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Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by morshu9001 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:01PM (#46480927)
I'm not convinced that this is a good or bad thing yet
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by amrocha on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:24PM (#46481149)
You’re not convinced that the US invading other countries and deposing presidents is bad? In a world where nuclear weapons exist?
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by solenoid0937 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:36PM (#46481247)
It's an objectively fantastic thing when those presidents are doing things not in our interests.

We obviously haven't and won't do this to a nuclear-armed country.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by kaibee on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:17PM (#46481670)
> We obviously haven't and won't do this to a nuclear-armed country.

Right... which means that every regime knows they have to become a nuclear-armed country.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by solenoid0937 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @06:12PM (#46482759)
Absolutely, this has been clear for a long time. Countries are only truly sovereign if they have a reliable nuclear capability, otherwise they are always at the whim of another country with a sufficiently powerful military.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by morshu9001 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @08:06PM (#46483676)
They need the military either way. There's no country that just has nukes and nothing else, except for North Korea, see how that's going for them.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by amrocha on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:12PM (#46481626)
What the fuck do you think China is going to do next time the US does an “exercise” in the china sea?

What the fuck do you think Iran is going to do next time Israel acts up and the US supports it?

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by solenoid0937 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @06:23PM (#46482868)
> What the fuck do you think China is going to do next time the US does an “exercise” in the china sea?

They will continue to blow hot air but ignore it, unless they truly and sincerely believe it is a real military action worth starting a war over (and destroying both economies over.)

> What the fuck do you think Iran is going to do next time Israel acts up and the US supports it?

They will continue developing their weapons program thinking they can do it in secret, and it will continue to get compromised and/or blown up.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by amrocha on Saturday January 03, 2026 @09:41PM (#46484268)
The brazen callousness with which you advocate for the spread of nuclear weapons and the subjugation of other nations’ sovereignty is disgusting.

You’re probably one of the worst people I’ve ever interacted with.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by solenoid0937 on Sunday January 04, 2026 @04:22AM (#46486384)
I don't really care what you think of me, but please adhere to the HN guidelines[1] for civil discussion, this sort of fulminating and personal attack simply has no place here (though there are other websites for that, if you so desire.)

Re. nuclear weapons, sovereignty - I am not "advocating" for anything. I am simply describing the factual reality of international relations, and "political realism," the school of thought that governs international relations between superpowers in the current day and throughout most of human history.

That you are ascribing to this description some sort of moral stance on my part is a judgement error on yours.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by overfeed on Saturday January 03, 2026 @04:32PM (#46481823)
> It's an objectively fantastic thing when those presidents are doing things not in our interests

Why wouldn't China do the same in another country whose president is not acting in China's national interest? If you were Iran[1], would abandoning your nuclear weapons program for sanctions relief still be an option?

1. Or Saudi Arabia

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by solenoid0937 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @06:21PM (#46482841)
Of course each of these countries are ignoring international law in various respects and doing things in their self interest.

Anything as brazen as capturing a president? Not yet. But I can absolutely see them doing this if they deem the cost/benefit great enough.

I wouldn't be surprised if China goes further and launches a full-scale invasion of Taiwan in the next decade, they've certainly been preparing for it according to our intel.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by morshu9001 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @03:31PM (#46481204)
What's the implication here, we're supposed to threaten to nuke them instead? It only works if you're willing to follow through.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by boston_clone on Saturday January 03, 2026 @07:57PM (#46483620)
Instead of strawmanning and presenting yet another false dichotomy, try answering their question.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by morshu9001 on Saturday January 03, 2026 @08:21PM (#46483773)
I'm not the one who brought up nukes and legit don't understand what they meant by that. To answer the other question, yeah I can generally see some valid reasons to remove a foreign leader from power. Not sure about Maduro.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by amrocha on Sunday January 04, 2026 @02:33AM (#46485816)
Who’s we? I’m guessing you’re not a general in the US military, so I don’t know why you’re inserting yourself into this decision.

Do you think a nuclear war would be good for you? Obviously not, so you shouldn’t want your government to threaten to start one. And you shouldn’t support your government when they signal to the world that the only way to be safe from interventionism is to develop nuclear weapons. Or when they signal to other superpowers that they don’t respect international treaties, or the sovereignty of other nations.

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by morshu9001 on Sunday January 04, 2026 @11:31AM (#46489511)
Nuclear war with who?
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by amrocha on Monday January 05, 2026 @01:32AM (#46495898)
Does it matter?
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by morshu9001 on Monday January 05, 2026 @04:48PM (#46505467)
If the answer is "nobody" then yeah. Venezuela doesn't have nukes. North Korea or Russia aren't going to nuclear war over a country they don't even have a security agreement with, or even if they did. The US has already attacked Iran, Iraq, and Syria (under Assad).
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by boston_clone on Saturday January 03, 2026 @07:33PM (#46483450)
Then your understanding of US foreign policy and what’s currently happening is too shallow.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by morshu9001 on Monday January 05, 2026 @05:00PM (#46505628)
So are you an expert on Venezuelan politics? I'm not.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by boston_clone on Tuesday January 06, 2026 @12:15AM (#46508990)
No, but I am one with regard to US foreign policy.

Since you’re not (by your own admission), spend more time reading the globalist (1950s - present) reasons why the US meddles with foreign governments and what forcibly creating a power vacuum does for the local populace.

Then you’ll be better equipped to have a conversation with knowledgeable people about the topic at hand, instead of blithely wondering “hmm, is it actually bad when we extra-judiciously remove a head of state because we want oil?”

Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by morshu9001 on Tuesday January 06, 2026 @07:13PM (#46520813)
You don't know me. I know for sure that an actual US foreign policy expert wouldn't be so arrogant.
Re:Venezuela's capital hit by explosions, smoke seen by boston_clone on Wednesday January 07, 2026 @03:31PM (#46532161)
Yeah, and no true Scotsman would put sugar in their porridge.

Read a book. Brinkley's Rise to Globalism is a good start.