[chiefalchemist]

> If this were purely about oil,

Is anyone that naive at this point? The majority of us have learned to realize that these things are not as simple as they are presented (either by conspiracy theorist, the media, a/o politicians.) Put another way, is anyone saying it was purely about oil?

We do know Trump likes playing offense. His favorite strategy? Put the defender on its heels and keep them there. That said, was the drugs issue a cover? Could be. But does any other drug exporting country want to take that chance?

[jmye]

> Put another way, is anyone saying it was purely about oil?

I think “popular” opinion is that this is just Iraq, again. So even if no one credible is saying it, I think a lot of people are saying it (I don’t have a link, but check any of the major Reddit threads, as a form of sentiment analysis).

And being clear, I’m not saying that does or doesn’t matter, or that social media sentiment matters. But a lot of (naive) people are buying the sold narrative.

[nxobject]

Watch out, cocaine exporters of the world, I guess, unless you buy your way with preferential access to American companies? Because, truly, I’m sure Trump would be much happier to trade off a drugs war for a narrative of economic opportunity.

[surgical_fire]

Is Venezuela even a drug exporter country?

I mean, I understand that this is HN, and people here probably think that every country south of Texas is a drug exporting country full of Mexicans.

The main producers of drugs in South America are Colombia and Bolivia. Traditionally Colombia has the largest cartels.

I don't even think oil was the main goal of the US. There is no occupation of Venezuela, and not even a puppet dictator was put in place.

Maduro's vice president seems to be in power and there's no real indication that the Venezuelan government still in place will enact meaningful policy changes. Unless an actual occupation begins, the only thing I expect is that if the new government is too weakened the situation will spiral into a civil war of sorts.

I think that Trump just did something to take focus away from the whole Epstein deal for a bit.

[nxobject]

IIRC, Mexican cartels are the biggest producers of synthetic opioids.

https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/2025National...

[razingeden]

>I understand that this is HN, and people here probably think that every country south of Texas is a drug exporting country full of Mexicans.

I live in Jalisco. Your condescension isn’t really contributing anything to HN.

[watwut]

> I think that Trump just did something to take focus away from the whole Epstein deal for a bit.

Trump is a highly emotional man driven by his feelings. Pete Hegseth is also a highly emotional man, openly driven by his feelings and notion of bully kind of masculinity. Vance is the most rational from the three, but still fairly on the emotional side.

And yet, people still insist on looking for rationalizations for what these do. Both with Trump and Hegseth, the feeling comes first. Something made them feel certain way or they want to feel certain way. Yes there are rational parts of motivation that combine with these.

But imo, the real truth is that ordering an attack and watching that attack happen makes them feel strong, powerful and like a manly man. These are intoxicating feelings. And all of that being real, real people dying, makes them much stronger then what one feels when playing computer game. They like this, on emotional level. And it is fair to guess they will continue doing this, because that is how guys addicted to own masculinity operate. They always need more.

[chiefalchemist]

> I think that Trump just did something to take focus away from the whole Epstein deal for a bit.

The sole reason? That’s over the top. Did it contribute to the feasibility? Of course it did. Aside from loving to play offense, Trump is a master at the distraction(s). He knows ppl are obsessed with him (read: haters are going to hate) and he uses that to his advantage.

But to say this was a cover for the whole Epstein show is overthinking it.

But sure, I’ll entertain your theory… where is all the cocaine coming from then? North? Canada? East? Europe? South East? Africa???