How should west respond to potential (likely) U.S. invasion of Venezuela?

[thebeave]

Came across this video this morning on how the raid all went down.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Social media recon:

As the world transitioned from welcoming the new year to the first weekend of 2026, some social media users noted a sudden spike in pizza sales around the Pentagon in the early hours of Saturday morning, which was interpreted in informal online circles as a sign of imminent US action somewhere in the world.

 

[SLD]

Holy crap!!!

Rubio says US not at war with Venezuela, as Maduro set to appear in New York court on Monday

The secretary of state says the US will retain "multiple levers of leverage" if Venezuela's leaders don't "make the right decisions".

www.bbc.com

I see your “Holy crap!!!” and raise you a Jesus H Christ!

I think you meant Jesus F Christ. There is no way this will have a happy ending. The no wars president seems to enjoy starting wars. But, what can we expect from a demented maniac!

Bush sent 24,000 troops to Panama to grab Noriega, who was prosecuted for the same things. I guess numb nuts gets credit for being more surgical.

But if he moves to take over the oil supply, most of which goes to China, that’s when it will get interesting.

Will this action encourage China to seize Taiwan? As a Quid Pro Quid?

Yeah. Duh. Exactly what serious commentators are saying.

That's apples and oranges. The U.S. will come to Taiwan's aid, and China knows that. Nobody but nobody was going to come to Maduro's aid and there was zero potential for it to start what could likely be WW3 that would end in nuclear war.

Trump Has Started Carving Up the World. Now It’s Putin and Xi’s Turn.

Fiona Hill warned in 2019 of a “strange swap agreement” involving Venezuela and Ukraine. Seven years later, here we are.

newrepublic.com

So back in 2019, Putin apparently made an offer to Trump to basically trade Ukraine for Venezuela. Fiona Hill testified to it in 2019 in Congress. This is what we are seeing playing out. Putin now has his green light to conquer Ukraine while Trump will abandon Ukraine. But the implication is clear for Taiwan - it’s a green light for China as well.

This act has also sent a chilling message to the world that the United States is beginning the process of carving up the world into spheres of influence run by dictatorships (namely the U.S., Russia, and China). Russia was Venezuela’s benefactor and ally but has been strangely quiet. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Fiona Hill testified to Congress in 2019 that Russia was “signaling very strongly that they wanted to somehow make some very strange swap agreement between Venezuela and Ukraine.” In other words, the U.S. could have Venezuela if we let Russia have Ukraine. This strongly suggests that the price for letting the U.S. go after Venezuela without any protest was, and will be, Ukraine. It also suggests that Tawain may already be on the table as a bargaining chip with China, in order to secure its acquiescence to further U.S. regional hegemony in the Americas.

Trump will abandon Taiwan to its fate. The price to our long term security is almost incalculable. The failure to preserve the international order we developed after the 2nd world war, will result in the long term downfall of the U.S. as a world power. We are committing national suicide. It won’t happen overnight. We won’t recognize it even as it is happening. It may take decades. But ultimately it means the loss of the dollar as a reserve currency and this will put immense budgetary pressures on the United States. Things we take for granted like social security and Medicare will be unsustainable. So will our defense budget. At that point we will have to utterly reorganize our society.

Maybe we can reverse this inevitable slide, but I’m skeptical that the U.S. has the will to do so. People are cheering this event as a vindication of American power. It is anything but.

 

[ZiprHead]

How the fuck can anyone with a functioning moral compass have any problem with Trump toppling Maduro?

By noting that he had neither the authority nor the right to do so.

The extreme suffering of the Venezuelan people isn't enough?

Wtf is wrong with you?

WTF is wrong with your country that you didn't do it? Fix your own house first.

As I recall, a few years ago on this forum you said one of your relatives (?) was looking for help in escaping Venezuela. Just out of curiousity, have you heard her reaction to this?

No. Distant relative by marriage.

Her father is Italian but living in Venezuela. His business was destroyed by government policies. He didn't need to "escape". He just needed money to get back to Italy.

 

[ZiprHead]

Social media recon:

As the world transitioned from welcoming the new year to the first weekend of 2026, some social media users noted a sudden spike in pizza sales around the Pentagon in the early hours of Saturday morning, which was interpreted in informal online circles as a sign of imminent US action somewhere in the world.

Pizzagate returns.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

How the fuck can anyone with a functioning moral compass NOT have a problem with Dictator Trump illegally toppling Dictator Maduro?

FIFY

 

[Elixir]

How the fuck can anyone with a functioning moral compass have any problem with Trump toppling Maduro?

How the fuck can anyone with two neurons and a spirochette to tie them together, think that installing The Felon to "run the country" is an improvement over ANYTHING?

 

[unapologetic]

There's no need for the US to invade. They just showed whoever the next President will be that if he/she doesn't do what Trump wants they can easily be disappeared.

Rump's art of the deal.

How the fuck can anyone with a functioning moral compass have any problem with Trump toppling Maduro?

How can anyone with a functioning moral compass be OK with RUMP doing it?

I can't imagine a scenario where USA manages to fuck it up.

I can't imagine the how, But I am sure we WILL fuck it up.

He's also unashamedly a greedy patriot who only sees to USA's immediate economic benefit.

No, he can only see the economic benefit to himself and his rich buddys in anything. He just THINKS him and his rich buddys are the US.

I dislike governments terrorising their own people. I think the rest of humanity (ie liberal democracies) have a duty to help them.

So you are suggesting the same should happen to the US.

The world's policeman just beat the crap out of a suspect. That should scare anyone who cares about justice, even if the suspect is guilty of heinous crimes.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

The U.S. would come to Taiwan's aid. There's no question about it. It's not a question worth taking seriously. There's also zero evidence that Trump traded Venezuela for Ukraine. Venezuela is in our sphere of influence, which is far, far away from Russian interests. Meanwhile, NATO, along with U.S. support, will continue to aid in Russia's pathetic military failure in Ukraine.

Stop with the paranoia, hyperbole, and wild speculation. It's a waste of bandwidth.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

link

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that President Trump always has options around what comes next in Venezuela, after the U.S. carried out airstrikes and captured the country's president, Nicolás Maduro.

Asked to clarify that there is no plan for U.S. occupation of Venezuela, Rubio said "the president always retains optionality on anything and on all of these matters."

"He certainly has the ability and the right under the Constitution of the United States to act against imminent and urgent threats against the country," Rubio said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."

Jebus!

We can not overstress just how bad that is. SoS Rubio is saying President Trump can effectively do anything, because he is President.... as long as they say it is a threat against the US. Occupying Venezuela? Sure... it is an option. And atually, no it isn't, you need a military to occupy a territory.

Venezuela was not remotely a threat to the United States. But the US has removed Maduro from power and have apparently no bloody clue what is replacing Maduro. But the Trump Admin will make these decisions as Trump indicated that the Nobel Peace Prize winner didn't have enough support to run Venezuela.

This US had gone decades without pulling nefarious shit in South America. Trump, ended that streak.

President Donald Trump threatened Delcy Rodríguez, the Venezuelan vice president, considered the new interim leader, saying in an interview with the Atlantic that “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than [Nicolás] Maduro.”

His comment marked a resounding shift from his stance on Saturday, when he said during a news conference that Rodríguez appeared willing to work with the United States in the wake of Maduro’s removal.

link
Trump is making the Neocon plan for Iraq post Hussein look dramatically well organized and competent, despite having a much easier set of circumstances in Venezuela to deal with. Trump broke something, and he is wondering whether to bash it some more.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The U.S. would come to Taiwan's aid. There's no question about it. It's not a question worth taking seriously. There's also zero evidence that Trump traded Venezuela for Ukraine. Venezuela is in our sphere of influence, which is far, far away from Russian interests. Meanwhile, NATO, along with U.S. support, will continue to aid in Russia's pathetic military failure in Ukraine.

Stop with the paranoia, hyperbole, and wild speculation. It's a waste of bandwidth.

Dude, you aren't reading between the lines. This Venezuela action crossed a line... well several of them. It is too early to tell just how bad this is, but it appears to be pretty bad. It is apparently clear the Trump Admin threw Maduro out of Venezuela without a fucking plan on who or what would replace him. At least the Neocons had that fraud Chalabi in mind. There is no plan for Venezuela, this appears to have just happened on a relative whim.

 

[Derec]

It is apparently clear the Trump Admin threw Maduro out of Venezuela without a fucking plan on who or what would replace him.

No kidding. Trump has zero follow-through. We saw it when he killed Soleimani too. Bold action, followed by nothing.

The new president of Venezuela:
Venezuela’s VP says capture of Maduro has a ‘Zionist tint’
New boss, same as old boss. Maybe the commandos can render her too.

 

[crazyfingers]

No credible legal justification and no plan. Sound like Trump.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

The U.S. would come to Taiwan's aid. There's no question about it. It's not a question worth taking seriously. There's also zero evidence that Trump traded Venezuela for Ukraine. Venezuela is in our sphere of influence, which is far, far away from Russian interests. Meanwhile, NATO, along with U.S. support, will continue to aid in Russia's pathetic military failure in Ukraine.

Stop with the paranoia, hyperbole, and wild speculation. It's a waste of bandwidth.

Dude, you aren't reading between the lines. This Venezuela action crossed a line... well several of them. It is too early to tell just how bad this is, but it appears to be pretty bad. It is apparently clear the Trump Admin threw Maduro out of Venezuela without a fucking plan on who or what would replace him. At least the Neocons had that fraud Chalabi in mind. There is no plan for Venezuela, this appears to have just happened on a relative whim.

I said myself that there doesn't appear to be a plan in place.

You quoted a post of mine that had nothing to do with that. In the above-quoted post, I addressed the unfounded hysteria about potential outcomes in other situations.

 

[SLD]

The U.S. would come to Taiwan's aid. There's no question about it. It's not a question worth taking seriously. There's also zero evidence that Trump traded Venezuela for Ukraine. Venezuela is in our sphere of influence, which is far, far away from Russian interests. Meanwhile, NATO, along with U.S. support, will continue to aid in Russia's pathetic military failure in Ukraine.

Stop with the paranoia, hyperbole, and wild speculation. It's a waste of bandwidth.

There is indeed a serious question about it. And I am far from the only one saying that. In contrast to Biden, Trump has refused to say he will.

Trump Is Making Taiwan More Vulnerable

While Taiwan has largely stayed out of the spotlight, Trump’s actions have already made it more vulnerable.

www.cfr.org

Trump’s US can still defend Taiwan. But will it? | The Strategist

As US President Donald Trump’s second term unfolds, Taiwan finds itself manoeuvring with a familiar but less predictable security partner. The United States remains, by capability and necessity, Taiwan’s primary security guarantor, offering arms sales, ...

www.aspistrategist.org.au

As for whether Trump traded Ukraine for Venezuela I provided the evidence in my link. Putin made the offer at least and Trump’s actions in Ukraine have been abominable. We may find out soon enough if Trump forces further Ukrainian concessions or out and out abandons them.

 

[scombrid]

No credible legal justification and no plan. Sound like Trump.

The GOP apologists insist that it was super duper justified and the Venezuelans all over the world are rejoicing. Even the ones the GOP shipped to the gulag in El Salvador.

 

[scombrid]

Any of the GOP apologists able to explain the purpose of the false drug war pretense?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The U.S. would come to Taiwan's aid. There's no question about it. It's not a question worth taking seriously. There's also zero evidence that Trump traded Venezuela for Ukraine. Venezuela is in our sphere of influence, which is far, far away from Russian interests. Meanwhile, NATO, along with U.S. support, will continue to aid in Russia's pathetic military failure in Ukraine.

Stop with the paranoia, hyperbole, and wild speculation. It's a waste of bandwidth.

Dude, you aren't reading between the lines. This Venezuela action crossed a line... well several of them. It is too early to tell just how bad this is, but it appears to be pretty bad. It is apparently clear the Trump Admin threw Maduro out of Venezuela without a fucking plan on who or what would replace him. At least the Neocons had that fraud Chalabi in mind. There is no plan for Venezuela, this appears to have just happened on a relative whim.

I said myself that there doesn't appear to be a plan in place.

You quoted a post of mine that had nothing to do with that. In the above-quoted post, I addressed the unfounded hysteria about potential outcomes in other situations.

True, I'd say I didn't finish my thoughts well.

This action and the language coming out of Rubio is indicative of a massive shift in US governance on a global scale. While I wouldn't immediately say Taiwan is doomed, I would say Trump has possibly enacted a brazenly radical Monroe Doctrine. If it is in the Western Hemisphere, it can be ours.

Rubio notes the oil in Venezuela is in "quarantine". That is a remarkably strong statement to make. Especially when the US presumably lacks any military capacity to control the oil at the source.

I'm also curious what the oil companies are thinking as well.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It is apparently clear the Trump Admin threw Maduro out of Venezuela without a fucking plan on who or what would replace him.

No kidding. Trump has zero follow-through. We saw it when he killed Soleimani too. Bold action, followed by nothing.

The new president of Venezuela:
Venezuela’s VP says capture of Maduro has a ‘Zionist tint’
New boss, same as old boss. Maybe the commandos can render her too.

I'm more curious how anyone thought Maduro's VP was remotely viable for a transition role to... wait has anyone said anything about democracy yet in Venezuela in the Trump Admin?

 

[Shadowy Man]

I'm more curious how anyone thought Maduro's VP was remotely viable for a transition role to... wait has anyone said anything about democracy yet in Venezuela in the Trump Admin?

We are supposed to believe Trump cares about democracy??