Regime Change and Nation-Building Are Back!

By Ron Paul

​As was the case the morning after “Shock and Awe” signaled the start of the Iraq war, many are cheering the US military raid on Venezuela and capture of its president, Nicolas Maduro. Overwhelming US military power – and likely some bribed Venezuelan officials – ensured that the operation was swift and dramatic.

This was not a war, we were told. It was just a surgical operation to remove a criminal dictator and restore democracy to the country. American oil companies would soon get even richer exploiting the country’s vast oil reserves. This time it will be different!

If all of this sounds familiar that’s because it is the same narrative used each time the US has launched a “regime change” operation this century.

The Iraq war would be a “cake walk,” they swore. Skeptics were ridiculed. The staged demolition of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad marked the triumph of that short US military operation.

The “liberation” of Iraq was to be the first domino in the coming revolution throughout the Middle East, we were promised. Just weeks into the operation, then-President George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier with a huge “Mission Accomplished” banner behind him.

Then everything fell apart. The US could not “run” Iraq. It could only use brutal force – and torture – to give the impression that we would soon turn the corner. Victory was at hand. Just send more troops and spend a little more money.

But none of it did the trick. None of it worked.

In the end, the US sunk trillions into the failed “nation-building” operation in Iraq and upwards of a million people died including thousands of US troops.

And here we go again.

Despite being elected on promises of “no new wars” and “no nation-building,” President Trump used military force against Venezuela, kidnapped the country’s president, and declared that “we” would be running the country from now on.

After the operation in Venezuela, President Trump took a “Mission Accomplished” victory lap of his own in a press conference where he declared that US oil companies would return to Venezuela under US protection and that we would “run” Venezuela for the time being.

“The oil companies are going to spend money… we are going to get reimbursed,” he said.

But there’s more to come.

President Trump’s Venezuela raid and kidnapping occurred just as Israeli prime minister Netanyahu was departing the country. According to press reports, Netanyahu was in town to persuade President Trump to send the US military back into Iran. Israeli officials have openly stated that the US operation in Venezuela is the warm-up for the next round of US “regime change” – in Iran.

Warmongering US Senator Lindsey Graham has taken to the television news programs to urge President Trump to continue on to Cuba and then Iran. President Trump seemed to agree, stating that, “we have to do it again. We can do it again, too. Nobody can stop us.”

Venezuela was just another neocon operation. First comes propaganda demonizing the country and its leadership. Then comes saber-rattling and threats of war. The operation is launched and the “objectives” are quickly reached. Or so they claim. But then it all falls apart. We become poorer as the special interests get richer. And those we claim to be liberating suffer worse than under the previous regime.

Will we ever learn?