"Two decades ago, Richard N. Haass, a senior foreign-policy official in the George W. Bush administration, confessed that he would go to his grave not knowing why the United States had invaded Iraq. "A decision was not made," Haass told me. "A decision happened, and you can't say when or how." I thought of this astonishing remark after Saturday's military action in Caracas."
"If narco-terrorism is a threat to U.S. security, Venezuela is a relatively small player in the global narcotics trade; the chief drug it exports, cocaine, is not a mass killer of Americans like fentanyl is, and the probable destination of the alleged drug boats that U.S. forces have been bombing off the Venezuelan coast was Europe. If Trump wants to deport 600,000 Venezuelan migrants from the U.S., the political chaos left by a decapitated regime could increase the exodus to this country."
Richard N. Haass said he would go to his grave not knowing why the United States invaded Iraq, describing the decision as something that happened without a clear moment or rationale. A U.S. military action in Caracas aimed to seize Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife for trial. The administration offered multiple and conflicting rationales: criminal arrest for drug trafficking, a counter-narco-terrorism action, protection of U.S. security, concern for Venezuelan democracy, and interest in Venezuelan oil. These rationales conflict with prior U.S. actions such as pardoning transnational narcotraffickers, the relative scale of Venezuela’s drug exports, likely destinations of intercepted shipments, and the potential for increased migration. The measures appear inconsistent with stated priorities and carry significant geopolitical and humanitarian risks.
Read at The Atlantic
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