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Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by RivieraKid on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:14PM (#46480372)
It's a win-win, it's good for Venezuelans and US wants the country to become an ally. People behind the decision probably took both into account.

In principle, it's morally good to overthrow a dictator in some circumstances. The most obvious example is North Korea - if the US had the ability to transition that country into democracy with little risk of something going wrong, they should obviously do that.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by Quothling on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:38PM (#46480658)
> It's a win-win

Bold statement considering the history.

win-win: Panama, Grenada.

not win-win: Brazil, El Salvador, Bolivia, Iran, Nicaragua, Chile, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by RivieraKid on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:51PM (#46480822)
Fair point, it's not certain that this will be a win for Venezuelans. But I think it probably will be. Economically it can't get much worse.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by aglavine on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:47PM (#46480769)
Win-win: France, Germany, Korea...
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by WarOnPrivacy on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:12PM (#46481043)
> Win-win: France, Germany, Korea

These countries don't well match those on the overthrowing-the-dictator list, which now includes Venezuela.

For Germany we defeated it's government with a crap-ton of help, after Germany had declared war on us. For France we ousted an invading foreign power (again, with a crap ton of help). For the third we were effectively partitioning the country in prep for the proxy war with the Soviet Union.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by Quothling on Saturday January 03, 2026 @07:25PM (#46483389)
Japan is also a good example. If the US is going to marshall aid (or the equivalent) Venezuela for the next many decades then I think it'll certainly be a win-win.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by zelphirkalt on Sunday January 04, 2026 @04:15AM (#46486354)
Unlikely to happen though. More likely they will just engage in resource extraction. The US doesn't have the mindset of the past any longer.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by johnsmith1840 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:19PM (#46481689)
I mean this kinda implies that there's a chance it could fail but failure basically is no worse than doing nothing?

Most of those examples were failed or problematic countries before and after US intervention. If there's a chance of sucess that's better than doing nothing no?

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by 8note on Saturday January 03, 2026 @05:23PM (#46482343)
given that the US again intends to attack and conquer panama, i dont think you could consider that a win
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by piker on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:30PM (#46481200)
It’s surprising how hard it is for some people to understand this. Yes oil blah blah. A few billion bucks, but the much bigger picture is (at least in this theory) Venezuela gets a democracy and the U.S. gets a stable strategic partner in an important part of its back yard. I’m not evaluating it yet, but there is definitely a bull case for this move on the geopolitical level.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by WarOnPrivacy on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:39PM (#46481294)
> Venezuela gets a democracy and the U.S. gets a stable strategic partner in an important part of its back yard.

They wishes are, at best, one possible outcome from a long list of possible outcomes.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by hvb2 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:03PM (#46481518)
> The most obvious example is North Korea - if the US had the ability to transition that country into democracy with little risk of something going wrong, they should obviously do that.

So let's say they take out Kim jong Un...

Now you have a country where every living being from their birth has been trained that US is bad and their leader is like God on earth.

Your 'little risk of something going wrong' is wishful thinking or naive

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by JumpinJack_Cash on Sunday January 04, 2026 @11:58AM (#46489798)
> > So let's say they take out Kim jong Un...

It will never happen because Kim has nukes. All these regime changes starting from the Afghaninstan, through Saddam, through Gaddafi....now Maduro they are just teaching strongmen to get nukes as the only way to be safe from U.S. (or others) regime change

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by etra0 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:32PM (#46480578)
Well, last time the US intervened in my country it was to actually install a dictator that would benefit them.

It's too early to say it's a win-win situation.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by baxtr on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:53PM (#46480840)
Which country is that if I may ask?
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by WarOnPrivacy on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:02PM (#46480934)
Chile, if the parent's contact info is indicative.

There we backed the overthrow of Allende's government and installed Pinochet.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by olelele on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:17PM (#46481080)
Who hired former nazi torturers to kill the left wing.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by WarOnPrivacy on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:30PM (#46481196)
> Who hired former nazi torturers to kill the left wing.

I can't tell if this is a question or an assertion.

If it's a question, Pinochet utilized Nazis to torture people (ex:Colonia Dignidad) and had lots of leftists tortured and disappeared (too many to list here).

If it's an assertion, yeah.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by olelele on Sunday January 11, 2026 @09:23AM (#46576010)
Assertion. Walther Rauff.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by weaksauce on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:25PM (#46481154)
chile based on the email address in profile
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by Hikikomori on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:35PM (#46481240)
About half of south America.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by phatskat on Saturday January 03, 2026 @05:30PM (#46482406)
_The School of the Americas has entered the chat._[1]

1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2N77mwUI0pDOBOP6gIknkU?si=9...

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by Hikikomori on Saturday January 03, 2026 @05:46PM (#46482505)
Almost listened to all episodes now. America sure used to have a lot of bastard, still do but used to too.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by phatskat on Saturday January 03, 2026 @06:25PM (#46482888)
Love a good Mitch reference!

And I went through a year or two of binging from the beginning and caught up to present day a year or two ago, but took a break for Jamie Loftus stuff and Knowledge Fight, as well as Some More News and Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff to help balance the bummer lol

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by Hikikomori on Saturday January 03, 2026 @08:08PM (#46483695)
Knowledge fight would be interesting, but always balk at their episode count. Also watch some more news when they have something interesting. Basically everything from the frequent bastards guests.

Maybe you'll like the Blowback podcast.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by phatskat on Sunday January 04, 2026 @11:48PM (#46495430)
I’ll put that on the list, thanks!

There is a _lot_ of KF there, I started that from the beginning and I’m close to episode 300…I shudder to think how much of my last two years has been Alex Jones content…but it’s fascinating. And frustrating that his whole shtick seems so transparent yet too complex to get through to people already wrapped up in it

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by coffeefirst on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:04PM (#46480953)
The US has not conducted a successful nation building project since WWII. This is not a coincidence. We don't have the capability.

Killing the dictator is the easy part.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by votepaunchy on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:48PM (#46481377)
South Korea. And Eastern Europe in the 80s.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by senko on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:28PM (#46481783)
Which Eastern European nations did the US build in the 80s?
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by mint5 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:58PM (#46481468)
If only it were that easy…

Overthrowing a dictator most often gets either a new dictator or years of brutal violence and turmoil

Were you in favor of the Iraq war?

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by relaxing on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:32PM (#46480576)
The most obvious example is a fantasy in your mind.

The most obvious counter-example is the entire history of unilateral regime change.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by skeptic_ai on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:36PM (#46480624)
Wouldn’t NK say the same against US? Are we the good guys? Or they are? Or nobody?
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by RivieraKid on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:49PM (#46480791)
NK is a dictatorship with concentration camps, where a small group of people has 20 million hostages. The US is a democracy. (For the record, I'm not American and I wanted Harris to become the president.)
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by pbhjpbhj on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:57PM (#46480882)
The definition of democracy usually includes the rule of law, that no longer exists in USA. Trump declared himself to be dictator, and his handlers are having him act that way. They take no account of USA law, nor of international law, nor ethics of any religious group AFAICT.

Also, paying another country to run your concentration camps is no less evil.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by RivieraKid on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:15PM (#46481059)
The US government is not even in the same universe as NK in regard to what they do to their population.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by mint5 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:01PM (#46481495)
Yet, we’re heading a dangerous path.

Ice could easily start rounding up citizens soon… I mean “domestic terrorists” which is how anyone opposing Trump could be labeled soon

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by pbhjpbhj on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:10PM (#46481022)
This is "we don't let poor people have money because they'll only get fat if they have food to eat" levels of rhetoric.

USA military should be taking heed of their own country's laws before pretending to be enforcing laws in other countries in order to further enrich their oligarchy.

Sure, remove the NK dictator that USA is partly responsible for being put in to power ... but only with international agreement and a plan for rapid move to have open elections. USA is in no place to do this given the lack of democracy there.

Do you really believe the story about freeing Venezuelan's? You're in for a surprise then when USA rapes them for their oil.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by mrtksn on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:13PM (#46481053)
How would you feel if Iran captures Trump, a convicted felon with no respect to the rule of the law, running crypto schemes from the office and with proved connections to a pedophile ring trafficking and planning for a 3rd therm and staying in the office for life?

I’m sure a lot of Americans will be celebrating it on the streets. Will that be a win win too?

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by RivieraKid on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:25PM (#46481156)
I don't think Americans would celebrate on the streets but many would be secretly happy. How would I feel? Depends on what I think would be the consequences for the world.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by mrtksn on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:51PM (#46481396)
You can know the consequences only in retrospect, not when its time to celebrate or not.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by tecleandor on Saturday January 03, 2026 @02:32PM (#46480582)
Is it?