[…] After another week of extra-judicial strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, the U.S. is now reportedly preparing to hit military targets in Venezuela.
International condemnation of the strikes has been widespread. For example, Jean-Noël Barrot, French Minister of Foreign Affairs and Europe, accused the U.S. of ignoring international and maritime law in an interview on Thursday.
But the neoconservative lobby inside the Trump administration is unmoved. […]
However, as the U.S. well knows, military superiority does not necessarily translate into political success, as Iraq and Afghanistan made painfully clear.
And even if the regime were to collapse, stabilizing a post-Maduro Venezuela would demand years of costly engagement, something neither the U.S. public nor its leadership appears to have the attention span or political will for.
A U.S.-led intervention — even a limited one — would have a destabilizing effect on Venezuela and the region. It risks spilling beyond Venezuela’s borders, drawing Colombia and even Pacific maritime routes into a widening theatre of operations. It could create humanitarian and security vacuums, driving a new wave of migration northward toward the U.S. Läs artikel