May 02, 2019
What to do about Venezuela?
Timothy Birdnow
In the discussion of what to do about Venezuela, many on the Right are arguing for a hand-off approach. I get it, but remember, we have always supported the Monroe Doctrine, which says foreign powers have to keep their hands off countries in the Americas or fall afoul of the United States.
Russia and Cuba are both down there in Venezuela, propping up the Maduro government.
Fox News host and staunch Conservative ucker Carlson asked this question:
Um, Germany, Japan, the entire Eastern Block. How about something closer to home? We stopped the Communists from taking over El Salvador. We kicked the communist Allende out of Chile' and it is now one of the most prosperous and stable countries in South America. We stopped the Communists from taking over Iran (yes, we eventually ended up with the Ayatollahs, but had Iran become a part of the Soviet sphere they would have likely won the Cold War.) We arrested the dictator of Panama, Manuel Noriega, and Panama is none the worse for it. In fact, they've had a democratic republic since. Oh, and we intervened in Panama at her inception, encouraging Panama to secede from Columbia at the beginning.
Our intervention in Nicaragua went well too. Sadly, Barack Hussein Obama allowed the Sandanistas to return to power. But they have never held the kind of iron grip on Nicaragua they had prior to our intervention.
No, I think we have had plenty of good, positive foreign interventions. The primary problem has been a. we so often try to take places in the throes of civil war and democratize them and b. we try to impose western liberal ideas on places that cannot and will not accept them - like the Middle East. You don't create a liberal democracy in the Middle East; these people cannot accept that. They have no tradition of it. But we can do a lot of good otherwise.
I'm not saying that we necessarily should, but the fact that Russian soldiers are in Venezuela and openly defying us requires forceful response. They have to know that we are not going to allow them to violate the Monroe Doctrine.
That said, the Russians are giving payback to the U.S. for sticking our noses in the Eastern Block countries. We've encouraged the expansion of NATO right into the Russians' back yards. We have moved into Georgia, on their southern flank. We are in Syrian, Iraq, and Afghanistan, We have the encircled, far more effectively than ever we encircled the Soviets. We should not be surprised that they are responding in this manner.
But we must deal with them. That is the nature of international politics. You don't prevent wars by ignoring this sort of thing.
And what good are we doing the Venezuelan people by failing to act? A military dictatorship would be preferable at this point. They may be thugs, as the saying goes, but their our thugs, or at least not unfriendly thugs. It won't be any worse than the Maduro Marxists. Meanwhile, what do we get out of it? Fewer refugees, no more subversion of other Latin American countries, an eventual stabilization of oil prices, and kicking foreign powers out of the hemisphere. Oh, and it could well drive a nail in the coffin of the Cuban Communists, to boot.
In the discussion of what to do about Venezuela, many on the Right are arguing for a hand-off approach. I get it, but remember, we have always supported the Monroe Doctrine, which says foreign powers have to keep their hands off countries in the Americas or fall afoul of the United States.
Russia and Cuba are both down there in Venezuela, propping up the Maduro government.
Fox News host and staunch Conservative ucker Carlson asked this question:
"Before the bombers take off, let’s just answer a few quick questions, starting with the most obvious: When was the last time we successfully meddled in the political life of another country? Has it ever worked? How are those democracies we set up in Iraq and Libya and Syria and Afghanistan?â€
Um, Germany, Japan, the entire Eastern Block. How about something closer to home? We stopped the Communists from taking over El Salvador. We kicked the communist Allende out of Chile' and it is now one of the most prosperous and stable countries in South America. We stopped the Communists from taking over Iran (yes, we eventually ended up with the Ayatollahs, but had Iran become a part of the Soviet sphere they would have likely won the Cold War.) We arrested the dictator of Panama, Manuel Noriega, and Panama is none the worse for it. In fact, they've had a democratic republic since. Oh, and we intervened in Panama at her inception, encouraging Panama to secede from Columbia at the beginning.
Our intervention in Nicaragua went well too. Sadly, Barack Hussein Obama allowed the Sandanistas to return to power. But they have never held the kind of iron grip on Nicaragua they had prior to our intervention.
No, I think we have had plenty of good, positive foreign interventions. The primary problem has been a. we so often try to take places in the throes of civil war and democratize them and b. we try to impose western liberal ideas on places that cannot and will not accept them - like the Middle East. You don't create a liberal democracy in the Middle East; these people cannot accept that. They have no tradition of it. But we can do a lot of good otherwise.
I'm not saying that we necessarily should, but the fact that Russian soldiers are in Venezuela and openly defying us requires forceful response. They have to know that we are not going to allow them to violate the Monroe Doctrine.
That said, the Russians are giving payback to the U.S. for sticking our noses in the Eastern Block countries. We've encouraged the expansion of NATO right into the Russians' back yards. We have moved into Georgia, on their southern flank. We are in Syrian, Iraq, and Afghanistan, We have the encircled, far more effectively than ever we encircled the Soviets. We should not be surprised that they are responding in this manner.
But we must deal with them. That is the nature of international politics. You don't prevent wars by ignoring this sort of thing.
And what good are we doing the Venezuelan people by failing to act? A military dictatorship would be preferable at this point. They may be thugs, as the saying goes, but their our thugs, or at least not unfriendly thugs. It won't be any worse than the Maduro Marxists. Meanwhile, what do we get out of it? Fewer refugees, no more subversion of other Latin American countries, an eventual stabilization of oil prices, and kicking foreign powers out of the hemisphere. Oh, and it could well drive a nail in the coffin of the Cuban Communists, to boot.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:56 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 612 words, total size 4 kb.
1
The people you love are lucky to have you in their lives. Pressure Washing
Posted by: Clean Streak Pressure Washing at May 03, 2019 12:32 AM (SpdIE)
25kb generated in CPU 0.081, elapsed 0.224 seconds.
37 queries taking 0.2125 seconds, 184 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
37 queries taking 0.2125 seconds, 184 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
