Historically, superpowers were not required — for the simple reason that no force was in a position to make them — to produce justifications for hostilities against neighboring territories; they had resources the superpower wanted, or else there was some other strategic interest at play, so it simply pulled the trigger and went in.
Imagine, for instance, Caesar giving a speech about promoting democracy in Gaul as the impetus for the conquest.
It’s only in the last few hundred years or so, beginning with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia and later refined via the Hague Conventions, League of Nations, and United Nations, etc., that the concept of international law has required some viable pretext to commence war against a sovereign country.
This is to say, if the current Venezuela situation had occurred in 1600, the United States would likely just have invaded and dispensed with the pretense; deposing the Venezuelan regime, which was (or is still, technically, as it has yet to be dismantled) allied with China, Russia, and other adversaries, is about natural resources and strategic hemispheric domination.
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There’s a reason realism has continued to dominate the field of international relations over newer and more fashionable theories like liberalism; everyone who pays attention to geopolitics understands the name of the game in an anarchic international system, which is realpolitik.
The CCP, for instance — while it enjoys somewhat normalized trade relations, is not a member of the Western liberal order — doesn’t care about international law and only pretends to when it’s advantageous.
When Xi Jinping declared his New Year’s Resolution to annex Taiwan, he simply claimed that it belongs to China, so China is going to take it.
However, international law, an outgrowth of liberalism, which the United States has long served as the de facto head of, precludes the pursuit of hegemony as a legitimate casus belli, so the official reason that’s been offered for months is that Venezuela traffics fentanyl to the United States.This leads us to the recently unsealed grand jury indictment against Nicolás Maduro.
Via United States District Court, Southern District of New York (emphasis added):
NICOLAS MADURO MOROS, the defendant, now sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking. That drug trafficking has enriched and entrenched Venezuela's political and military elite, including Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace DIOSDADO CABELLO RONDON, the defendant, and former Minister of the Interior and Justice RAMON RODRIGUEZ CHACIN, the defendant. That massive-scale drug trafficking has also concentrated power and wealth in the hands of MADURO MOROS's family, including his wife, the purported First Lady of Venezuela CILIA ADELA FLORES DE MADURO, the defendant, and MADURO MOROS's son, member of Venezuela's National Assembly NICOLAS ERNESTO MADURO GUERRA, a/k/a "Nicolasito," a/k/a "The Prince," the defendant. This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States…
At various times since in or about 1999, Venezuelan officials, including NICOLAS MADURO MOROS, DIOSDADO CABELLO RONDON, and RAMON RODRIGUEZ CHACIN, the defendants, have partnered with narco-terrorists from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia ("F ARC"), Ejercito de Liberaci6n Nacional ("ELN"), the Sinaloa Cartel, the Zetas, and Tren de Aragua ("TdA"), including TdA's leader, HECTOR RUSTHENFORD GUERRERO FLORES, a/k/a "Nifio Guerrero," the defendant. In sum, MADURO MOROS and his co-conspirators have, for decades, partnered with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world.
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It’s 25 pages long. I read it in its entirety, and it's quite detailed regarding his criminal enterprise.
While it’s replete with references to cocaine (67 in total), it surprisingly never mentions anything about fentanyl trafficking — not even once.
Now, if you, as the Department of Justice, are indicting the head of a narcoterror state responsible for trafficking fentanyl into the United States, which the administration of which you are a part cited as at least one of, if not the primary, reasons that the regime had to go, wouldn’t you include that in a grand jury indictment?
Concerns over fentanyl are, at best, secondary to the true motivation to depose Maduro, which is control over its oil and other natural resources and eliminating collaboration with China, Iran, or other adversaries by any country in the Western hemisphere, per the Monroe Doctrine.
The point here isn’t whether the right strategic move is for the United States to depose Maduro; it’s that international law precludes the transparent disclosure of the real reason for doing so, which is ostensibly in the furtherance of the American national interest, and thus obfuscates a real public debate on the merits.
