Resource grabs
Re: "Maduro caught by 'elite troops'", (BP, Jan 4).
If it wasn't clear before, the United States has just demonstrated it possesses the capacity to strike down any country that isn't a peer military adversary, all while sustaining minimal losses.
Like Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, Moammar Gadhafi, Fidel Castro, and Patrice Lumumba -- among other sovereign country leaders -- Maduro believed he was adequately protected at home. He could not be more wrong.
This armed invasion of a sovereign nation reveals the United States' true objective -- Venezuela's oil. The DEA's 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment, easily found on the agency's site, does not even name Venezuela as a credible threat.
Claims stated by President Trump about oil beneath the ground in Venezuela being "stolen" from the United States further undermine any remaining doubt that the drug cartel danger was a pretext. Such rhetoric marks a stark imperial intent not seen publicly since the old "civilising mission" language of the Europeans in the 1840s.
Over the past few decades, the United States has twisted agreements and used pretences to extract the wealth of several oil-producing nations, such as Iraq and Syria, wielding its immense military power. It has sent bombers to Iran while in discussion about a peace plan.
Although not legally binding under international law, what would prevent the United States from arguing that Thailand has made a moral commitment and that the United States has rights to Thailand's rare earths in the recent, frankly unthinkable MoU signed by the prime minister, and then blockading the Gulf of Thailand?
