Over at the American Conservative, Barbara Boland fills us in on the sad news with her article Senate Hearing Farce: Venezuela Is A ‘Clear And Present Danger’. Yes, bipartisan ninnies agree, Venezuela, one of the saddest, weakest countries in the world, a country seemingly bent on starving itself to death, will bring down the mighty USA unless we act now!
It was never more evident that both the Republican and Democratic parties have the same policy on Venezuela then during Tuesday’s Senate hearing on “Venezuela’s Security and Humanitarian Issues.” The Senate Foreign Relations Committee had a rare opportunity to ask important questions of the man responsible for Venezuela policy, special envoy Elliott Abrams, also known as the “neocon zombie” by officials at the State Department.
Instead, they squandered the chance to question why the U.S. is busy involving themselves in the politics of Venezuela when it’s under the throes of the coronavirus pandemic at home, and instead asked Abrams how the US could better counter the creeping influence of “malign powers” that trade with Venezuela like Russia, China, and Turkey.
As Boland points out, there are some “interesting” issues to explore regarding US policy vis-à-vis Venezuela, for example, the fact that last May, Jordan Goudreau, an American citizen, former Green beret, and three-time Bronze Star recipient for bravery in Iraq and Afghanistan, helped launch a failed invasion of that country. Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) sent letters to the State department requesting information on US involvement at the time. They haven’t received any answers, but, at the hearing, didn’t bother to follow up. Instead, according to Boland, they mostly harassed Abrams, who never met a country he didn’t want to invade, for not being tough enough on the beleaguered nation. According to Boland, it was Abrams who was the softie, pointing out to Mitt Romney, the fair-haired boy of the anti-Trumpers,1 that his proposed blockade of Venezuela would be an act of war, and “we have chosen not to do that.”
Even Rand Paul, Boland said, who has opposed US adventurism in the past, made no real effort to put Abrams on the spot, instead taking the opportunity to let everyone know that he is most definitely opposed to socialism. It’s bad! It’s definitely bad!
And so it is, disastrously so, but so is the constant US policy of oppressive economic sanctions on every country that fails to obey our will, sanctions that, over and over again, in Iraq, in Iran, in Cuba, have failed to work, inflicting suffering on the weak in the countries being “punished” while providing emotional satisfaction, and votes, to the proud moralists on Capitol Hill.
For that is the crux of the matter. The American electorate is still very largely happy with any “tough” foreign policy that doesn’t result in Americans being shipped home in body bags. Republicans are happy to defy Donald Trump when he tries to cozy up to his pal Vladimir—“He lets me call him Vladimir! Well, if I’m good.”—while kowtowing to him on virtually everything else. The prospects for avoiding an entirely avoidable Cold War with China—the Pentagon’s wet dream of wet dreams—are painfully slim.
1. I confess that Mitt Romney’s defiance of Trump is impressive. One can only wish he had been this wise in 2012, when he fervently embraced the Donald, then in full birther mode. Yes, a number of conservatives have grown up in the past four years. It’s too bad that it took Donald Trump to deliver the wake-up call. How Fred Hiatt, Jennifer Rubin, Max Boot, and all the others, whom I now often quote with approval and even admiration, pounded on that damn sissy Barack Obama for eight long years! And how they must miss him now! A president capable of embarrassment! How rare! How rare indeed!
