{"id":29129,"date":"2017-08-14T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=29129"},"modified":"2017-08-14T05:35:41","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T09:35:41","slug":"and-now-war-with-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"And now war with Venezuela?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Madurocarabobo11372107284111\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Venezuela, with its leftist dictator Nicolas Maduro, is already a basket-case. \u00a0The country is in a state of economic meltdown, other Latin American countries are isolating his regime, and ordinary Venezuelans are rallying against their government. \u00a0Now President Trump has said that he is considering a \u201cmilitary option.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n

But why? \u00a0And that threat has only made matters worse. \u00a0Latin America\u2013which had been on our side against Venezuela\u2013is now rallying in its support, at this invocation of the old American \u201cgun-boat diplomacy.\u201d \u00a0So are the people of Venezuela, including those opposed to Maduro but who do not want to see their country invaded.<\/p>\n

\n

The president told reporters, after issuing economic sanctions against the country, \u201cWe have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

This came at the worst possible time as Vice-President Pence just returned from meeting with South American leaders to organize the opposition to Maduro.<\/p>\n

Now Latin America is unified in condemning not Maduro but President Trump!<\/a><\/p>\n

The United States has a long history of intervening in Latin American nations, sending troops and invading them to support American interests. \u00a0 The United States has long been trying to live down that reputation and has made progress in building more positive relationships with the countries of South and Central America.<\/p>\n

And now President Trump threatens to invade Venezuela.<\/p>\n

This, even though President Trump had promised during the election not to get into any more pointless wars that are not unrelated to the defense of the United States. \u00a0This is why many of us voted for him!<\/p>\n

There is no conceivable American interest in invading Venezuela and overthrowing Maduro. \u00a0Especially since he is clearly on his way out anyway!<\/p>\n

But the world needs to understand this: \u00a0President Trump is just talking. \u00a0He is using words to intimidate Maduro. \u00a0And the president is speaking off the top without thinking through\u00a0what he is saying, as he does so often.<\/p>\n

He is not going to invade Venezuela. \u00a0He is clearly not a diplomat, for whom words always have to be carefully considered and nuanced.<\/p>\n

But there is a good reason for that attention to words.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: \u00a0With the Venezuela statement, the president was more specific than he should have been. \u00a0But in responding to the neo-Nazi\u00a0who ran his truck into a crowd of protesters, killing one\u00a0and injuring dozens, he was vaguer than he should have been.<\/a> \u00a0He condemned the \u201cegregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides,\u201d setting up a moral equivalency between the \u201cmany sides\u201d rather than condemning the specific \u201chatred, bigotry and violence\u201d of the white nationalists who were rallying in Charlottesville, one of whom killed the protesters.<\/p>\n

This just fuels the narrative that President Trump, despite his denials, supports the white nationalists (who admittedly support him).<\/p>\n

President Trump needs a 15-second delay before his words go public. \u00a0He needs to start relying on speech-writers and staff members to compose and vet his statements, in line with what other presidents have done. \u00a0He needs to stop tweeting, stop meeting with the press, and stop talking off the top of his head.<\/p>\n

As it is, not only our diplomatic relationships with other countries are damaged, his political standing in this country is damaged and thus his ability to implement his agenda and \u201cmake America great again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venezuela, with its leftist dictator Nicolas Maduro, is already a basket-case. \u00a0The country is in a state of economic meltdown, other Latin American countries are isolating his regime, and ordinary Venezuelans are rallying against their government. \u00a0Now President Trump has said that he is considering a \u201cmilitary option.\u201d But why? \u00a0And that threat has only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":29131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,25,36],"tags":[5689,5688,4923,4194],"class_list":["post-29129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-language","category-politics","tag-charlottesville-killings","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-venezuela"],"yoast_head":"\nAnd now war with Venezuela?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Trump has threatened a "military option" to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. But why?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"And now war with Venezuela?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Trump has threatened a "military option" to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. But why?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-14T09:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-14T09:35:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2017\/08\/Madurocarabobo11372107284111-e1502580806311.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/\",\"name\":\"And now war with Venezuela?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-14T09:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-14T09:35:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"President Trump has threatened a \\\"military option\\\" to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. But why?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"And now war with Venezuela?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"And now war with Venezuela?","description":"President Trump has threatened a \"military option\" to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. But why?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"And now war with Venezuela?","og_description":"President Trump has threatened a \"military option\" to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. But why?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/","og_site_name":"Cranach","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","article_published_time":"2017-08-14T09:45:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-08-14T09:35:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":506,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2017\/08\/Madurocarabobo11372107284111-e1502580806311.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gene Veith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gene Veith","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/","name":"And now war with Venezuela?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-08-14T09:45:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-14T09:35:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1"},"description":"President Trump has threatened a \"military option\" to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. But why?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/and-now-war-with-venezuela\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"And now war with Venezuela?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/","name":"Cranach","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1","name":"Gene Veith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gene Veith"},"description":"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}