Last week, Trump ordered the attack of Venezuela to kidnap their president. This strategy has been pulled lifted from dusty history books.
Trump is claiming this is a ‘law enforcement’ action and not a military action. Not only is this not original, but it’s been used before, with extended, problematic results.
Looking back at history, early involvement in Korea was called a ‘police action’. President Truman was playing with the truth to avoid the need for Congress to declare war before sending in troops.
Tens of thousands of American soldiers were killed. A heavy U.S. military presence in Korea began in the 1950s and continues in 2026.
Vietnam is another place where early U.S. military involvement was categorized as a ‘police action’. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed during that police action. Environmentally, the war wreaked wholesale destruction on Vietnam and its people.
Politically, the Vietnam War became a catalyst for the emerging generation gap. Cultural and moral splits arose across the United States as demonstrators took over streets and campuses to protest the draft, deaths, and war. Our involvement in that war created a symbolic battlefield in the United States as involvement was argued.
As a person born in 1956 in the United States, I vividly remember the news reports of these demonstrations I read about as a teen or saw on television. As a retired military member, I heard too many horror stories of Vietnam. Films of the bombing campaigns such as Operation Rolling Thunder and Linebacker I and II were shown to us, including the violent destruction.
I remember the My Lai massacre, a scandal that shocked us, and young John Kerry’s testimony. I recall photographs of children burned with napalm. The vivid imagery of Operation Babylift and the fall of Saigon are seared into memory.
I imagine that Trump and his advisors are madly spinning that this is nothing like either of those wars. Glances back to early newspaper articles reveal slow, soft involvement in them, just as we see unfolding for us today.
Trump’s Administration has revealed confusion about what’s intended in Venezuela at this point. Trump informs We the People that the United States will ‘run Venezuela’. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has taken over as interim President to manage the country.
Much as you would expect if another nation attacked the United States and kidnapped Donald Trump, acting President Rodríguez made a defiant speech against allowing any nation to run them or treat them like a colony.
Trump responded as a bully, threatening acting President Rodríguez she’ll pay a bigger price if she doesn’t comply with his demands. The messages and mannerism of Trump’s response don’t project an early or peaceful resolution, as he included threats to send more military into Venezuela.
Attacking Venezuela aligns with Trump’s practice of making and breaking promises. Trump campaigned against getting involved in other nations militarily.
Yet, Trump has continually employed the military as a baseball bat during his second term’s first year in office. He’s suggested annexing Greenland is a good idea, and has implied using military action against Mexico and other nations is possible while recently adding Cuba to the conversation.
My last concern goes back to ‘exit strategies’. Trump complained mightily that exit strategies for U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t exist. He then established a clumsy exit strategy for removing troops from Afghanistan (the Doha Agreement) which President Biden executed.
*An important side note to Trump’s approach to the Doha Agreement is that he didn’t include the Afghani government in the negotiations. This is the same approach he’s trying to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not including Ukraine in the negotiations.
During his first term, Trump also directly answered reporters’ questions with the response, “I don’t do exit strategies.” That doesn’t bode well for the United States now.
We know from Trump’s business practices and marriages, his business strategies are bankruptcy, divorce, or cheating on his businesses and partners. But in those endeavors, he lacked the U.S. Treasury’s resources and U.S. military power.
It feels to me, Trump is making the same historic mistakes the United States made in the past, repeating his own patterns of impulsive errors. But now, the stakes and consequences are much, much higher.
Michael Seidel, writer 
Just because he is President does not make him above any law, any bad behavior, any desire he might have to destroy entire countries and the people in them. I was in college when Bay of Pigs happened. We all gathered around the tv in the main hall and watched Kennedy. He was scared, serious, and sweating. So were we. But he knew what and why. He had reasons. They may not have been the right ones, or they may have been the only ones, but they were well thought out. And he had the approval of whomever he needed, to proceed.
Trump is his own judge and jury, and Im sad to say both of them are on leave. No one stops him, no one says, err, Mr. President? If anything they praise him and suggest something even more atrocious. If any President had ever behaved this way he would have been dumped immediately.
Days like this Im glad I don’t have a TV; I would have probably bashed it in ages ago. Then I wish I did, so I could.
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Trump is being run by a large conglomerate of sources that do NOT have the best interests in mind for the U.S. of A. Their goals are strictly personal.
What’s so mind-boggling to me is there are some (seemingly) intelligent folks in this country that think he can do no wrong.
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Many of those people vote straight ticket, regardless of who is on the ballot. Not a lot of thought goes into a vote like that, does it. Then again, not every intelligent person is intelligent in the same way.
And voting straight ticket without even considering the candidate is just downright lazy. I’ve voted both sides of the aisle, because I liked the candidate, not because he or she was on ‘my side’.
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I’ve commented on this on various occasions. IMO, these “straight ticket” people are those who either don’t have the time (due to family, work, and other responsibilities) to do the research, and (2) simply don’t care about “politics” but feel the “obligation” to vote. Of course there are undoubtedly many other reasons why folks don’t take politics seriously. And any and all of them have put us in the place we are today.
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I avoid television news. All my sources come from the net these days. I end up vetting many articles to ensure they’re true and correct. It becomes tirring and tedious.
Yes, Trump’s insistence that he’s above the law, that evidence isn’t needed because he thinks his ‘I’m the President!’ declaration infuriates me to no end. That the GOP gives him a free ride sickens me.
Hang in there, kiddo. Let’s hope 2026 turns into something more positive very soon.
Cheers, M
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Well said, Michael (said with a heavy sigh). I am so worried about what’s next. Congress has got to stand up to him, no matter what party they represent…at least, this particular “we the people” thinks so. Before any other stupid decision is made, get him out of office before he causes any more damage and brings about a global conflict. He is sure seems to be working at it.
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Trump and the Heritage Foundation have already caused such damage. Venezuela will probably plague is for years, judging from history about other things have been handled. Now, without Congress actively working to tell him, “No,” Trump talks about taking Greenland because it belongs to us, and there’s suggestions he want to ‘take back’ the Panama Canal. I thought we as a civilization had advanced beyond this sort of senseless, destructive imperialism. Fingers crossed that he and that gang of thugs are out of office soon. Cheers
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