I not eager to get bogged down overseas again, but it is hard to ignore people starving due to prideful despots.
He-who-shall-not-be-named deserves credit for recognizing that duly elected rep, and for opposing Russian attempts to prop the other guy up.
Pretty sure this one would be over quickly. Maduro would high tail it to Havana as soon as the first US planes flew over Caracas. He had to be talked into staying by Putin last week, if the reports I’m hearing are true, and I believe they are. Venezolanos are sick and tired of the Chavez/Maduro fiasco and have long been ready to restore Venezuela to its rightful place as a first world country... It’s a damn shame what applied socialism has done to that country...
If it is "applied socialism," why is there a ruling military class and a despot? They may have come to power through socialist policies and rhetoric, but the current state isn't "socialism" in the sense of the term as applied to the UK, France, Scandinavian countries, Canada, or the American far left. It's more akin to Castro's Cuba and Stalinist Russia.
Well, they'd be starving a lot less if we hadn't gone with the "accelerate the collapse" strategy w/sanctions. But of course it's much easier to justify military intervention this way, and in the end the US is getting impatient waiting for the government to collapse so we can get our hands on that sweet, sweet oil
This has nothing to do with oil, more about having one less cozy Russian state in close proximity to the US. But I don't care to see a US military intervention. Turn the economic and political screws all you want though.
Actually it’s not sweet. That’s why we want it. It’s heavy sour. The regime is close to collapse and I’m all for it. It’s horrible what Maduro and the military have created. So much potential just destroyed by corruption and incompetence.
Wherever socialism (by your definition or mine) has been the state policy it’s been a complete fiasco at worst, and only moderately successful at its best. In lower population countries with a fairly homogeneous citizen profile (read: Scandinavia, or, minus the low population...China) it can work ok enough, provided the top tier income earners are OK with having the large majority of their income taken away. I get it that you seem to be friendly to the idea of that sort of thing but if enough others are against it, trying to implement socialism in countries that have not traditionally been amenable to it is a disaster waiting to happen.
I've seen the Scandinavian countries ask us, United States Socialists, to stop using them as examples of socialism working. They're not socialists.
The raiding of PDVSA to fuel broader and broader socialist programs sank them. They could afford it for a while but incompetence led to no planning and oil prices tanked. Corruption ensued and spending to hold onto power by creating a military ruling class and accelerated the spiral. Socialism absolutely enabled the collapse by incompetently spending and not planning for rainy days. They could have waited it out but Chavez and Maduro weren’t willing to risk losing his grip and spent Venezuela into destruction.
