After Venezuela, Greenland Needs A Nuke.
As well as Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, and any other nation targeted by America's psychotic government.
“The United States appears to be destined by Providence to plague the Americas with misery in the name of liberty.” — Simon Bolivar
In behavior unbecoming of the recipient of the esteemed FIFA Peace Prize, Donald Trump has unilaterally started a war with Venezuela. The self-avowed “Peace President” finished 2025 by bombing the South American nation, the seventh country he bombed in his inaugural year. Wasting no time in achieving his New Year’s resolution to be even more violent, Trump sent Delta Force to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, whisking them off to face trial in New York and leaving eighty caskets in their wake. Combined with Whiskey Pete Hegseth’s Boozy Boat Bombing Bonanza, Uncle Sam’s total Caribbean kill count is creeping closer to two hundred.
Emboldened by the operation, Trump and his cronies have wasted no time threatening other adversarial nations with the same fate. The President told reporters Cuba “looks ready to fall,” said a military operation against Colombia “sounded good,” and warned Mexico should “be concerned.” While American imperialism in Latin America is nothing new, Trump’s threats to Europe have caused alarm on both sides of the Atlantic. After Stephen Miller’s wife posted an image of American-occupied Greenland with the caption “SOON” on Twitter/X, the Danish Prime Minister told Trump to “stop the threats” of invading the semi-autonomous Dutch island. Ignoring the PM, the White House stated on Tuesday it was considering all options to seize Greenland, including “utilizing the U.S. military.” I thought the second Trump presidency would be chaotic, but I certainly didn’t see him starting a NATO civil war.
On top of all this, Trump isn’t even finished pillaging Venezuela. It’s not clear what the administration’s post-Maduro plan is, or if there even was one. Maria Corina Machado has been Washington’s chosen leader in exile for the past few years. However, Machado appears to have angered Trump by accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, losing her place as his chosen puppet.
“If she had turned [the Nobel Peace Prize] down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today.” — Anonymous Trump official to The Washington Post
Machado’s ouster has angered South Florida Republicans, who represent the psychotically anti-communist Latino constituency of Miami. Furious that Latina Ahmed Chalabi has been placed on Mar-A-Lago’s Do Not Invite list, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart snapped at a reporter and declared, “Maria Corina Machado will be the next democratically elected President of Venezuela!” Because nothing says democracy like announcing the winner before the election is even scheduled.
Meanwhile, the White House doesn’t know why they kidnapped the leader of a sovereign nation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent his Sunday on the morning shows desperately trying to backwalk Trump’s post-operation statement that the United States “will run” Venezuela. All that went out the window when Trump told reporters on Air Force One that America, and more specifically Rubio, was “in charge” of the South American nation. (Trump also implied Rubio was behind the pardoning of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted for trafficking cocaine into the U.S.) While the situation is grim and only going to get worse, I can’t help but find joy in Trump throwing Marco Rubio under the bus. The Floridian Congressman sold his soul to be appointed Secretary of State, hoping he would get to fulfill his lifelong dream of overthrowing the Cuban communist government. Well, Marco, you got your wish. You’re now the face of an American operation to control an expansive country teeming with guerrillas, government officials, and grandmas vowing to fight to the last breath. Congratulations!
While the American press has sanitized Trump’s aggression and malpractice for domestic audiences, foreign observers, whether they’re allies or adversaries, are under no such illusions. The American Empire’s latest temper tantrum of violence has reaffirmed that the post-World War II international order no longer exists — if it ever did. The United States has a long history of ignoring the principle of sovereign equality underpinning the United Nations’ Charter. The military and CIA have invaded more countries than we’ll ever know. But they’ve always created the pretense of plausible deniability with fantastical stories about WMDs in Iraq, murderous communists in Guatemala, and drug trafficking in any country whose name has a Spanish accent. The U.S. and its allies presented their illegal actions as protection of the Rules-Based International Order, to use their terminology. And the rest of the world bought it. Or at least, they pretended to. But now there is no pretending. War is a drug. And America is on a bender. The Trump Administration has made clear, through both action and promise, that it views the United States as an overlord, not an equal to our peers.
While it’d be easy to say there’s no method to Trump’s madness, there is. The administration’s National Security Strategy outlined a Trump Corollary to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, explicitly stating that the Western Hemisphere is the property of the United States and subject to its control.
“After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere. This “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a common-sense and potent restoration of American power and priorities, consistent with American security interests. Our goals for the Western Hemisphere can be summarized as “Enlist and Expand.” We will enlist established friends in the Hemisphere to control migration, stop drug flows, and strengthen stability and security on land and sea. We will expand by cultivating and strengthening new partners while bolstering our own nation’s appeal as the Hemisphere’s economic and security partner of choice.”
Keeping in the tradition of making America’s worst tendencies fifty times dumber, Trump has started calling the Trump Corollary, the “Donroe Doctrine,” a term he stole from a New York Post cover last January.
Whether American belligerence is premeditated or impulsive makes little difference to the lives it destroys. The only benefit of the latter is that President Trump tends to get bored and easily distracted, meaning the imperialist violence would be sporadic enough for foreign leaders to keep their heads down and hope he moves on to another target: either another nation that refuses to hand over its mineral rights, or whichever Hollywood studio cast one too many minorities (which would be one, in his view). But as the warmongers have entered this domineering into the American foreign policy canon, no respectable leader can rely on luck. American capitalism depends on the resources and markets of foreign nations. Even if we don’t need your resources at this particular moment, our imperialist character demands we get them before China does. However you look at it, it’s a matter of time before President Trump demands your stuff. And when he does, there is nothing you can do, no deal that can be cut, no principle to be invoked, no treaty to be honored, that will stop the United States from stealing your resources and throwing your nation into a perpetual cycle of death and disorder. The only conclusion for those wishing to keep their sovereignty, protect their people, and avoid the devastation now endured by Libya, Iraq, Guatemala, Afghanistan, or any other nation toppled by the American government is to stop us by force. With an ever-growing military that outsizes the following nine countries combined, any other nation that believes it can repel an invasion is living in a fantasy.1 That leaves one option: obtaining a nuclear weapon as fast as possible.
The undeniable rule of post-World War II geopolitics is that nuclear-armed nations survive regime change attempts, while unarmed nations do not. North Korea is a pariah state. But Western powers dare not strike it for fear of triggering mutually-assured destruction. The same goes for China and the former Soviet Union. Meanwhile, those who give up their nukes or fail to obtain them are subject to the whims of whichever madman occupies the Oval Office. Following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi agreed to stop his nuclear weapons program. A little over a decade later, he was toppled with American support, throwing Libya into multiple civil wars and a cycle of instability that still exists today. And it’s not just the Americans that de-nuclearized nations have to worry about. Ukraine surrendered its nuclear weapons in 1994 in exchange for a security guarantee from the U.S., U.K., and Russia. And we all know how that turned out for them.
Nuclear proliferation is a net-negative for society. Every atomic weapon makes the world a more dangerous place. When nukes are around, minor regional conflicts become potential mass casualty events. But the peaceful world we seek and what nations do when faced with immediate threats are two very different things. Imagine you’re Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, or Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Trump is threatening to throw your entire nation into chaos. No matter its ideology, a government’s foremost responsibility is to protect its people. If the Americans no longer honor national sovereignty and you can’t fight them, what else is there to do but seek the only proven method of preventing American imperialism? When the world looks at us, they don’t see a nation of well-intentioned Americans struggling for a more peaceful world. They see this:
To make matters worse, foreign nations don’t view this reckless destruction of international cooperation as unique to Donald Trump or even the Republican Party. Imperialism is an American preoccupation, cemented into our institutions by centuries of militarism and propaganda. It has been accelerating under presidents of both parties for my entire life. And there are no signs it’s stopping anytime soon. The American organs that should be opposing Trump’s aggression are eagerly helping him enact it.
The press has legitimized and even celebrated the attack, a total surrender of its primary responsibility of transparent coverage of institutional powers. After Maduro was abducted, it was learned that The New York Times and Washington Post knew of the assault beforehand, but didn’t report it for fear of “endangering American troops.” The safety of uniformed soldiers isn’t the media’s job. They’re supposed to report the government’s actions, not help them illegally invade sovereign nations. And it’s certainly not their role to whitewash the crime after the fact by treating Venezuela like it’s a Trump casino subject to his management decisions. Headlines like the one below promote the State Department’s narrative that Venezuela is some sort of rogue state.
Describing the actions of Venezuelan oil tankers as “deceptive” implies these vessels are nefarious. Of course these vessels are trying to deceive the American Navy! The blockade is an illegal act of war, and we’ve been bombing any ship that leaves the Venezuelan coast! Perhaps The New York Times will use this perspective to cover school shootings from the viewpoint of the killer: Deceitful Youths Hide From Local Gun Enthusiast’s Outreach Efforts.
Even if the media did cover the episode correctly, it’s not like there’s an oppositional force willing to help Trump’s targets from within the U.S. Rather than take a strong stance against a flagrant violation of both American and international law, as well as Trump’s campaign pledge of no new wars, Democrats have seized the opportunity to remind the electorate why they have an approval rating lower than the Titanic. Not long after the operation was announced, three self-described centrist House Democrats ran to Axios to complain that they couldn’t support the crime because Democratic voters didn’t like it. One centrist, who requested their name not be shared, said criticizing the assault made the Democrats look “weak.” Because nothing communicates strength more than anonymously whining to a reporter about how you’re scared of your voters.
“Maduro is bad, glad he is gone. You can’t have it both ways. Everything Trump touches must be bad according to the base.”
“As Democrats we can’t just condemn what happened... I wish the Democratic Party would be a little bit more measured on this.”
“I think it looks weak. If you don’t acknowledge when there is a win for our country, then you lose all credibility.”
I’m not even sure what criticism these centrists are referring to. RFK Jr. Super Fan and Colorado governor Jared Polis celebrated the win by posting “Libertad!” Meanwhile, the most visible national Democrat, Kamala Harris, offered the standard consult-approved statement that can be summarised as, ‘Trump did a good thing, but he did it the wrong way!’
I can’t believe Harris (or rather, her intern who prompted ChatGPT to write this tweet) didn’t learn this by now, but American voters don’t care about process. All Harris’s statement has done is reaffirm Trump’s claim that Nicolas Maduro is Hispanic Hitler, then show readers that Donald Trump Gets Things Done, while Kamala Harris is the hall monitor who narcs to the teacher when her classmates aren’t following The Rules. In short, Madam Vice President, you’ve reminded America why they elected him over you.
There is only one conclusion sober viewers can draw from the attack on Venezuela: the United States is a rogue state. Our government is on a murderous rampage, the latest stint of an imperialist killing spree that predates the United States itself. There is no domestic force capable of stopping the Republican Administration, even if they wanted to. Democrats are madder at their own voters than they are at Trump, and the media is trying to intellectualize Washington’s barbaric savagery to create the false impression that there was any merit to this decision. “Why did Trump attack Venezuela?” they ask as they stroke their beards in ponderous thought, ignoring the President’s many admissions that he wants Venezuelan oil. Too ashamed to acknowledge the reality that the United States is the most dangerous, violent entity on planet earth, America’s political institutions roll over and retreat into the security of feigned stupidity. The United States spent the better part of the last century constructing an international order, then set itself atop it. Now, it has destroyed all of that and cast the world back into a system of might makes right — if we can kill you, we will.
So don’t be surprised when we see more and more nations seeking nuclear weapons, or at least significantly improving their military capabilities. If the United States insists upon the law of the jungle, you might as well grab the biggest stick.
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In Solidarity — Joe
Guerrilla warfare is another story. But there’s no nation that can fight the Americans and keep its government intact.
Absolutely nailed the strategic calculus here. The nuclear deterrence paradox is pretty wild when you think about it, we've basically created a system where the only real sovereignty insurance is the weapon we're supposedly trying to eliminate. I remeber reading about Gaddafi's disarmament deal and thinking it was a smart diplomatic move at the time, but hindsight makes that look kinda naive now. The "might makes right" framing hits harder thn it should because there's really no institutional check left that Washington respects.
Agree totally with the sentiment that trying to emphasize that MADURO IS BAD AND EVIL BUT YOU DIDN'T FOLLOW THE RULES just makes Democrats look weaker. Liberals are quick to signal that they have the same foreign policy views as the US state department, but just don't like that Trump was effective and took action. It doesn't make them come across as being serious, it comes across as contradictory and weak.