Mick Hartley

Patrick Porter, at The Critic, on Venezuela. Yes, for those who say that China will now have an excuse to invade Taiwan if the US is tearing up the international order – that horse has already bolted. Russia and China haven’t been notably concerned about UN approval.

Really? Where have these concerned folk been? Well before Trump’s kidnapping move, Russia attacked Ukraine, bit off Crimea, tried to murder its president Volodymyr Zelensky, indiscriminately bombed the Syrian rebel opposition and anything in their vicinity, and carried out wet jobs on dissidents and journalists abroad. China oversaw systematic oppression in Xinjiang province, seized disputed territories in the South and East China Seas, and snuffed out democracy in Hong Kong in the dead of night. They demonstrably did not need Trumpian precedents for their barbarism. 

On the other hand:

A certain kind of observer, always attracted to power and its swagger, will applaud the boldness and virtuosity of the Venezuela operation. No doubt if and when the initial triumph turns dark, and becomes a messier, costlier embroilment, they will discover that Trump didn’t send in enough troops, or some other purported tactical blunder. 

This latest episode also matters because it reveals that the Trump administration’s rhetorical signals and overt preparations for land grabs and asset stripping can be deadly serious. Canada is not exempt. Europe is not exempt. Greenland is not exempt. It would be foolish to suppose otherwise, or that somehow those on our side of the Euro-Atlantic are historically immune from the predation of a superpower that is unembarrassed to take what it can. We are on notice. And so, we should begin our response with the world as it is, not the morality play some would like it to be.

At the moment, with the installation of Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodríguez as temporary president, it looks like Trump has little interest in helping to build a post-Chavez/Maduro democracy, and more interest in getting that oil flowing. But it’s early days.

Potentially the situation should be a great deal easier than Iraq, say, with no Iran next door to interfere, and no history of internecine strife between religious and tribal factions. The people, generally but apprehensively, seem pleased to see the back of Maduro. But there’s a whole narco gangster world there that needs to be dealt with, and there’s no indication that Trump has any inclination to get to grips with the responsibility he’s taken on.