Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 3
U.S. preparing options for military strikes on drug targets inside Venezuela, sources say
President Donald Trump has not approved any action yet, and the U.S. and Venezuela are talking through Middle Eastern intermediaries, sources told NBC News.
WASHINGTON — U.S. military officials are drawing up options to target drug traffickers inside Venezuela, and strikes within that country’s borders could potentially begin in a matter of weeks, four sources told NBC News.
Those sources are two U.S. officials familiar with the planning and two other sources familiar with the discussions. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly.https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security...As noted a few days ago, the US would not want to start a major op in Venezuela until late/after the hurricane season. The invasion of Grenada was October 25, late in hurricane season. The invasion of Panama was in December, after the end of hurricane season.
As his nibs has said Maduro is the head of a drug cartel, that would mean that leveling the Miraflores Palace, when he was inside, would be a "strike on drug traffickers"
Steve....HBTT
No. of Recommendations: 1
As his nibs has said Maduro is the head of a drug cartel, that would mean that leveling the Miraflores Palace, when he was inside, would be a "strike on drug traffickers"
Applying that "rationale" (chuckle-chuckle), Spankee is a major funder of terrorism in Mexico. He refuses to stop the illegal flow of guns to Mexico from the US. So, applying "Spankee logic" to the situation, Spankee is a KNOWN and DOCUMENTED international arms terrorist who can be legitimately killed when the opportunity presents itself.
No. of Recommendations: 4
Nobody is happy about what has happened to Venezuela. Bolivarianism gave way to a dictatorship and the bolichicos, rule. (Bolivarianism is sometimes called banana socialism)
Expl:
"Based on reporting from recent years, Venezuela is not controlled by a traditional oligarchy of old elites, but rather by an authoritarian regime under Nicolás Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). This system has enabled the rise of a new, politically connected class known as the "bolibourgeoisie" or "bolichicos," (boliboys)who have enriched themselves through widespread corruption. (They pushed out the old elites.)
The corruption is thick; criminals and cocaine drug cartels cooperate and it's a big transit country for coke from neighboring Colombia. Most of the fentanyl comes from Mexico, so this will have little affect on the fentanyl trade to the US. If you look up cocaine deaths (~22k/yr) in the US, they're mostly cocaine mixed with fentanyl.
Drug transits are subject to the balloon effect. The balloon effect is a metaphor describing how attempts to suppress or eradicate a problem in one area can simply cause it to spread or intensify in another, much like squeezing a balloon causes the air to move to a different part of the balloon rather than disappearing. In other words - there may be a brief reduction in cocaine coming to the USA through Venezuela, but alternate routes are quickly found and it resumes.
It's a splash in the papers, serves Trump's purpose of looking strong, but it highly likely will have no effect on fentanyl coming into the USA from Mexico.
No. of Recommendations: 0
The corruption is thick; criminals and cocaine drug cartels cooperate and it's a big transit country for coke from neighboring Colombia. Most of the fentanyl comes from Mexico, so this will have little affect on the fentanyl trade to the US. If you look up cocaine deaths (~22k/yr) in the US, they're mostly cocaine mixed with fentanyl.
What matters is the USian oil companies are butt-hurt because Chavez nationalized their holdings, and the oil companies thought that the compensation Chavez offered was inadequate.
Steve
