[StefanBatory]

How does this differ from Russia invading Ukraine?

We have to wake up to the world where USA no longer cares about ideals like liberal democracy or allies, but is a warmongering corporatist autocracy.

[cosmicgadget]

We won't know for a while but I don't imagine there will be mass civilian graves, abducted children, or the intent to annex the country. This is probably more about oil and deposing Maduro.

[asta123]

"This is more about oil and deposing Maduro." Scary how overt these 'operations' are these days. 50 years ago governments would try hide stuff like this. Someone said 'lack of shame' is very concerning with governments of today. Wonder if this is a reflection of where we as a humanity are heading.

[rvz]

> This is probably more about oil and deposing Maduro.

Correct.

[StefanBatory]

"This isn't about conquering Ukraine, it's about coal and removing Nazi Żeleński from power"

[biggestlou]

Ukraine didn’t hold an election in which the results were simply ignored by the leader in power

[severino]

Yep. They just ousted the elected president without the votes their constitution mandates.

[aqme28]

Seems like a thin reason to invade a country

[lawn]

That's just one of the fake reasons Russia likes to point at, with useful idiots like yourself aiding the effort.

[computerex]

It’s not any different. I have totally lost my faith in America as an American.

[4gotunameagain]

Now you did ?

You should've been keeping scores on US' wars and regime changes, you'd had lost faith long time ago.

[lII1lIlI11ll]

> How does this differ from Russia invading Ukraine?

As a Ukrainian I would assume US forces don't intend to conduct a campaign of mass murder, rape and looting, and US government overall doesn't plan genocide and erasure of national identity of Venezuela together with annexation of its territories?

[lanternfish]

See: Panama, Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.

[stackedinserter]

Russia's goal is to destroy Ukraine as nation and a country, because there's no "Ukrainians", there's no "Ukrainian language", and every country that speaks Russian should be controlled by Russian tsar. That's why they don't care and demolish ("liberate") Ukraine, town after town.

Do US do/want the same for Venezuela?

[whatever1]

For one the whole country of Ukraine is fighting like hell for almost 4 years following the orders of their elected government to defend their country.

If Russia was on the right, the people of Ukraine would have just hanged Zelenskyy and his gov, instead of sending their children to the meat grinder.

Let’s see if Venezuelans will put their lives on the line to protect the regime.

[rightbyte]

Military police are forcefully abducting people on the streets by now. Fighting the power of the state is not something that just happens.

[eternauta3k]

> How does this differ from Russia invading Ukraine?

Cynically: maybe Venezuela will get a bit less sympathy because it's a somewhat shittier (see emigration numbers) and less democratic government than Ukraine's. And I suspect we have a more positive view of US troops than Russian troops, despite everything (Abu Ghraib is seen as an aberration and not as the normal way of working).

[big-and-small]

> How does this differ from Russia invading Ukraine?

Cynically it's different in that Trump hopefully will not going to kill 220,000+ and leave 500,000+ war invalids of US military personnel in process. Though you never know...

[_pferreir_]

It does differ, in ways that many others listed below. That doesn't make it any legitimate, though.

[meindnoch]

A surgical strike that was over before the news broke out vs. a 4-year campaign of plundering with literal criminals, press-ganged foreigners, and chechen blocking detachments, featuring mass rape, executed civilians, abduction and forced reeducation of thousands of children, gross mistreatment of PoW, etc.

Hmmmm... indeed, hard to tell the difference!

[SpicyLemonZest]

Emphasizing that I’m not defending this war at all, but one key difference I’m extremely confident in is that the US will not attempt to annex its favorite regions of Venezuela.

[hvb2]

It doesn't care about regions. There's a lot of precedent for annexing resources though.

Let's see if some american company is granted all kinds of rights to Venezuelan oil in the end.

Which, if it happens, should really be treated as blood oil like blood diamonds are and then sanctioned by the world

[int_19h]

FWIW Russia was initially quite happy with "independent" Ukraine provided that their guy Yanukovich was in charge. It was only when he was ousted that they switched to open invasion tactics.

So from that perspective, I don't think US is really much different, just better at keeping its own puppets in power.

[biggestlou]

Absolutely no reason to believe that

[wood_spirit]

do you think that a pro US replacement regime in Venezuela will get US backing and support for it’s claims to eastern Guyana?

[conradojordan]

"We have to wake up to the world where USA no longer cares about <thing USA has never cared about>, but is a <things USA has always been>"

[stackedinserter]

Idiot.

[int_19h]

Countries that "defend itself" don't annex territories of other countries.

[wiseowise]

Ex-superpower, still regional power, defends itself from Ukraine, right.

[DecoySalamander]

Another difference that has not been mentioned in other comments is that: The US is not completely delusional about its military capabilities and could actually complete this invasion in three days. In fact, it may already be over, as Maduro have been captured.