr. Nicastro would much rather have China, Russia, or some other adversary ensconced in Venezuela, with a native Venezuelan such as Maduro nominally in control and narcotrafficking "overstated " drugs, than the USA. But being a steward for Venezuela for 6 months or so, is something Nicastro is just too righteous to tolerate. And what the hell does the Jennings Bryan quote have to do with perceived "political problems" from 20 million illegal aliens in our country ? What is he talking about?He's just too erudite for me. And perhaps confused.
Rome became a de facto empire while it was still officially a republic. The simultaneous defeat of Carthage and Macedonia expanded the boundaries well beyond Italy. The republican institutions of Rome could not handle being the center of an empire. This did not end well.
I question the whole point of this article. It doesn't really fit with the mission of commonplace. The author seems to have been informed more by water cooler talk at The American Conservative then any real connection or understanding of Venezuela.
It's laughable that he thinks the rapidly created governments we stood up in Iraq or Afghanistan were anything other than complete failure. Failure largely because in our rush to slap a democratic face on those governments, we completely failed to create any functioning justice system. So what we created was a couple government that were a combination of conmen swindling Uncle Sam and thugs extorting their own people. I see no reason why we should be in a rush to repeat that mistake again.
Then there is his laughable belief that our almost completely dysfunctional congress would do anything other then figure out a way to shell out billions of our tax dollars to their cronies. And no, I'm not just talking about the Democrats. In fact, things have gotten so dysfunctional that I want the Republicans to throw out the filibuster before the midterms. That way if they win they can finally pass bills while being able to ignore all the attempt by the Democrats to block everything and keep shoving amendments and pulling other stunts that are only meant to embarrass the Republicans. But more importantly, if they lose, they won't spend the next two years doing everything they can to block every bill, play childish games, and pull other stunts that are only meant to embarrass the Democrats.
So I'm not now more informed about what's going on in Venezuela, nor better informed about what various congressmen and senators think about the future of Venezuela. I'm pretty sure The American Conservative is just another bunch of political hacks getting paid to push certain free trade, free market messaging that runs counter to the mission of the commonplace. I get it that we don't pay a lot for a yearly subscription, but surely you can find better guest articles to post.
I guess the true test will be what kind of country Venezuela becomes after we leave. With all the money they get from oil, and a population of 30 million there is a lot of potential. Maybe improved circumstances would encourage remigration from the rest of Latin America and the USA.
Wrong. Until the government can function properly and be friendly to us this is unfortunately what has to be done. If not, we will have Iraq again. Venezuela has been run for 25 years by basically incompetent rule (yes way worse than us lol) yes that bad. If let them blow in the wind heck Columbia would probably invade them and take it over literally. Can't replace a new decent government overnight. They can't even feed themselves right now.
Relax on the isolationist stuff ok got it agree we don't want to be all over the world but have to take care of your backyard. If not, the rats will overtake you without proper yard care.
It's been roughly six months duration since Maduro was removed ; that is the time frame that was sufficient to spark the impatient author's essay, among other things I'm sure. That's what the comment was directed at.
Are the citizens of Venezuela better off under Maduro or Rubio, is the bottom line. Am betting if they were asked, the would overwhelming say the later is preferable. It is also, undoubtedly, temporary.
The temptation for many to assume every Trump action must be evil, is hard to overcome, but even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut. Besides, Trump is a temporary President with nearly 75% of his terms behind him.
Many seem to forget, in the time it takes for a new born baby to legally buy a beer, Venezuela went from the wealthiest nation in South America, to citizens shedding, on average, 18lbs, due to a government caused starvation, not GLP1s.
Once well educated ,Venezuela has lacked a functioning school system for 2 decades. Millions of its' most ambitious and young, fled to the US. Maduro carried on Chavez's plunder. Maduro's death would have surely brought the 3rd dictator, in the unfortunate trilogy.
Venezuela, could be the sunnier, larger version of Norway, free and crazy wealthy. All, while helping stabilize neighboring nations and providing the world with energy, data centers will demand.
Much can still go wrong, but this isn't imperialism. This is a transition back to a free and prosperous nation. Venezuelans will return to rebuild their country and reclaim their oil wealth birthright. Venezuela has 2 potential leaders that appear to be honest, and enough eventual oil revenue to finance their return to stability, and then maintain it. There are more reasons to be hopeful then not, but change will take awhile.
Venezuela was a cheap victory…up until the earthquake. Now we will end up spending more rebuilding than we will ever get from its oil. Cuba would have cost $5 billion had we invaded it in 2003 instead of Iraq…now we will probably spend $500 billion to get it back to 2003 status. Good thing East Palestine OH is doing so great and doesn’t need any funds for rebuilding. /sarc
Wrong
Spot on Ronda, you know your stuff. Agree 100%
Do you really believe this? Truly amazing. Literally just believing in fairytales now.
This is all very high-minded, but it refuses to engage seriously with most pressing strategic challenge of Maduro's Venezuela, namely that it was well on its way to becoming a huge Chinese vassal state in the Western Hemisphere. Academic arguments and appeals to abstract principles for the most part, as here, fail to contend seriously with the very real threats this represents to long-term American interests.
Once one reads this essay through, and eliminates the contrived non-sequitur"scholarly" quotes from George Kennan , W J Bryan, Thomas Jefferson, and allusions to Ancient Athens, you're left with the notion that Mr. Nicastro would much rather have China, Russia, or some other adversary ensconced in Venezuela, with a native Venezuelan such as Maduro nominally in control and narcotrafficking "overstated " drugs, than the USA. But being a steward for Venezuela for 6 months or so, is something Nicastro is just too righteous to tolerate. And what the hell does the Jennings Bryan quote have to do with perceived "political problems" from 20 million illegal aliens in our country ? What is he talking about?He's just too erudite for me. And perhaps confused.
Sorry, maybe I missed where Trump or someone in his administration said it was for 6 months. What are you basing this magical thinking on?
Rome became a de facto empire while it was still officially a republic. The simultaneous defeat of Carthage and Macedonia expanded the boundaries well beyond Italy. The republican institutions of Rome could not handle being the center of an empire. This did not end well.
I question the whole point of this article. It doesn't really fit with the mission of commonplace. The author seems to have been informed more by water cooler talk at The American Conservative then any real connection or understanding of Venezuela.
It's laughable that he thinks the rapidly created governments we stood up in Iraq or Afghanistan were anything other than complete failure. Failure largely because in our rush to slap a democratic face on those governments, we completely failed to create any functioning justice system. So what we created was a couple government that were a combination of conmen swindling Uncle Sam and thugs extorting their own people. I see no reason why we should be in a rush to repeat that mistake again.
Then there is his laughable belief that our almost completely dysfunctional congress would do anything other then figure out a way to shell out billions of our tax dollars to their cronies. And no, I'm not just talking about the Democrats. In fact, things have gotten so dysfunctional that I want the Republicans to throw out the filibuster before the midterms. That way if they win they can finally pass bills while being able to ignore all the attempt by the Democrats to block everything and keep shoving amendments and pulling other stunts that are only meant to embarrass the Republicans. But more importantly, if they lose, they won't spend the next two years doing everything they can to block every bill, play childish games, and pull other stunts that are only meant to embarrass the Democrats.
So I'm not now more informed about what's going on in Venezuela, nor better informed about what various congressmen and senators think about the future of Venezuela. I'm pretty sure The American Conservative is just another bunch of political hacks getting paid to push certain free trade, free market messaging that runs counter to the mission of the commonplace. I get it that we don't pay a lot for a yearly subscription, but surely you can find better guest articles to post.
They are isolationists and definitely not free traders Daniel. lol can tell you don't read their stuff.
I guess the true test will be what kind of country Venezuela becomes after we leave. With all the money they get from oil, and a population of 30 million there is a lot of potential. Maybe improved circumstances would encourage remigration from the rest of Latin America and the USA.
We will leave but we will keep them close. They had been ignored for far too long before Chavez and gang led them astray.
You said it 😎
You do remember Halliburton and its streak of no-bid contacts though, right?
Wrong. Until the government can function properly and be friendly to us this is unfortunately what has to be done. If not, we will have Iraq again. Venezuela has been run for 25 years by basically incompetent rule (yes way worse than us lol) yes that bad. If let them blow in the wind heck Columbia would probably invade them and take it over literally. Can't replace a new decent government overnight. They can't even feed themselves right now.
Relax on the isolationist stuff ok got it agree we don't want to be all over the world but have to take care of your backyard. If not, the rats will overtake you without proper yard care.
It's been roughly six months duration since Maduro was removed ; that is the time frame that was sufficient to spark the impatient author's essay, among other things I'm sure. That's what the comment was directed at.
America is already an empire.
Wrong.