Just when you thought it was fitting and proper to actually feel, you know, sympathy with the Obama White House, which is actually trying to negotiate with the Iranians rather than, you know, crush the evil out of them, as both Republicans and Democrats demand, well, this comes along: The White House is cracking down, hard, on seven—count ‘em, seven!—evil Venezuelans!
“Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of U.S. financial systems,” the White House has announced. “We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government’s efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela’s problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent.”
The White House is justifying these sanctions against the unholy seven on the grounds that they present a “national security threat” (to the U.S., not Venezuela), a charge so ludicrous as to defy belief. The Obama Administration has, deservedly, received credit for reversing our dead-end “Castro is Evil” policy that, for forty years, had essentially zero impact on the way the unfortunate citizens of that socialist utopia led their lives. Now, for reasons that are totally obscure to me, and to others, we seem to be set to play the same game with the self-destructing “revolutionary” regime set in motion by the late Hugo Chavez and now stumbling towards oblivion under the hapless Nicolás Maduro.
Afterwords
Sanctions, for liberals, are the moral, or, rather, the political equivalent of war, a way to prove that they are just as “tough” as conservatives. But sanctions almost never accomplish their ostensible goals—for some reason, the leaders of other nations are reluctant to let their political agenda be set by foreigners. And, when they fail, as they almost always do, they provide a perfect argument for the continuing agenda of the American right, regime change. “If they’re as awful as you say they are, isn’t it about time we did something about it?” This worked flawlessly in Iraq, and conservatives are trying very hard to make it work in Iran as well. So why is Obama setting the stage for an invasion of Venezuela? Because it’s more convenient than Afghanistan?
