The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: War With Venezuela Could Break Trump’s MAGA Base

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Maduro government, the communist government in Venezuela, its days are numbered, so the media says. In other words, Donald Trump is trying to put pressure on Maduro and get rid of him because he canceled the last election through fraud. And then we've had an addition about seven or eight million Venezuelans leaving. And he not only sends drugs to the United States, he organizes the cartels and helps them and other adjoining Latin American countries. and he emptied his jails and prisons and said, go to the United States basically causes much havoc. So we have grounds to want him out. Should we invade?

Starting point is 00:00:38 That's another question. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. There are war drums beating about the United States, and the Trump administration's interdiction of narco-trafficking maritime shipments to the United States, which were destroying. Recently, we pulled over on the high seas a large tanker that had illicit oil that was exporting it to embargoed countries. And it's a general picture that the Maduro government, the communist government in Venezuela, its days are numbered, so the media says. In other words, Donald Trump is trying to put pressure on Maduro

Starting point is 00:01:34 and get rid of him because he canceled the last election through fraud, and Mr. Eurecia, who had been elected, was unfairly denied the victory. And then we've had an addition about seven or eight million Venezuelans leaving, and he not only sends drugs to the United States, States. He organizes the cartels and helps him in other adjoining Latin American countries. And he emptied his jails and prisons and said, go to the United States basically causes much havoc. So we have grounds to want him out. Should we invade? That's another question. Let's go back for a second to the 1983 invasion of Granada. It was somewhat similar. Ronald Reagan had just been an office for two years, and it came to his notice that a medical school there may or may not have been

Starting point is 00:02:34 taken over by communists. Americans couldn't leave freely. But the main issue was that the Castro communist government of Cuba, and the Cubans had a pretty formidable reputation because as expatriate mercenaries, they were fighting as an expeditionary force under pay in Angola. And so there was this idea they were pretty tough, and they had taken over the island of Grenada, and this was going to be a progression, a domino, which we would see other Caribbean nations shocked by Cuba, and Reagan wanted to send a message, don't ever think you're going to take over the Caribbean, so we invaded. The invasion didn't go very well. People were using a pay phone to call the Pentagon to coordinate. It shocked us so much that it led to the Reagan reforms in the military

Starting point is 00:03:25 and buildup that corrected the problems. But my point is this, Grenada was a little tiny island, and there was no adjoining neighbors. It was easily supplied by sea. There was no borders that people could flee back and forth across and come into. Another American invasion in Latin America, these are Monroe Doctrine-type enforcements,

Starting point is 00:03:48 was the 1989 George H.W. Bush invasion of Panama. This was very much more similar to Venezuela. Panama was a key U.S. interest because, of course, the government had been given by us, the Panama Canal, and the elections had been suspended, and the elected president and prime minister had been removed by Colonel Noriega, General Noriega, I should say. And he had created a police narco state. In fact, he had been indicted in the United States. He was doing exactly what Maduro was. Cancel the elections, reject the legitimate elected officials, keep your position of power through drug money and paying bribes to the military, the oligarchy, through sales of drugs

Starting point is 00:04:43 to the United States, and then invite in foreign interests like the Russians in this case or the Cubans in the Grenada case, or in the case of Venezuela, maybe the Iranians, Russians, and Chinese, and stir up the pot against the United States. Both those invasions were successful. Panama went on for about 30 days. We lost 23 soldiers. The left was very angry about it here in the United States. It was kind of a Yankee go home mantra we heard. But are those good examples by which we can forecast what would happen if we were to take that ultimate step in Venezuela? I don't think so. Venezuela is the fifth largest country in South America by size and the fifth largest by population. It's not a Panama. It's not a Grenada. It's got 30 million people.

Starting point is 00:05:38 It's got a large military. It's probably corrupt and they probably would like to see him go. But nevertheless, if we were to use ground troops, that would be a, that would be a, mess. And I understand, more importantly, it's not like Panama Grenada in terms of wealth. Venezuela, believe it or not, has the largest oil reserves in the world, 300 billion, billion barrels, and large amounts, one of the largest natural, large amounts of natural grass, probably the largest, one of the top five largest natural gas. In other words, it's something that the world is looking at. And for the United States to go in there, and have a ground removal, I think, would be unwise at this point.

Starting point is 00:06:21 So what would be the alternative? It's sort of what we're doing now. We're isolating all drug shipments, illegal transportation of embargoed oil out of Venezuela. It's kind of a quasi-blockade-dash embargo, and they're going to tighten the screws. What is different about this strategy from Grenada and Panama is there is a viable opposition that in Venezuela, that I think most people would say represents the majority of people, and these are candidates that were barred by the Maduro government. And if we ratchet up the pressure and cut off the supply of illicit oil exports and illicit drugs and just

Starting point is 00:07:10 keep him tense, I think we can solve the problem without an invasion. Finally, a land invasion of Venezuela would be seen as an optional military engagement, optional, which is contrary to the MAGA base. So there would be political ramifications, not just by the Pavlovian left, that anything Trump is for, they're against, but also by the base of the conservative themselves. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for The Daily Signal.

Starting point is 00:07:45 Thank you for tuning in. to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: War With Venezuela Could Break Trump’s MAGA Base

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