alt Hacker NewsThe NATO thing is justification that even Russia has not applied consistently. Putin is on record saying that Ukraine is part of the Russian sphere of influence, which means, according to him, they get to install their crony of choice. If NATO was their real concern, they could withdraw now in exchange for promises not to join NATO, but they also refuse to give up territory they've occupied or to allow any security guarantees from the west, all but setting up the next stage of their invasion.
> The US has to stop. The US is not the world's policeman, and the US had no legitimate right to declare itself such.
The US has the largest military on the planet, and the (relative) peace of the last 80 years is largely based on a credible threat of our willingness to use it. That power can be used for good; at the moment, we are simply not choosing to do so.
Was dropping two atomic bombs on civilian populations good? Was the US's role in the Korean war good? Was the US's intervention in the Chinese civil war good? Was the US's massacre of Puerto Rican freedom fighters, nationalists, and independence-seeking rebels during the Jayuya uprising good? Was the US's invasion of Vietnam good? Was the US's covert military operations in Laos using the paramilitary arm of the CIA good? Was the US's overthrow of the legitimately elected leader of Iran to install a US puppet good? Was the US's actions to destabilize a laundry list of Latin American countries to seize control of raw materials and commodity production and place it under American corporations good? Was the US's invasion of the Dominican Republic to quell mass democratic uprisings against a military coup that seized control from a democratically elected leader good? Were the US secret bombing campaigns against Laos and Cambodia good? Was the US invasion of Grenada good? Were the US's attacks against Iranian-owned offshore oil drilling platforms good? Was the US occupation of Panama good? Was the US invasion of Iraq good? Was the US bombing of Serbia good? Was the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan good? How about the drone strikes against civilian weddings - good? How about illegal humans-rights-violating extrajudicial rendition, detention, and torture programs, good?
Is this all "peace"? Is intentional mass murder of civilians "good" when we do it? Is Trump the first president to abuse US military capabilities in the last 80 years, or are you being selective and partisan in your recollection of one of the world's most prolific purveyors of incomprehensible violence against civilians, interference in the democratic processes of other nations, and violators of human rights in the last century?
We're getting far off track from the important point here though, which is that the US should not invade Venezuela, just as Russia should not have invaded Ukraine (the latter being a point of comparison for the former, not the subject of the conversation).