Venezuela implemented a bunch of utterly catastrophic and self destructive economic policies. Among these was the rational sounding policy of capturing Venezuela’s vast oil wealth which was going abroad, and applying it to the purposes of Venezuelan government.
This resulted in the US issuing a bunch of economic sanctions, similar to those applied to Russia, but vastly less extreme. The damage done by those sanctions was probably insignificant compared to the damage Venezuela did to itself......
The obvious solution is to the US to concede to the Russian 2022 ultimatum.
“Measures to Ensure the Security of the Russian Federation and Member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization” – addressed to NATO.
A separate bilateral proposal to the United States on “Security Guarantees.”
America’s rejection of this ultimatum led to disastrous Ukraine war, and is now threatening to lead to a similarly disastrous Venezuelan war.
The substance of the ultimatum is “How about us nuclear powers agree to stop this stuff” Seems like a good idea. At the time in was only the US doing this stuff, so the proposed treaty seemed one sided, a US capitulation, but Russia is now demonstrating that two can play at this game, a game likely lead to nuclear war.
I predict that Trump will bluster, but then blink. US forces will not enter Venezuela. But blinking looks weak, is weak, and when Kiev collapses, going to look even weaker. Better to cut something like the 2022 deal.
Wildly escalating welfare rolls and wildly escalating deficits has made the west economically weak. The war on males, masculinity, marriage, and family has made the west militarily weak. It is time to cut our clothes to match our cloth.
We need to remedy the problem of a huge number of voters imported live on crime, welfare, government jobs and quasi governmental jobs, and we need to restore order in the collapsing megalopoli. We need to restore masculinity and marriage 1.0. But even if we do these things, the west will remain weak for decades, and must assume an international posture that matches its much diminished capabilities while focusing on internally rebuilding its strength.
