So you’re saying that the U.S. should take that land?
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Venezuela has modern military equipment and zero experienced users of any of it. Plus it already has a quasi-hostile border with Colombia. A country with less modern stuff but people experienced in fighting guerilla wars who may get involved.
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Only that is pretty hippocratical US complaining others doing the same the does.
Military analysts here suspect that some of this equipment, such as Russian fighters or ships, may not be in good condition. On the other hand, they have modern anti-aircraft artillery of Russian origin, something that we do not have in quantity or quality.
Supporters of former President Bolsonaro are in an uproar, thirsty for a war in which they will not shed a drop of their blood and believe that the current President, Mr. Lula da Silva, because he is sympathetic to the Bolivarian regime, will end up supporting this adventure.
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To be sure, Maduro is basing this on a referendum that polled Venezuelans, as opposed to the people living in the area that Venezuela wants to annex. It’s not as if the people there seem to be desperate to become Venezuelans instead of Guyanans.
This would be like Putin having all Russians vote on whether to take over Ukraine (which would probably succeed in the way Putin’s elections for president succeed, but somehow still doesn’t sound right). With Putin, you get the takeover first and the sham referendum later.
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Some newspapers noted that many people did not vote this time.
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this comes on the heels of a referendum he pushed, that apparently passed. although it’s possible the results were completely made up
Few voters could be seen at voting centres, but the National Electoral Council claimed more than 10.5 million ballots were cast in the country of 20 million eligible voters.
side note: the world really needs that oil to stay in the ground. one less war would also be nice
( arg. simultyping. @anselm for the win )
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“The United States has done bad things on the international stage, therefore no one can criticize any country that invades its neighbor to steal its resources” is some straight-up bullshit.
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I rather wonder whether one of Venezuela’s few remaining allies - Russia - is egging things on to create yet another flashpoint around the globe. Putin’s government was boasting of their deepening economic and military links only a few weeks ago. So I suspect any action via the UN is a dim prospect given the Russian veto on the security council.
One thing that could be done almost immediately is a reversal on last year’s US government authorisation for Chevron to resume oil production in Venezuela - they could turn off the drilling of those wells relatively quickly. Unfortunately, Western sanctions on Venezuelan crude won’t be that effective - most of it heads to China and SE Asia.
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The Royal Navy is a bit light on carrier task forces these days, and even lighter on carrier aircraft.
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The way you handle this properly is you have a referendum of everybody of military age, and if it passes, those people who voted yes are immediately drafted into the armed forces for the invasion, followed by those who abstained. (
-tip to Robert A. Heinlein.)
Other types of pre-annexation referendum are obviously suspicious and shouldn’t count.
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People can criticize. US can’t
If hypocrites are right then I am not going to disagree with them because they are hypocrites.
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An image purported to have been shared and later deleted by Venezuela’s electoral authority showed a table with about 2 million votes for each of the five questions, suggesting that they tallied the number of votes rather than voters to spin the public relations disaster.
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Nonsense. That’s like saying “the United States was built on centuries of chattel slavery and genocide against indigenous peoples, therefore it was wrong of the United States to oppose or even criticize the Holocaust.”
It is never wrong to oppose evil, and never too late to do the next right thing.
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A few years in the 90s? Those clods are still here and running the Conservative Party of Canada.
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Force projection.
Yeah, it is a shame that the casualties would be among the military and civilians on both sides of the border, and not among Maduro and his cabinet.
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Especially in Ontario, where Ford’s holding back all kinds of cash already allocated to healthcare and education in hopes that his buddies can get rich on the backs of the citizens. I’m hoping this goes very badly for the Ontario Conservatives in the next provincial election.
Poilievre and his crew of federal Conservative incompetents are trying to do similar boondoggles federally but are thankfully not (yet) in power.
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Oi! Join your place in the queue!
(UK was first.)
And the film has one of the best lines ever. I may come back and ETA it after dinner.
ETA (after dinner): “Shit don’t just Happen. Shit takes time. Shit takes effort.” (Delivered by Samuel L Jackson - the ‘mean mother in a kilt’ - you can imagine how.)
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So, even when they’re right and hopefully assisting in preventing a war - they should shut up.
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