Are we going to invade? “We are certainly looking at land now,” said Trump.
Head of the U.S. Military’s Southern Command Resigns
The New York Times reports Head of the U.S. Military’s Southern Command Is Stepping Down
The officer, Adm. Alvin Holsey, is leaving his job as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all operations in Central and South America, even as the Pentagon has rapidly built up some 10,000 forces in the region in what it says is a major counterdrug and counterterrorism mission.
It was unclear why Admiral Holsey is suddenly departing, less than a year into what is typically a three-year job, and in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career. But one current and one former U.S. official, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said that Admiral Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats.
“Prior to Trump, I can’t think of a combatant commander who left his or her post early, ever,” said Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was even more pointed in his criticism.
“At a moment when U.S. forces are building up across the Caribbean and tensions with Venezuela are at a boiling point, the departure of our top military commander in the region sends an alarming signal of instability within the chain of command,” Mr. Reed said in a statement.
Since early September, U.S. Special Operations forces have struck at least five boats off the Venezuelan coast that the White House says were transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have privately made it clear that the main goal is to drive Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, from power.
As a matter of international law, for a nonstate group to qualify as a belligerent in an armed conflict — meaning its members can be targeted for killing based on their status alone, not because of anything they specifically do — it must be an “organized armed group” with a centralized command structure, and engaging in hostilities.
The size and scope of the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean region is significant. There are now about 10,000 U.S. troops, most of them at bases in Puerto Rico, but also some 2,200 Marines on amphibious assault ships. In all, the Navy has eight warships and a submarine in the Caribbean.
Trump Authorizes CIA Covert Operations in Venezuela
In the irony of the day, please note Trump Authorizes CIA Covert Operations in Venezuela
President Trump has authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert action in Venezuela, while also floating the idea of land strikes, in a broadening campaign against alleged drug trafficking.
“I authorized for two reasons,” Trump said Wednesday at the White House, alleging Venezuelan leaders have “emptied their prisons into the United States of America” and “we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela.”
The authorization enables the CIA to operate clandestinely in the country and potentially take action against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, his government and drug traffickers, according to an administration official. Covert action, which is authorized in what is known as a presidential finding, can involve a range of secret activities including paramilitary and lethal operations meant to influence political, economic or military conditions in foreign countries.
The move by Trump comes amid the biggest U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean in decades.
The administration is facing questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about the legality of the boat strikes. It has argued that Trump’s designation of the gangs as foreign terrorist organizations earlier this year grants the Pentagon authority to use military force against them, an argument that many experts say isn’t legally sound.
Covert Operations
Am I the only one who finds it amusing that we are announcing “covert” operations.
A covert operation is a secret military or political activity where the identity of the sponsoring government is concealed or publicly denied. Unlike a clandestine operation, which emphasizes concealing the action itself, a covert operation primarily aims to obscure its source.
U.S. Military Looms Offshore
The Wall Street Journal reports Venezuela Mobilizes Troops and Militias as U.S. Military Looms Offshore
Venezuela is moving troops into position on the Caribbean coast and mobilizing what President Nicolás Maduro asserts is a millions-strong militia in a display of defiance against the biggest American military buildup in the Caribbean since the 1980s.
The strongman’s regime has cranked up its propaganda machine. On state television, radio and social media, announcers are telling Venezuelans that the U.S. is a rapacious Nazi-like state that wants to dig its claws into the country’s oil wealth but that the Venezuelan military, the National Bolivarian Armed Forces, are positioning to repel any invasion.
The regime’s aggressive posturing obscures the vulnerability of its armed forces against the world’s most powerful military. Experts say the U.S. buildup isn’t enough to support an invasion of Venezuela but would be sufficient to support sustained strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs to the U.S. or the bombing of targets on Venezuela’s soil, as President Trump has warned.
What’s Being Deployed
- Guided-missile destroyers
- F-35B jet fighters
- MQ-9 Reaper drones
- Special operations ship
- Eight Navy warships
- An attack submarine
- P-8 Poseidon spy planes
- Army’s secretive 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the “Night Stalkers”
- B-52 bombers
- 10,000 troops
Deployment bullet points compiled from the preceding links.
Is That enough?
Trump said Wednesday that strikes could take place on suspected drug smugglers on Venezuelan soil. “We are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” he told reporters.
Trump on Afghanistan
In September 2017, the Trump administration began deploying more than 3,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of US forces in Afghanistan to more than 14,000.
Biden finally ended the nonsense after Trump promised to and failed.
Biden made a big mess of the exit but at least he got us out after Trump failed to deliver. But now what?
Please note Trump suggests U.S. troops could return to Afghan base over China concerns
President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that he is working to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from the country left the base in the Taliban’s hands.
Trump floated the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he wrapped up a state visit to the U.K. and tied it to the need for the U.S. to counter its top rival, China.
“We’re trying to get it back,” Trump said of the base in an aside to a question about ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity. [Yeah right. Why didn’t you do it?]
More involvement in Afghanistan is madness.
And yet another ridiculous regime change operation is taking place in Venezuela. Shhh. This one is a covert secret.
We never learn.
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