I'ts really important for all of us to financially support independent journalism. I think we all can agree that mainstream media is feeding us nonsense - from Gainesville FL
The hard truth: Institutional guardrails have already failed. Congress knew and did nothing. Courts gave immunity. The NSS documented the playbook and nobody stopped it.
What’s left:
Immediate: Pressure Congress on the privileged war powers resolution this week. Make it politically toxic to rubber-stamp hemisphere-wide regime change. Flood Senate offices.
Strategic: Build international coalitions that raise the cost. Latin American unity against intervention, European condemnation that threatens trade/alliances. Those 26 EU nations that signed the declaration need to escalate beyond symbolic condemnation. Begin to Declare U.S. diplomats will be treated as persona non grata, threaten embassy closures, impose real diplomatic costs. Otherwise the condemnation just becomes cover while the doctrine spreads.
Isolation works when enforced.
Long-term: The 2026 midterms will be too late.
Brutal reality: Once spheres-of-influence politics are normalized and documented as official strategy, only counter-power stops them. Either institutional (Congress with spine), international (coalitions that impose costs), or electoral (removing enablers).
Venezuela proved the doctrine works without pushback.
The window to stop the next one is closing fast. Activism, organizing, and making this politically unsustainable are the only tools left when constitutional constraints fail.
Watching from Aotearoa New Zealand. Hoping for justice served on criminal politicians breaking International laws. Sadly our current govt is busy licking the boot.
Just waiting for the rest of the world to dump the dollar as the reserve currency and switch to BRICS. Next watch what happens with the next Treasury bill auctions. I got a feeling foreigners are going to dump their current Treasury securities and refuse to buy additional US Debt.
I see there’s nothing about fentanyl in Maduro’s charging documents. Trump and his goons need to stand trial for murdering the 100+ deaths in the boat bombings.
They have also murdered the Cuban bodyguards and dozens of Venezuelan civilians. Very little coverage of the bombing of Caracas. The USA bombed a city in the Western Hemisphere and there is almost no coverage! Will these morons assume permission to bomb Mexico City and Ottawa?
The prudence of a U.S. invasion of Venezuela deserves exactly the kind of critical scrutiny you are giving it. But the strong claim that “these things always backfire” risks overstating the historical record and understating how much hinges on the specific strategy, aims, and regional context in this case.
When you invite the audience to “show me a US regime change that’s gone well” and then list Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and Honduras, you are selecting some of the most catastrophic examples to generalize from, not offering a balanced sample of U.S. coercive interventions. Even within those cases, there are local constituencies who regard the removal of the old regime as a gain despite the later chaos, which shows that “backfire” is a normative judgment rather than an objective, universal verdict. Highlighting the real failures is crucial, but turning a powerful warning (“this could backfire badly”) into an absolute prediction (“this will backfire, because they always do”) weakens the analytical force of the argument.
Something similar happens with the analogies to Iraq and Libya. Venezuela shares some features with previous regime‑change targets, but its geography, the nature of its military and security apparatus, its economic interdependence with the region, and the intensity of Latin America’s own memories of U.S. intervention make it a different strategic environment. Without specifying whether we are talking about limited strikes, a no‑fly zone, covert support for a coup, or a full‑scale occupation, “the Venezuela invasion” remains a very broad label, and it is hard to say with confidence that every version of it must inevitably reproduce the dynamics of Mesopotamia or North Africa.
Your legal and moral critique of Trump’s attack as “brazenly illegal” is persuasive on its own terms, especially given the history of Bush‑era unilateralism and “Mission Accomplished” triumphalism. But the step from illegality to strategic backfire is less automatic than your framing suggests: the United States has violated or stretched international law repeatedly while still retaining core alliances, bases, and leadership in the Western security architecture. If the argument is that the attack is wrong in law and principle, that is a strong claim; if the argument is that this illegality ensures geopolitical defeat, more evidence is needed.
The same goes for the emphasis on oil and domestic political blowback. Describing Trump’s move as “all about the oil” captures a real and troubling dimension, yet major foreign‑policy decisions usually combine energy, domestic politics, and security narratives in more complex ways. Likewise, the idea that 2028 Democrats will run successfully on “accountability” and “put the fear of God into their Republican opponents” is more a desirable political strategy than a structurally grounded prediction, given how rarely U.S. elites have imposed serious accountability for past foreign‑policy abuses.
None of this is to say an invasion of Venezuela would be wise or justifiable—only that the strongest case against it may lie in carefully specifying the plausible scenarios and costs, rather than in broad, absolutist formulas about regime change “always” backfiring. A more contingent argument (“here are the concrete pathways by which this is likely to go wrong”) may ultimately be more convincing to the undecided than a categorical one, and could broaden, rather than narrow, the coalition skeptical of another U.S. military adventure.
Carnage, ruin, death because Trump is late turning in his homework? Suddenly we will forget about Epstein? And the blustering about Greenland?
How about every single person say over and over, Epstein was due Friday. Epstein was due Friday. It worked when I taught high school, but my kids were SO much more advanced critical thinkers, at fourteen years old. Don't let him take OUR eye off the ball. We need the Epstein files TRUMP. Keep reading and giving, if you can, to Drop Site and other truth in journalism. It's more important now than ever.
It dissapoints me, Mehdi, that you found it necessary to denounce Maduro while criticizing the US attack on Venzuela. It is uneccesary to genuflect in front of imperialism before we criticize its crimes. It is not for us to decide who should be the proper leader of Venezuela. I suggest this:
I'ts really important for all of us to financially support independent journalism. I think we all can agree that mainstream media is feeding us nonsense - from Gainesville FL
Hi Salman -- I went to UF -- nice to see u on the Zeteo board
1000%
The hard truth: Institutional guardrails have already failed. Congress knew and did nothing. Courts gave immunity. The NSS documented the playbook and nobody stopped it.
What’s left:
Immediate: Pressure Congress on the privileged war powers resolution this week. Make it politically toxic to rubber-stamp hemisphere-wide regime change. Flood Senate offices.
Strategic: Build international coalitions that raise the cost. Latin American unity against intervention, European condemnation that threatens trade/alliances. Those 26 EU nations that signed the declaration need to escalate beyond symbolic condemnation. Begin to Declare U.S. diplomats will be treated as persona non grata, threaten embassy closures, impose real diplomatic costs. Otherwise the condemnation just becomes cover while the doctrine spreads.
Isolation works when enforced.
Long-term: The 2026 midterms will be too late.
Brutal reality: Once spheres-of-influence politics are normalized and documented as official strategy, only counter-power stops them. Either institutional (Congress with spine), international (coalitions that impose costs), or electoral (removing enablers).
Venezuela proved the doctrine works without pushback.
The window to stop the next one is closing fast. Activism, organizing, and making this politically unsustainable are the only tools left when constitutional constraints fail.
Watching from Aotearoa New Zealand. Hoping for justice served on criminal politicians breaking International laws. Sadly our current govt is busy licking the boot.
Love that place, especially the mountain biking around Queenstown. Cheers
Just waiting for the rest of the world to dump the dollar as the reserve currency and switch to BRICS. Next watch what happens with the next Treasury bill auctions. I got a feeling foreigners are going to dump their current Treasury securities and refuse to buy additional US Debt.
This action by USA on Sovern county will now make all the South and Central American countries run to Russia and China for protection and agreements.
I see there’s nothing about fentanyl in Maduro’s charging documents. Trump and his goons need to stand trial for murdering the 100+ deaths in the boat bombings.
They have also murdered the Cuban bodyguards and dozens of Venezuelan civilians. Very little coverage of the bombing of Caracas. The USA bombed a city in the Western Hemisphere and there is almost no coverage! Will these morons assume permission to bomb Mexico City and Ottawa?
This dumb action by loser leaders of USA will only hurt our 1st America agenda
The prudence of a U.S. invasion of Venezuela deserves exactly the kind of critical scrutiny you are giving it. But the strong claim that “these things always backfire” risks overstating the historical record and understating how much hinges on the specific strategy, aims, and regional context in this case.
When you invite the audience to “show me a US regime change that’s gone well” and then list Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and Honduras, you are selecting some of the most catastrophic examples to generalize from, not offering a balanced sample of U.S. coercive interventions. Even within those cases, there are local constituencies who regard the removal of the old regime as a gain despite the later chaos, which shows that “backfire” is a normative judgment rather than an objective, universal verdict. Highlighting the real failures is crucial, but turning a powerful warning (“this could backfire badly”) into an absolute prediction (“this will backfire, because they always do”) weakens the analytical force of the argument.
Something similar happens with the analogies to Iraq and Libya. Venezuela shares some features with previous regime‑change targets, but its geography, the nature of its military and security apparatus, its economic interdependence with the region, and the intensity of Latin America’s own memories of U.S. intervention make it a different strategic environment. Without specifying whether we are talking about limited strikes, a no‑fly zone, covert support for a coup, or a full‑scale occupation, “the Venezuela invasion” remains a very broad label, and it is hard to say with confidence that every version of it must inevitably reproduce the dynamics of Mesopotamia or North Africa.
Your legal and moral critique of Trump’s attack as “brazenly illegal” is persuasive on its own terms, especially given the history of Bush‑era unilateralism and “Mission Accomplished” triumphalism. But the step from illegality to strategic backfire is less automatic than your framing suggests: the United States has violated or stretched international law repeatedly while still retaining core alliances, bases, and leadership in the Western security architecture. If the argument is that the attack is wrong in law and principle, that is a strong claim; if the argument is that this illegality ensures geopolitical defeat, more evidence is needed.
The same goes for the emphasis on oil and domestic political blowback. Describing Trump’s move as “all about the oil” captures a real and troubling dimension, yet major foreign‑policy decisions usually combine energy, domestic politics, and security narratives in more complex ways. Likewise, the idea that 2028 Democrats will run successfully on “accountability” and “put the fear of God into their Republican opponents” is more a desirable political strategy than a structurally grounded prediction, given how rarely U.S. elites have imposed serious accountability for past foreign‑policy abuses.
None of this is to say an invasion of Venezuela would be wise or justifiable—only that the strongest case against it may lie in carefully specifying the plausible scenarios and costs, rather than in broad, absolutist formulas about regime change “always” backfiring. A more contingent argument (“here are the concrete pathways by which this is likely to go wrong”) may ultimately be more convincing to the undecided than a categorical one, and could broaden, rather than narrow, the coalition skeptical of another U.S. military adventure.
Listening from Aotearoa, New Zealand. Thank you for your strong ethics.
Carnage, ruin, death because Trump is late turning in his homework? Suddenly we will forget about Epstein? And the blustering about Greenland?
How about every single person say over and over, Epstein was due Friday. Epstein was due Friday. It worked when I taught high school, but my kids were SO much more advanced critical thinkers, at fourteen years old. Don't let him take OUR eye off the ball. We need the Epstein files TRUMP. Keep reading and giving, if you can, to Drop Site and other truth in journalism. It's more important now than ever.
Thank you Team ZETEO, for your continued dedication and conversations with, Independent Media. Please subscribe to Team ZETEO.
It dissapoints me, Mehdi, that you found it necessary to denounce Maduro while criticizing the US attack on Venzuela. It is uneccesary to genuflect in front of imperialism before we criticize its crimes. It is not for us to decide who should be the proper leader of Venezuela. I suggest this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kWSrz8fIXU
Thank you ZETEO for your response and comments about the news. I invite everyone to support ZETEO by subscribing.
I love to see you bring Lindsay graham and expose his Ass
Duluth, MN
I'm wondering how we are going to bomb anyone else after the government shuts down again on January 30th?
New paid subscriber for the year! I love Zeteo. From Memphis, TN.
Sydney Australia