The U.S. president is openly tying Nicolás Maduro to narco-terror networks and cartel structures, while dangling both “talks” and threatening the use of military force in the same breath. It’s all pushing toward the culmination of crowning Maduro and his government America’s next top “terrorists” — the magic movie-script label that means the bombs can start heating up.
Then comes the media warm-up act: a New York Times op-ed by Bret Stephens, published on Monday, assuring readers in “The Case for Overthrowing Maduro” that this is all modest, calibrated, even reasonable.
“The serious question is whether American intervention would make things even worse,” Stephens writes. “Intervention means war, and war means death. … The law of unintended consequences is unrepealable.”
The column’s argument is simple: Relax. This isn’t Iraq, a conflict Stephens helped cheerlead our way into and proudly declared in 2023 that two decades later, he doesn’t regret supporting the war.
While many people were able to connect those dots in 2001, my progressive ass was in the majority of uninformed US folk. I have to admit I didn’t see through the bullshit back then. News was corporate mainstream; there was no social media to contradict what we were being fed.
When the Kuwaiti girl talking about Iraqis killing babies turned out to be a US plant during the first Bush reign, that was enough to get me to start asking what the US game plan was, and what the real motivations in the Middle East were. And I was old enough to remember who installed Hussein.
So when Bush II came along, I was expecting the action, just waiting to see what the excuse would be. And the excuse didn’t match the action; there was already a UN delegation that could have helped Iraq clean up the remaining agents with no involvement of US troops.
And of course, there was no reason to attack Iraq because of a Saudi who successfully attacked the US was hiding somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
It’s hard to feel bad, like I was 12. On retrospect though, sheesh, what a time.
God it was all so obvious to my little gang. UN finding nothing, Cheney using a puppet for “leaked intel”, Gee Dubz SOTU - hey, kids you gotta go look this up, it’s classic: they wanted to plant this bullshit story that Iraq was out in their garage making “dirty bombs” with c4 and something radioactive. So they discover / make up some shit about them buying “yellowcake” uranium.
Then Bush the Dumber gets up in the house (this was before people just started screaming to interrupt them) and he goes “we have discovered that Iraqi agents were working to buy yellowcake uranium . . . from Africa”.
And the little pause he gave it and the ridiculous way he said “from Africa” couldn’t have been a louder dogwhistle. It was fucking tragic all the way down from SCOTUS stealing the election to them lying 24/7 and blowing trillions to invade Iraq for - ? Reason? S? Probably just stuffing themselves with glorious tax free freedom cash.
Yep. The Worst President in Americ- . . . aaghhhh goddammit.