Trump Invaded Venezuela Without Congress: Iraq, But Faster
Bush spent 20 years and trillions pretending constitutional approval mattered. Trump skipped Congress entirely and captured Maduro in 30 minutes.
Eight million people fled Venezuela because one man wouldn’t leave power.
Now another man decided the solution is bombs.
This morning, Trump ordered what he called a large scale strike against Venezuela. U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from Caracas. Carriers, warships, thousands of troops. Under 30 minutes. One helicopter hit.
They’re both on a Navy ship headed to face narco-terrorism charges in America.
The justification? Destroying narco-terrorists.
Venezuela doesn’t produce fentanyl. Its cocaine mostly goes to Europe. But the administration claims immediate threat to skip Congress entirely.
No approval. No debate. No vote.
The same president pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández in December. A former Honduran president convicted of running a drug operation.
Before today, the Navy was attacking small boats suspected of smuggling. Blowing them up on suspicion. Killing people who never got trials.
In one attack, they fired a second strike forty minutes later. Two sailors clinging to wreckage. Killed them anyway.
The thing that separates war from murder is the law.
The Constitution says Congress declares war. Even Bush got authorization for Iraq. Trump didn’t bother.
Some Republicans already oppose this. Rand Paul. Lisa Murkowski. Trump seems to know a debate would expose how weak his case is.
His December National Security Strategy called this the Trump Corollary. Promised to restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere. Use lethal force. Dominate the region.
Venezuela’s the test case.
Maduro’s a dictator. The UN documented killings, torture, sexual violence. He stole the 2024 election. Nearly eight million people fled because of him.
But this risks making everything worse.
Afghanistan. Libya. Iraq.
The optimistic comparison is Panama in 1989. Bush removed Noriega, Panama democratized. But Panama’s smaller. Americans operated there for decades. Not the same.
Venezuela’s generals won’t vanish because Maduro was grabbed. The paramilitary groups called colectivos remain. María Corina Machado won the Nobel Prize last month, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be handed power smoothly.
More unrest could destabilize energy markets. Drive more migrants. The crisis this supposedly solves could explode.
Trump campaigned saying he wouldn’t start wars. He’d stop them.
Today proved otherwise.
No international legitimacy. No legal authority. Just gave authoritarians in China and Russia justification to do the same to their neighbors.
People were killed without trials. A country invaded without Congress knowing.
Eight million Venezuelan refugees are watching. Wondering if the place they fled will ever be safe again.
Or if it just became another American mess without an exit plan.
What are your thoughts on this matter?