Saturday, February 23, 2019

Hands off Venezuela OpEd

Call to Halt an Illegal Invasion of Venezuela


It seems like every time I pick up a newspaper or go online, our country is starting another war. As a veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, I am consumed by the situation in Venezuela, which is becoming more and more concerning.

I’m not a war correspondent, and I don’t have a Ph.D. in political science. But I have seen these conflicts firsthand, and I have felt the effects. Like many in this country, I have lost family members and friends in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t want anyone else to have to experience that.

  Kevin Tillman
The author is Pat Tillman's bother.
Unfortunately, the inertia over regime change in Venezuela bears a striking resemblance to what happened in the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

As one of the soldiers who illegally invaded Iraq, this scares me. I know an illegal coup/invasion when I see one. I knew it before being deployed to Iraq, but it became even more clear as we wandered around Baghdad looking for weapons of mass destruction that did not exist.

As was the case in Iraq, there are no legal or moral grounds to intervene in the affairs of Venezuela and no international laws to support such an intervention.

[...]

Tomorrow is a critical day for Venezuela. The U.S. and the coup leaders plan to illegally bring $30 million worth of “aid” into Venezuela, which has been explicitly rejected by the Venezuelan government. The aid is being refused because the Venezuelan government understands that its humanitarian crisis is in part being caused by the same nation offering aid in bad faith. What makes the offer a sick joke is that Venezuela is estimated to be losing $30 million a day in oil revenue. This fraudulent olive branch is so transparently a political weapon that even the Red Cross and the United Nations are crying foul.

[...]

It is pretty clear from where I sit that the U.S. is waging illegal economic warfare against the people of Venezuela. From the sanctions to the freezing of assets to the blocking of Venezuela from the international financial system, this is what appears to be driving that country over the edge.
Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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