DC Edit | Trump’s US Back In Role Of A Global Policeman

even as he trumpets that he did so to “surround ourselves with good neighbours”.

Having offered no logical reason for his actions in Venezuela, including killing around 40 people and kidnapping Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, except to say unconvincingly that the Venezuelan with a dubious record of having snatched the last presidential polls was a cartel leader who had flooded the US with drugs, Trump spoke of Cuba and Colombia in the same chilling tone of a President who had tasted the spoils of predatory action across territory without any resistance.

The irony is there for all to note as Trump was the one who had declared that, far from starting a war, he was going to stop wars. Of course, that did not stop him from peppering Iran’s nuclear processing facilities with bunker-busting cluster bombs nor from blockading petroleum ships around the Caribbean and strafing boats if they were suspected of running recreational drugs into the US.

Given the US’s record in history of having destabilised Latin American countries like Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba and Chile, it should surprise no one if Trump pushes his armada already stationed in the Caribbean to mock the international order more as he has done in Caracas.

With Trump conceding that he would be running Venezuela for a while though an acting President has been sworn in, Venezuelan vast oil resources — it pumps out about one million barrels a day or one per cent of global production — will be open for exploitation by American companies.

The world’s voices opposing Trump’s actions have been sheepishly weak except China and Russia which have spoken up about the need to respect boundaries while most others have merely mouthed the pedantic line about addressing issues through dialogue and ensuring peace and stability in the region.

With wars still being fought in Ukraine and the Sudan and peace just about prevailing in Gaza in what the Indian Prime Minister has described as “not the era of war”, there is a danger of Trump’s Venezuela “trip” sending out quite the wrong signal. For instance, China, which may like to take over Taiwan one day, may feel emboldened to do it soon. And who can oppose it if other superpowers see no need to respect international law and convention?

With what face would this multipolar world, in which Trump acts as if he is the sole arbiter of global affairs and preeminent seeker of peace wherever he wishes it should prevail, have the moral right to question the extraterritorial ambitions of any other country like Russia? Trump has simply demonstrated that military might comes with a licence to conquer, much as Vladimir Putin did before him.

In searching for a rationale for such action, a dip into the new National Security Strategy might be revealing as the US stresses on its right to dominate Latin America and “enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere”. Drugs like fentanyl are a huge problem for Americans. But is that reason enough for a President to bypass Congress that alone has the power to approve an act of war?