The US is already at war with Venezuela

"On Wednesday, the United States hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela a new move in the ongoing aggression against the South American nation by the administration of US President Donald Trump. Over recent months, the US has gone about wantonly blowing up small boats in the Caribbean Sea along with their passengers, whom Trump has telepathically divined to be drug traffickers. Exercising his passion for ridiculous overstatement, Trump proclaimed on Wednesday that the seized vessel was a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually."

"When asked at a news conference about the ship's altered destination, Trump advised reporters to get a helicopter and follow the tanker although folks might reasonably be wary of taking to the skies around Venezuela given Trump's unilateral decree in November that the country's airspace was closed in its entirety. Of course, the airspace closure hasn't managed to interfere with continuing US deportation flights to Venezuela. Regarding the fate of the tanker's valuable contents, Trump remarked, I assume we're going to keep the oil."

"To be sure, this comment doesn't do much to shore up the US claim that it's not after Venezuela's vast oil reserves at all, but is simply trying to guard the hemisphere against nefarious Venezuelan narco-terrorists endeavouring to flood the homeland with fentanyl and other deadly products. As per Trumpian fantasy, the ringleader of the narco-terror operation is none other than Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro himself. Never mind that Venezuela has approximately zero to do with drugs entering the US and doesn't even produce fentanyl."

The United States seized an oil tanker off Venezuela, escalating aggressive actions against the South American nation under the Trump administration. US forces have reportedly destroyed small boats in the Caribbean and targeted passengers labeled as drug traffickers. Trump described the vessel in exaggerated terms and suggested reporters follow the tanker by helicopter despite declaring Venezuelan airspace closed. He also said, 'I assume we're going to keep the oil,' undermining claims that actions are limited to counter-narcotics. US officials cast Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as head of a narco-terror network despite Venezuela's limited links to drugs entering the United States and lack of fentanyl production.

Read at www.aljazeera.com