History is repeating itself.
When United States involvement in Vietnam finally ended, there was a sense of great shame on the US armed forces. The most powerful military force in the world was bested by rice farmers.
And now, here we are living in a post-Iraq War world. Unlike Vietnam, our mission in Iraq was successful. We removed Saddam Hussein from power and now he's dead. Great, right?
But there were no weapons of mass destruction. And the Iraqi government had as much to do with 9/11 as Sweden did.
The majority of Americans now agree the war was a mistake. It was expensive and cost millions of lives. The reasons to go were flimsy and proven untrue after the invasion. And as awful as Hussein was, Americans are far more concerned about ISIS, the growth of which is directly linked to US presence in Iraq and Western influence on the Middle East in general.
The reason I mentioned Vietnam before is because it was the Iraq of the 20th century. Afterward, America occupied the role of the humiliated empire. Bested by a much poorer, weaker nation… American pride was at an all-time low.
Then came the rise of the neoconservative "thinkers" with a "realist" worldview. The Nixon and Reagan administrations launched the careers of Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all the rest that would invade Iraq in the next century. Were they any different in the 70s and 80s? No, not at all.
The easiest career after Vietnam was advocating for invading other countries. The Iran-Contra Affair was just the tip of the iceberg. The great Uncle Sam funded right-wing drug dealers, meddled in elections, and toppled the governments in South America and began the process of sucking the soul of the Middle East like a vampire.
Let's take a look at post-Iraq America. We still have a debate every couple months on whether or not we should invade Iran, Obama's actions in Libya remain his administration's greatest failure, and John Bolton is one of the country's highest-ranking national security figures.
Yet, despite all of that, our current president is toying with the idea of invading Venezuela. He has repeatedly pressed the idea at meetings discussing national security.
Trump and his ghouls are looking at Venezuela not because they see it as a threat, but because they want to, on paper at least, "provide aid."
As if occupying a country militarily helps the people in any way.
The unfortunate truth is that the US and the West want to turn the government there into a banana republic, a puppet for western domination. It's modern-day imperialism.
Creating a non-socialist, pro-America regime is something Trump would like to do, likely for access to the oil.
This is simply more proof that the neocons haven't gone away and they hold the ear of yet another Republican president.
Have we learned nothing? Not only would this invasion be illegal and unjustified, but it would also be another Vietnam. The US would be seen as an evil empire invading a country with an inferior military force.
The worst part about this is the reasons why the government of Venezuela is profoundly corrupt and many of the nation's citizens are living in complete poverty. Time to look in the mirror, America.