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PaperclipPerfector  11d ago (text post)   756 thread views

Transnational Thursday for October 23, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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I see there's a lot of ramp up against Venezuela. What I am not so sure about is what is the actual demand from US/Trump to Venezuela? I mean, do they just want to get rid of Maduro and are building up for that, no matter what, or do they want Venezuela to do something specific, and if they do it, everything goes away? If so, is there a good list of which thing(s) I could read?

If it's about Maduro, what's the endgame there? I mean, getting rid of him personally and his close circle is probably very doable, but then what? I thought MAGA wasn't very eager for nation-building and spreading democracy and all that stuff - that's more neocon vibe on the right and globalist-reptilian New World Order fraction of the Left? And Trump is supposed to be a mortal enemy of both - so what's the thing that he's about to do in Venezuela then?

I believe Trump is sinking the ships in order to make a more convincing case that he can legally use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in detaining and ultimately deporting Venezuelan nationals. The act gives the president broad powers in detaining all foreign nationals over the age of 16 with nations the US is at war with. Here by claiming the VZ government is so corrupt, it allows drugs to depart its country and makes no efforts to stop them, the 'war' between the US and the cartels can include the compromised VZ government, and the powers of this act can be used by the president. I think the president thinks by using the military to accomplish these attacks his case for claiming this is a 'war' is strengthened, since they could have gone through the regular channels of boarding the vessel, collecting the evidence and having a trial if they were so inclined.

Doesn't he need to go to Congress to declare "war"? I mean US had performed "special military operations" without declaring a war for a number of times by now, and as long as it's not a prolonged engagement they pulled it off without much problem, but if you call it "war" then you'd need Congressional declaration of war?

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