No. of Recommendations: 2
You seem to be operating under the assumption that because this operation has some geopolitical importance, it must have geopolitical importance vis-a-vis China. I don't think that's the case.Great. We can agree to disagree.
After all, the problem with the Russian air defenses wasn't that they were inherently flawed - it's that Russia's been too consumed with Ukraine to continue to supply Venezuela with the parts and expertise to maintain them, and many of them weren't even turned on. Tee, hee:
https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-radars-not-...Venezuela's military had Chinese-made anti-aircraft radars available when the US launched a surprise air assault against the country to capture the country's now-former leader, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this month. They appear to have been of little help.Not just the Russkies.
The military isn't going to stop letting Hezbollah operate there, because the military and Iran continue to share a joint antipathy towards Washington. Which will only be heightened (if such a thing is possible) now that we've seized their head of state.LOL. *Hezbollah* is going to start questioning the viability of operating there.
And as for that last bit, what? Are they going to hate us even more? So what?
No, I do not. She's not taking orders from either Trump or Xi. She's taking orders from López. Ahhh, yes. Lopez. The guy who has to run around saying this now:
https://www.heraldousa.com/latestnews/vladimir-pad...Vladimir Padrino López insists Venezuela's military honor remains 'untouched'
The defense minister declared that the country will take action following the bombings and the arrest of Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. Army.When you have to say your military's honor is "untouched" after having been rather loudly and so easily
teabagged by the US Military...you're not nearly in as strong of a position as you think.
Think Lopez believes he can fully trust his Colonels now? And doesn't wonder if any of them are secretly texting their CIA handlers about him? Or how about his comms? You think we're not listening to pretty much everything that gets said down there? When I saw Maduro doing his webcast from the car with his aides on all kinds of cellular devices I thought, "These guys are abject morons".
And Lopez might say what he wants about Unstained Honor but
his troops got the sh1t knocked out them on a mere raid. As in, this wasn't the main event. Think those guys want to face US firepower again? Think they're going to go down swinging if they see a Delta operator staring at them through his night vision again? These guys aren't AQI being told they're getting 72 virgins in Heaven if they VBED a number of US soldiers.
The
junta in Venezuela is only in power because of the graft and corruption that allows it to spread money around. The thing with mercenaries is that they can be bought. And when they can't be bought by you anymore...they tend to not be enthusiastic about their jobs.
Again, I think you're seeing what you want to see.
And no offense here, al, but I think you've become accustomed to being glazed by all the liberal posters on this board to the extent that you're merely adopting a contrarian stance with respect to anything Trump does or how anyone chooses to explain it. That's why a lot of these threads come off as "nuh, uh!" with multiple assertions treated as fact when...they're not. Then we see the predictable pattern of complaints about "dope isn't addressing what's being said"...when it's mostly nuh uh.
Trump has always had a much higher tolerance for authoritarian rulers than most other Western democratic leaders, as well as an inclination to prefer to cut deals for material things than to worry overmuch about generic precepts of the international rules-based order. Every indication is that Washington is planning to deal with the existing regime rather than push for elections any time soon.
You get this right. Some headway, at last.
Trump is hardly original in this. Sometimes I think I'm the only real student of US history on this board: Trump's view of foreign policy is straight-up Eisenhower in terms of outlook and strategic positioning with heavy doses of Kissinger/Nixon and Realpolitik philosophy thrown in. Since I said it, and you're in Contrarian Mode where you disagree with everything I say, I'll just note that your quote Trump has always had a much higher tolerance for authoritarian rulers than most other Western democratic leaders, as well as an inclination to prefer to cut deals neatly expresses the notion we don't mind that Generalissimo X is a scumbag so long as Generalissimo X is OUR scumbag, a core component of Realpolitik.
That's how Trump perceives the world. And guess what? It's the right answer. One of the most fatal flaws that progressivism has is its need to project its own cultural interpretations and lenses onto others leading to expectations on how others will behave. The shining example of this was Barack Obama, who really did think that his ascension to power was going to fundamentally transform international relations. Oh, it did, all right - just not in the direction he thought it would go.
Trump's opponents read all the left wing headlines about (mostly non-existent) corruption and believe it all. That's fine. But they start imparting their narrow perceptions of the man into everything he does and THAT leads them to not consider any alternative other that the Orange Man. Bad! angle of things...and *that* leads to a considerable narrowing of overall viewpoints and perception.
