Congress doesn’t have to because they spend OPM. They just get the sweet MIC scratch and pretend like they really give a shit about the human losses.
I mean, place dozens of Welcome To America neon signs along the borders, fly gang members into whatever US city they desire, create a US funded illegal immigration system, the world collectively says, “YEAH BUDDY!, we just want to help 'Murica do the jobs 'Muricans won’t do, honest because diversity is your strength” for 16 years, THEN some guy comes along and blames it on the very people we paid to come here and does ZERO to the US leaders who are actually responsible for the mess; well, this is what it looks like. MAGA calls it five D chess and US Marxists call it Orange Man Bad-Release Maduro. No one in DC but one guy, Massie, calls it right (and his life is being destroyed from both sides bevause of it).
If you haven’t seen my response to Chris, this is the most accurate (to me) explanation of how the Maduro capture happened:
I listened to Triggernometry discussion of what VZ socialism and past couple decades have been like (Francis Foster host is from there originally) so I can fully believe various key people in Venezuelan army and spots were bribed.
Iraqis also celebrated americans coming. There are some expectations with it(people look full grocery stores and forget food costs lot of $$$, secret why looking from socialism/communism it looks utopia), which dont come to reality once america is in your streets.
However this disappointment turns against occupation as people also in middle east are left/socialist leaning (Iraq also had oil) and america doesnt work like that.
Trump’s remarks can be interesting though, some tidbits(Machado) go against main narrative. Trump manages to slip these there.
Video is good description. While general pattern is very similar as with Saddam and Osama and others not in big news, I cant help but notice potential tidbits relating to previous and upcoming strikes against Iran (destroy anti air and so on). Also scale of this op in airforce is similar massive scale.
Id be guessing can we get Zero Dark Caracas movie soon. For Iran case that wont happen as operation is still WIP (another similarity as no doubt that kind of movie is propaganda type warning for other enemies of US to not mess with US).
I saw VZ estimated oil amount 300Bn barrels. Dont know how much was in permian basin shale oil but it has been run in rough 15 years from 2009 to 2026, maybe 3 years more.
With US 10mn b per day 300Bn would last some 8 years, if all oil came from one place. Canada, Russia and most places are much smaller than this and some export happens ontop. This makes perfect strategic sense, close to home, harder for Russia,China,Iran to mess with it.
The fundamental point here is that the President acted unilaterally to initiate an attack on a foreign government. That makes America the aggressor, and that is an illegitimate use of the military. The only legitimate purpose of the military is to defend the country from foreign invaders and attackers.
Although the “invasion” did happen - under the previous administration and by it’s welcome - but that was a self-inflicted wound by the previous administration, not an aggressive act by Venezuela. And those invaders were not overtly military; that is, they did not come in by using force, but by red carpet, so they were not truly “invaders,” but “illegitimate guests” of the previous administration. Also, those “invaders” came from countries all over the world, not just Venezuela, and probably the majority of them came from countries in Africa; does this justify the use of the U.S. military to invade all of these countries and take down their heads of state? And, even if it did, does that justify the President to use the military to conduct an act of war without Congressional approval?
The President claimed that the reason for the attack was that Venezuela was “poisoning” Americans with fentanyl, as if Venezuelan drug lords or their agents were forcing Americans to take it (or somehow slipping it into their food, water, air). The fact is that drug use is a personal choice. The fact that a large percent of Americans are taking drugs of any kind is testament to widespread mental illness. And what common experience(s) that might cause widespread mental illness could all of these American drug users have had? Could it be the (mandatory) government “education” (indoctrination) system? How about the threat of being drafted to die in a war in a foreign land with no say in the matter? How about the hopelessness of not being able to afford or to find a loving mate because the culture no longer fosters marriage?
And, if the reason for the attack on Venezuela is the fentanyl deliveries, why did the President announce after the attack that the U.S. would be taking over the oil fields in Venezuela? How is that justified when the attack was based on the fentanyl distribution? Did Venezuelan oil workers sneak into the U.S. and pump their evil refined petroleum products into our vehicles and power plants?
Bottom line: This was a unilateral act of war. It did not get Congressional approval. The U.S. initiated military action with no aggression against the United States (at least, not a legitimate one that was announced to the American people). The U.S. military has been used as a tool of conquest instead of a tool of defense.
I looked at the videos of the helicopter silhouettes a few more times and thought, hmm. No ground fire, like you mentioned. I checked the lunar calendar for the moon phase and its light at the time of the raid. Damned near full moon and what we used to call a field grade night, meaning VERY bright moonlight during the raid. That dog didn’t hunt.
EVERY training mission and every planned night mission timing was ALWAYS scheduled in a low or no moon, we called starlight conditions when I flew. High light, full moon nights were for training new guys on NVGs and general over water rescue training. Being an NVG and tactics instructor, flying a multi-aircraft mission on a high light night (and from the lunar charts, it was freakin’ BRIGHT with no significant cloud cover) means two things (and this is from a thousand years ago and things could have changed over the years): there was a life in immediate danger and no time to waste OR somebody(s) in Venezuela made sure there was nothing turned on in the flight path during the operation.
My suspicions were confirmed when I watched again and realized, wait, those guys are flying on a high light night over city lights where they’re easy to see? And NOBODY took fire? And the op went better than any training op I ever flew? Certainly better than any real night flight over Lebanon in '83 and '84 but we typically flew single ship. There was definitely inside help and the Hegseth, “Russian anti-air systems don’t work, so aren’t we bitchin?” is total BS (and stupid).
Now, if there’s no resistance from Venezuela while the US contractors swoop in is another story. I don’t know much but I know there was LOTS of inside help from Venezuela during the operation. I sure as hell hope we never have to do this with a military peer like Russia or China. It won’t look very John Wayne in that case.