BREAKING: U.S. poised to strike military targets in Venezuela

@hippyjoe1955 Does the euphemism "regime change", match?

@ArishMell I don't think so. I really am scratching my head over this one. The US needs an enemy and this week Venezuela is it. A year ago it was China. Before that it was Russia, Before that it was Afghanistan. Something in the US that demands a foe great or small that the US can start a fight.

@hippyjoe1955 I don't think the USA would try to fight China militarily, but otherwise I do take your point.

@ArishMell A year ago the US was beating the war drum and its target was China. Then the US learned that China would clean its clock as the American technology is 30 years old and military doctrine is 80 years old. The US would try to fight WWII with cruise missiles while China has hypersonic missiles that can send any US warship to the bottom in a matter of minutes. Ever wonder how the US lost 2 aircraft in one day in the South China Sea? I rather doubt it was contaminated fuel.

@hippyjoe1955 and now the true its the american people in trumps eyes . America's Real Enemy Within
[media=https://youtu.be/v9DL_ghuTIU]

@ArishMell May we live in interesting times. lol. I suspect the aircraft were brought down through electronic warfare. It would never leave a trace. The fact is that the US is a couple of generations behind Russia and China's military. Interesting article I listened to this morning. A retired American Colonel was talking about Venezuela and how thanks to Russian missiles the USS Gerald Ford could be sent to the bottom in a matter of minutes. So much for gun boat diplomacy.

@hippyjoe1955 A curse in disguise: i use it a lot ..May we live in interesting times. not the type of excitement i want tho

@markinkansas I wonder what the military top brass there thought of possibly being ordered against civilian unrest in their own land, even using cities as "training grounds"... I don't suppose they'd think it "exciting" either.

Nothing in that video about the US Services being modernised and made able to face threats from major foreign powers' regular armies, navies and air-forces, but did he in fact cover that later in the same speech? Seems odd to have put internal law-keeping first though.

Instituting that policy - using the army against domestic civilian protests or even riots - would mean the USA could never again crusade even in UN speeches against violent repression in other countries.

Mr. Trump really does need care how his country is seen around the world.

He seemed to stumble over his words now and then, and looked very tired.

@ArishMell I think that Trump is little more than a puppet at this time. He is being controlled and it is quite evident. That aside I kind of find it funny how all the major democracies pretend to be lily white when it comes to using the military against civil unrest. The UK in Northern Ireland. Canada and the FLQ crisis. Remember Kent State in the US?

@hippyjoe1955 No, no-one is "lily white" but that does not excuse anyone else.

The Irish "Troubles" originated in Protestants "loyalists" attacking Catholic nationalist communities in Belfast; and descended into the Army and Police trying to stop ruthless, extremely cruel but cowardly gangs pretending to be "armies" on both sides fighting each other, when they (the gangsters) were not committing single acts of horror like deliberately crippling teenagers from their own communities. Not "merely" suppressing rioters as I think that Trump speech means. Nevertheless I accept there were bad things done by soldiers and police officers, and the repercussions and self-recriminations are still with us.

We do acknowledge it was a Canadian general who finally managed to get the warring factions to talk instead of shoot.

I don't recall the FLQ crisis but vaguely remember the Kent State University incident was of the paramilitary National Guard over-reacting to a student demonstration.

At least our countries do not try to erase their mistakes. Ask anyone now in China if they knew what the PLA did in Tianmen Square and they will not know because the bodies were all destroyed, and all references omitted from all history in China.

We might not be saints but at least we cannot hide it and do sort of try to make amends.

@ArishMell The FLQ crisis was pretty funny. A few communists decided to kidnap the British ambassador James Cross and a Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte. They killed Laporte and released Cross. As a reaction Pierre Trudeau the PM at the time sent in the troops and enacted Marital Law. They even shut down the press in Lethbridge Alberta which is about 2000 miles from Quebec such was their anxiety. Funny thing is the Pierre's son tried to send in the army to put down the Covid protests only the army said no and stayed in their barracks. Trudeau had to bring in bully beef from overseas. UN police as it were.

@hippyjoe1955 Thankyou. So a complete over-reaction by politicians to what should have been purely a police matter.

Were the murderers caught?

@ArishMell pretty much. Kind of like Kent State where the national guard killed 4 unarmed students.

@hippyjoe1955 I recall the event in general, but not whether any action was taken against the Natioanl Guard officers, or to overhaul the organisation.

@ArishMell Like you I do not remember any repercussions against the National Guard.

@hippyjoe1955 No - but I do live far further away so less likely to encounter subsequent reporting.

@ArishMell You ever serve in the military and break any civilian law and get away with it because you were under command of someone else? I have. I suffered no consequences.

@hippyjoe1955 I have not had that experience personally, no, as I was never in the Services; but there have been cases of British servicemen charged under civilian law for going too far.

@ArishMell Yes you are right. If the military wants to hang you out to dry it will. If it wants to protect you it will. It is quite whimsical that way. Of course at Kent State the National Guard was doing what its political masters wanted so it was protected. Had it sufficiently sullied the escutcheon of the political elite the guardsmen would have been charged with murder.

@hippyjoe1955 Oh - I take your point entirely.