Yet another f---ing war
Words (obscenities included) cannot suffice
See updates through January 4, 2026, at end of post.
“Explosions, loud noises and low-flying aircraft have been heard in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, with the president of neighbouring Colombia claiming on social media that the country was under attack. . . . Eyewitnesses reported seeing smoke pouring from two key military installations in Caracas: the La Carlota military airfield at the heart of the city and the Fuerte Tiuna military base where Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, has long been thought to live.”[1]
Donald Trump, desperate to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files and from his declining health, clearly wants to prove his virility. There are no words strong enough to condemn this aggression.
I have been ashamed of the U.S. since the Vietnam War—I was a child then, and I remember refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance because I couldn’t see how “liberty and justice for all” applied when we were killing southeast Asian people.
I remember when we invaded Grenada—because the Cubans were helping build an international airport there.
I remember when we invaded Panama—because we wanted to arrest Manuel Noriega—as if Panama’s sovereignty was utterly irrelevant.
I remember, in the prelude to the Afghanistan War—George W. Bush had made clear it was coming—hearing on the radio that Bush had said something that made me think the missiles were already in the air (they weren’t). I was driving across the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco, screaming in my car, “No! No! No!” This was a misguided war from the outset that could only further antagonize Muslims. If, I thought, you wanted more Islamic terrorists, what better way? (And indeed, we might have all but vanquished Al Qaeda, but we failed to dislodge the Taliban and now we have the Islamic State across much of the eastern hemisphere.)
But don’t even get me started on the Iraq War, a war justified through outright lies, that made no sense whatsoever unless you were a neoconservative (this is one reason why I include many Democrats among neoconservatives).
I’ve already said many times what I think of our support for apartheid genocidal Zionist ethnic cleansing.
My disgust has been overwhelming already. And now we’re at war with Venezuela. Words cannot suffice.
Update, January 3, 2026: Donald Trump says U.S. forces have captured Nicolás Maduro. Pam Bondi says Maduro will face retributive ‘justice’ in the U.S.[2]
“It was not immediately clear what the legal and constitutional authority was for the military operation and the capture and trial of a sovereign head of state. Nor was it clear whether Trump consulted Congress beforehand; it is supposed to be notified by the presidency before any declaration of war.”[3] These are, of course, the same questions I had of the Panama operation. But we are governed by an aconstitutional broligarchy now.[4]
“‘We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,’ Trump said in a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort. ‘We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.’ He added that the U.S. would run Venezuela ‘with a group’ and would be ‘designating various people’ in charge — pointing to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan ‘Razin’ Caine behind him.”[5]
While working on my Ph.D., I noted that most war can be explained as part of a contest between ruling elites over which of them will govern which territories. That ‘transition’ will, of course, be to a Trump-friendly illegitimate ‘puppet’ regime. Venezuela will, for the foreseeable future, be a U.S. colony.
Update, January 4, 2025: Chris Geidner takes up the legality of Donald Trump’s invasion of Venezuela to abduct and arrest Nicolás Maduro at some length. It seems this is even more legally dubious than the operation in Panama, but there is no way under present law to challenge Trump’s action. He recommends legal—even constitutional—changes but asks, “Who are the leaders up to that task?”[6]
Certainly not the Democrats. In hindsight, it is clear that when Barack Obama said of George W. Bush’s war crimes that “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards,”[7] he wished to preserve a freedom to commit those very same crimes himself. And so we will continue to be a rogue country that routinely violates international and domestic law whenever it seems politically convenient.
In the present day, Democrats seem more concerned by the lack of Congressional authorization for the attack than the attack itself, which many of them actually applaud.[8]
To be clear, I oppose imperialism. I oppose Russian imperialism. I oppose Israeli imperialism. I oppose U.S. imperialism. I oppose imperialism no matter who the imperialist is. The Democrats are not, and never have been, an anti-imperialist party. And this is a major reason I cannot vote for them at the federal level.
Meanwhile, the puppet regime, initially at least, keeps Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who will now report to the Trump administration, in charge of the Chavismo governing apparatus.[9] It appears she will report most directly to Marco Rubio.[10] I guess we’ll see how that goes.
[1] Guardian, “Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas,” January 3, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/03/explosions-reported-venezuela-caracas
[2] Jones Hayden, “US captures Venezuela’s Maduro, flies him out of country,” Politico, January 3, 2026, https://www.politico.eu/article/us-strikes-venezuela-captures-maduro-trump-says/
[3] Tom Phillips, Patricia Torres, and William Christou, “US has captured Venezuela’s President Maduro and wife, says Trump,” Guardian, January 3, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/03/explosions-reported-venezuela-caracas
[4] David Benfell, “It’s an aconstitutional broligarchy now,” Not Housebroken, September 23, 2025, https://nothousebroken.substack.com/p/its-an-aconstitutional-broligarchy
[5] Ali Bianco and Eli Okun, “Trump takes Maduro — and takes over Venezuela,” Politico, January 3, 2026, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2026/01/03/trump-takes-maduro-and-takes-over-venezuela-00709658
[6] Chris Geidner, “A new, old type of lawlessness as Trump attacks Venezuela — and an opening for a better America,” Law Dork, January 3, 2026, https://www.lawdork.com/p/venezuela-maduro-trump-lawlessness-america
[7] David Johnston and Charlie Savage, “Obama Reluctant to Look Into Bush Programs,” New York Times, January 11, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/us/politics/12inquire.html
[8] Andrew Solender, “’It looks weak’: Dems fume at their party's response to Maduro capture,” Axios, January 4, 2026, https://www.axios.com/2026/01/04/maduro-venezuela-democrats-trump-congress
[9] Rory Carroll, “Delcy Rodríguez strikes defiant tone but must walk tightrope as Venezuela’s interim leader,” Guardian, January 4, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/04/delcy-rodriguez-tightrope-venezuela-interim-leader
[10] John Hudson and Adam Taylor, “Rubio takes on most challenging role yet: Viceroy of Venezuela,” Washington Post, January 4, 2026, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/01/04/rubio-venezuela-maduro/