[scrps]

So pick Venezuela? Which at best is a transshipment point, why no strikes in the Darién, why not take out some railroad tracks since a lot of drugs go up from coca country by rail? Also drug smugglers aren't stupid, why would they send product out knowing the U.S. military is sitting out there with a toddler's finger on the trigger?

Know what Venezuela has a shit-ton of though? Oil. Guess who loves the oil, gas, and coal industries? If your answer involves someone orange you'd be right. Guess who got kicked out of Venezuela when Chavaz took over? If you said large multinational oil corporations you'd be correct.

On top of that donnie gets to look tough against a country that largely has no serious regional allies in fact I believe a lot of them are pissed, China has ties but they aren't going to ratchet up the trade fiasco over Maduro, russia is a bit busy punching itself in the balls and last I check Venezuelans aren't big fans of Maduro so donnie is basically riskless save domestically.

Also given the size of those boats I'd wager a solid amount on the total lost amount would be equivalent to taking out 8 McDonald's store shipments and claiming you've dealt a serious blow to McDonald's bottom line.

[jandrewrogers]

People need to retire the oil argument, it isn’t credible. We don’t live in the 1980s. The US has been the world’s leading oil producer for years now, is expected to maintain that position for the foreseeable future, and has several trillion barrels equivalent of hydrocarbon reserves.

Venezuela’s oil production is a single digit percentage of US oil production and the quality of their crude is famously poor. The US neither needs it nor wants it except to the extent they pay the US to refine it for them because they don’t have that ability.

Pinning this action on a desire for oil is a lazy argument far past its expiration date.

[RobotToaster]

Venezuela also has large gold deposits, gold is currently near an all time high.

There's also speculation that it may have lithium deposits because of it's location.

[scrps]

So your argument is my argument is old? Why were there oil corps there and why were they so pissed when they got kicked out?

Also did you think I was suggesting the U.S. govt wants it? Donnie's friends in the oil industry want it, single digit, double digit, doesn't matter to them greed knows no bounds with that crowd and this isn't Iraq in 2004 under Bush which I never believed had anything to do with oil.

[poisonarena]

this is obviously to prepare us for strikes on venezuelas main land