Kelly McParland: Peacemaker Trump prepares a war
It might seem incongruent for a U.S. president openly lusting after recognition as a peacemaker to be lobbing missiles at boats in the Caribbean while sloughing off requests for any sort of detailed explanation.
But coherence has never been a feature of the Trump administration, so at the same time it was heralding President Trump’s success in achieving a ceasefire in Gaza, it was blowing up another boat in the waters off Venezuela, claiming it was carrying drugs to be smuggled to America.
Trump called the attack “a lethal kinetic strike” on a “vessel associated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.” He didn’t name the organization or provide any evidence that drugs were involved. No word was provided on the weaponry used, though Pete Hegseth — recently retitled “Secretary of War” rather than “Secretary of Defense” — did release a video of a small craft evaporating in an explosion of incandescent light, joining videos of four previous strikes also made public.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
The death toll in the five attacks was believed to total 27. Over the weekend a sixth was added, killing two more while leaving two survivors. Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro accused Washington of “murder,” saying a September strike killed a Colombian fisherman adrift in a disabled boat.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul, expressing perplexity at the propriety of the campaign, maintained the U.S. shouldn’t “just blow up ships” without any hint of legal justification. If he’s expecting a response he may be disappointed: concurrent with the blast the Pentagon press gallery was stuffing its equipment into boxes and vacating the building rather than comply with new rules banning members from reporting or publishing anything not officially approved by Hegseth.
More telling than the media’s departure was Admiral Alvin Holsey’s announcement he’d be quitting his post as head of the command responsible for Caribbean operations, less than a year into what was meant to be a three-year appointment. No explanation was given for the 37-year veteran’s decision, though it comes amid questions, like Paul’s, about the campaign’s legalities and not long after Trump ordered top military brass to Washington for a warning to prepare to confront “the enemy within.”
Trump is seldom deterred by such things as high-level resignations, and didn’t let Holsey’s impede him. In addition to blowing up alleged drug boats he revealed he’d authorized the CIA to use “lethal force” within Venezuela, acknowledged he’s looking at air strikes on “land targets” in addition to those at sea, and has been beefing up the U.S. presence in the region with troops, equipment, aircraft, ships, drones and a nuclear-powered attack submarine. U.S. B-52s flew circles off the Venezuelan coast, not bothering to mask their presence.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Great powers don’t usually deploy weaponry on that scale unless they’re serious about using it, much as Russian President Vladimir Putin assembled troops and weapons along Ukraine’s border prior to his 2022 invasion, and Trump confirmed “we’re certainly looking at land now.” “Lethal force” means killing people on Venezuelan territory if Washington concludes it’s OK, as Israel has done in Iran and elsewhere and as President Barack Obama did repeatedly with drone strikes during his years in office.
The people around the president have shown themselves to be either good or lucky at a number of things, timing being one of them. With political leaders from across the planet scurrying to the Middle East to heap accolades on Trump’s Gaza triumph, who was going to get overly exercised about another half-dozen drug smugglers — proven or otherwise — being erased from existence? Who indeed would fret much about anything that helped free Venezuelans from a regime seemingly devoted to reducing the country to ever-deeper levels of national impoverishment and lawlessness?
The U.S. has been seeking ways to oust Nicolás Maduro from the Venezuelan presidency almost since he gained power in 2013. He has plenty of crimes to justify the effort: rule by fear, government-sanctioned murder, corruption on an epic scale. Estimates of extra-judicial killings number about 20,000. Somewhere between seven and eight million people — a fifth of the population — have reportedly fled the country to escape oppression. There are plenty of Venezuelans in Canada who would be happy to return home if it could be freed from the cruelties and corruption of the regime.
Yet Maduro has outlasted or outmanoeuvred a succession of White House occupants, surviving dubious elections, economic crises and popular uprisings. A 2018 presidential vote was considered so blatantly crooked that National Assembly president Juan Guaidó was administered the oath of office in Maduro’s place and formally recognized as president by more than 20 countries, including Canada. Yet Maduro has survived, while Guaido was last reported living in Florida.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
What’s different now, as with so much else, is the Trump administration’s casual indifference to the usual international niceties, and the president’s apparently growing fondness for utilizing the military powers at his command. Trump believes his Gaza intervention created the conditions for a “new beginning for an entire beautiful Middle East,” an accomplishment “that really is historic, and (is) going to be remembered forever.”
He also believes it’s just the latest in a tally of wars he’s personally brought to an end. “I stopped eight wars in eight months,” he boasted to the press in Washington. “Did I get a Nobel Prize? No, but I suspect that next year will be better.”
After years of criticizing Washington’s record of involving itself in “stupid wars” he seems to have acquired a new perspective. He’s agreed to yet another one-on-one meeting with Putin in an attempt to end the fighting in Ukraine, despite Putin’s obvious strategy of seeking repeated delays while he rains down death on Kyiv. If the session fails, again, Trump says, he might just agree to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s repeated pleas for bigger weapons to turn against Russia.
Though he admits he’s reluctant, given renewed warnings from Putin and the potential savagery of a Russian response, “I might say, ‘Look: if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks,” he said. “The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
If Russia is a risk best avoided, Venezuela may seem an easier target. Maduro’s army is presumably no match for a full-scale U.S. confrontation. While professing determination to halt Putin’s war, Trump has never disguised his admiration for the Russian leader’s aggressive attitude and use of official muscle.
He also hungers relentlessly for praise. His campaign for a Nobel prize is unprecedented in its unabashed pursuit of acclaim. If he can’t persuade Norway to award him one, he might just have to invent one of his own. While addressing a room full of donors at a White House gathering he unveiled plans for a massive arch to be built near Arlington cemetery, resting ground of America’s most honoured warriors.
Depictions resemble the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to celebrate French military prowess at the peak of his powers, and similar arches peppered across Europe by victorious Roman legions to reflect a succession of triumphs.
Trump indicated he favoured the largest of three versions, which could tower over the nearby Lincoln memorial. Ostensibly meant to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary it’s already being called the Arc de Trump. Now the great peacemaker just has to win a war.