It is a horrifying thought, but Trump seems to be setting the stage for war upon Venezuela. Trump wants regime change. As the following article in the Washington Post says, Trump is merging the “war on terror” with the “war on drugs.”

Ishan Tharoor writes in the Post:

The drums of war grow louder in the Caribbean. President Donald Trump may cast himself a peacemaker in far-flung climes, but the White House seems bent on using hard power to impose its will in the United States’ perceived neighborhood. In the path of the looming storm is Venezuela, whose autocratic regime under long-ruling President Nicolás Maduro is an explicit target of the Trump administration, which sees Maduro at the top of an illegitimate drug crime network it hopes to bring down.

American warships and thousands of troops have been deployed to the Caribbean; an old military base in Puerto Rico has whirred to life with new arrivals of U.S. warplanes, drones and bombers. Trump has authorized the CIA to carry out unspecified covert operations within Venezuela. A succession of U.S. strikes have destroyed at least seven small boats off Venezuela’s coast, killing dozens of alleged narcotraffickers. Trump and his allies say they are certain of what they’re targeting. The devastated families of Trinidadian fishermen tell another story.

The recent resignation of Adm. Alvin Holsey as head of the U.S. Southern Command, less than a year into a three-year appointment, is being read as an expression of unease with the ongoing operations. Despite the White House’s claims, the Caribbean is not a significant thoroughfare for fentanyl or the vast majority of other illicit drugs entering the United States. Nor is Venezuela a major producer of illegal narcotics like some other South American countries, including neighboring Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

Yet there’s an expectation that the campaign is going to intensify. “Trump has made clear his intentions to go beyond blowing up boats, saying ‘we’re going to stop them by land’ in Venezuela,” my colleagues reported earlier this week. “Several people familiar with internal administration deliberations said any initial land attack would probably be a targeted operation on alleged trafficker encampments or clandestine airstrips, rather than a direct attempt to unseat Maduro.”

This is a gift article so you should be able to open it and continue reading.