Recently President Donald Trump ordered the military to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicholàs Maduro and his wife Cilia Florez. The President also reported that the U.S. military had conducted bombing raids on Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
He then announced that the United States government would "run" Venezuela apparently under the command of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Peter Hegseth. Apparently President Trump believes that Rubio and Hegseth would do a better job of running Venezuela than an elected Venezuelan government. This press conference was held at Trump's estate known as Mar-a-Lago. Then Trump might have engaged in perhaps his top priority. That is his tee-off time for a golf game.
The news media ran this story with banner headlines. However, when we look at the history of this country, Trump's actions reflect a long and disastrous series of military engagements. This blog will look at that history and show how the military has, for the most part, been used for the sole purpose of enriching the most affluent people in this country.
The revolution of the thirteen colonies
Today the President argues that his criminal kidnapping of President Maduro will benefit the people of Venezuela. Apparently Trump feels that this will happen by giving billions of dollars of Venezuelan money to the U.S. oil companies.
He might recall that the United States became a nation because of a revolutionary war for independence. During that war there were many British supporters known as "tories" who opposed the revolution. After the revolution many of those tories moved to Canada.
The new United States government responded by confiscating the land that was owned by the tories who no longer lived here. If we look at the value of that land, with interest compounded over a period of 250 years that price tag would be the equivalent of the value of several of the largest cities in this country.
The Haitian Revolution
A revolution erupted in Haiti after the revolution of the thirteen colonies. Haitian slaves were the backbone of the armed forces that decisively defeated armies from Spain, Britain, and France.
We might consider that when Toussaint Louverture came to a meeting the negotiate peace, the French armed forces kidnapped him. Since the French armed forces under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte weren't interested in peace, the armed forces of former Haitian slaves gave them another outcome. Under the command of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the entire French armed force was destroyed.
That defeat also destroyed the French economy. As a result, Napoleon sold the French Louisiana Territory to the United States. So, today when we look at that former Louisiana Territory, we are looking at land purchased because of a revolution for independence and an abolition of slavery.
Two world wars
Today we live under a political economic system of capitalism. When we look at the long history of this system, we see that its core has always been international in character. We also see that this system needs to continually grow and sell more and more commodities.
A central leader of the Russian Revolution was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Lenin argued that "Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism." So here we see a fundamental contradiction of capitalism. As the system grows continually, this growth isn't shared by everyone. No, nations compete with each other to determine what capitalist nation will dominate the world.
Before the First World War, Britain was the world's superpower. Then their international influence deteriorated. As a result, there were two world wars that cost the lives of about 80 million people.
Even before the end of World War II, the United States convened a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. There U.S. representatives declared that the United States was the new world superpower. After that meeting the U.S. Air Force dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was a clear signal of what would happen to nations that didn't go along with U.S. world domination.
Korea
The Korean people didn't go along with this new state of affairs. They had the temerity of demanding their own government. The U.S. government didn't agree with this and installed Syngman Rhee, who had been educated in the United States while the Korean people were resisting Japanese domination.
General Douglas MacArthur didn't think the Koreans would offer much resistance to the U.S. armed forces. Then a combined force of Chinese and Korean soldiers captured an entire brigade of the United States invading army. President Truman then fired General MacArthur.
Then the U.S. Air Force conducted intense bombing raids against North Korea that destroyed most buildings and led to the murder of millions. To this day, the United States hasn't signed a peace agreement with Korea. Apparently the reason for this is because the U.S. government doesn't want to admit that their armed forces were decisively defeated by Chinese and Korean soldiers who defended Korea from a U.S. invasion.
Vietnam
The Vietnamese people didn't want to be dominated by a puppet regime controlled by the United States. Even U.S. President Eisenhower acknowledged that if there was a vote in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, the national leader of Vietnam, would have won 90%. That wasn't acceptable to the U.S. government.
So, President Lyndon Bains Johnson decided to end his Great Society program aimed at eliminating poverty here. Instead he mobilized hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers and ordered a bombing campaign he called Rolling Thunder.
The anti-war movement mushroomed in this country. Johnson became President because of a landslide election victory. However, after people began to see the effects of the war against Vietnam, many changed their attitude about President Johnson. Some people greeted him with the slogan "Hey, hey LBJ. How many babies did you kill today?" Faced with that environment Lyndon Johnson chose not to run for reelection.
President Nixon attempted to be just like Johnson. He ordered the bombing campaigns that he called Linebacker I and Linebacker II. Then Nixon was effectively forced out of office rather than face impeachment proceedings.
Cuba
Fulgensio Batista was one of many ruthless dictators in the world who had the full support of the United States government. On January 1, 1959, a popular revolution forced Batista out of the country. The new revolutionary government headed by Fidel Castro immediately initiated a literacy program. Within a few years nearly every Cuban had the ability to read. Today, Cuba might have more doctors per capita than any other nation in the world.
The United States government clearly didn't like these initiatives. They organized an invasion of the island at the Bay of Pigs or Playa Girón. That invasion was quickly defeated. The U.S. government continued to advocate for the overthrow of the new Cuban revolutionary government. So, the Presidential Administration of John F. Kennedy threatened the world with nuclear annihilation. This was to prevent Cuba from having some of the same armaments as the United States.
However, today the Cuban government continues to hold power. I was in Havana on May 1 in 2017 and 2019 and witnessed the Cuban celebration of May Day. There I saw over one-million Cubans enthusiastically supporting their government.
Jim Crow and America on Fire
Before the early 1960s, the United States government denied Black people citizenship rights because of Jim Crow segregation. Then masses of people mobilized in Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham, Alabama and in many other states. These demonstrators were met with fire hoses, attack dogs, and prison sentences. Yet they persevered and the government did away with the Jim Crow laws.
Then in hundreds of cities across the country Black communities erupted in rebellions protesting institutionalized racist discrimination and routine police brutality. Elizabeth Hinton documented this in her important book America on Fire. The government responded by offering some educational and employment opportunities to Black people. However, institutionalized discrimination continues to this day.
Palestine
Over the past two years the world has witnessed the unimaginable mass murder, mutilation, and starvation of the Palestinian people. These atrocities are merely a continuation of the 76 year old Israeli policy to make Israel and exclusively Jewish nation.
These atrocities have made Israel a pariah nation in the world. Israeli citizens today have no idea of what the future will bring. Many view the status quo as unsustainable. These horrors have been made possible by massive financial and military support from the United States.
Iraq and Afghanistan
Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth argues that the current military engagements by the United States will not end as they did in Iraq. According to Hegseth, the military was held back in Iraq. Had they been allowed to have unrestricted use of military force, he believes the United States might have been successful. The war in Iraq only created an environment of instability in the area.
Before the war against Afghanistan the Taliban was the ruling power. After the longest war in U.S. history, the United States armed forces withdrew from Afghanistan. As a result, the Taliban gained political power again.
Conclusion
So, when we look at this long history, there are a few obvious conclusions. People throughout the world have been fighting for independence for a long time. The United States government hasn't learned anything from this long history. Democratic and Republican politicians have been agreed that it is more important to murder people in other countries, rather than improve the standard of living here. They are in fundamental agreement with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who argued that, "There is no other way."
However, just because the government hasn't learned anything from history, this doesn't mean working people haven't learned anything.
We have no interest in murdering our sisters and brothers in other countries. We might think of how the U.S. government wasn't able to engage in war for an entire decade because of their decisive defeat in their war against Vietnam.
It is in that spirit that we demand, Hands Off Venezuela Now!!!
