Lindsey Graham says Trump floated military action in Venezuela
17 replies, posted
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/427192-graham-says-trump-floated-using-military-force-in-venezuela
President Trump reportedly broached the idea of using military force in Venezuela in a conversation with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) earlier this month.
Graham recounted the exchange to Axios, telling the news outlet that Trump asked him what he thought about using military force in a nation where the U.S. is pushing for regime
change.
"Well, you need to go slow on that, that could be problematic," Graham recalls him saying to Trump, according to Axios. Trump reportedly replied, "well, I'm surprised, you want to invade
everybody.'" "And I said, 'I don't want to invade everybody, I only want to use the military when our national security interests are threatened,'" Graham told Axios.
Graham added that Trump is "really hawkish" when it comes to Venezuela. But Axios noted that there are no signs the Trump administration has plans to invade the South American
country. Instead, the administration appears to be pushing for regime change in the nation through diplomatic and economic pressures.
The United States ran out of destiny to manifest, so they're looking for more.
Is it normal for the President to be talking to Senators so often?
That'll do a great job of making the situation a lot worse
if trump went boots first into another country, no matter if the dnc runs a ham sandwich he'd loose
Can we please not?
His base will support him no matter what. I doubt you'd see many of them on the front lines, though.
Would you rather the branches of government not talk to one another so often...?
Trump reportedly replied, "well, I'm surprised, you want to invade everybody."
Lmao Trump can be pretty witty sometimes.
Yes. It is generally a good thing when parts of the government coordinate with the other parts. In this case, while Trump could probably start a military action without legislative approval, Congress could pretty quickly force a withdrawal if they disapproved. That would be far worse than either staying out, or a sustained invasion, so any commander-in-chief considering military action would want to make sure Congress isn't going to oppose it.
As for whether we should... right now, it would clearly only make things worse. I think there's a case to be made, if (and only if) the situation continues to get worse and reaches Syria-like levels of awful, that a coalition (not just USA) going in, supporting one side (preferably the good guys), and forcing a quick end to a civil war, would be better than leaving it to burn itself down. It's not bad for our military to be quietly drawing up plans - that's just sensible preparation for a plausible worst-case scenario. The problem is that Trump thinks now is the point where military action is justified - it very clearly is not. That even Graham knows that shows how much of an idiot Trump is on foreign policy.
A broken clock is right twice a day...
I'm expecting Green Beret "training accidents" in Venezuela soon
Lindsey Graham was, until this month, a member of the senate Armed Forces Committee, so it's very typical/common for members of this committee to meet with the president..
Additionally, though Graham is not a member of this group, there's something called the "gang of 8", which consists of the leaders of each house of congress as well as the leading members of the house and senate intelligence committees. They receive national security briefings and keep in close contact with the President
His base is isolationist, but wanted to kick Iran/N. Korea's asses. His base isn't really anything other than hopelessly naive.
What a relief that idea was shot down so that Venezuela can be the next Iran/Guatemala/Syria/Dominican Republic/Bolivia/Chile/Afghanistan (pt. 1)/Nicaragua instead of the next Grenada/Panama/Iraq/Afghanistan (pt. 2)/Libya
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/818OWIi9aQL._UY445_.jpg
Trump is more like this watch.
You know, is understanable when people gets tired of the "USA likes to lay ruin other countries for oil" meme ( especially north americans themselves ), but looking at the story this was just bound to be another entry in that list.
Pray that the few rational people who are left at the White House do everything they can to stop "sending security to the freedom fighters" and other bullshit excuses they used during decades to avoid blood and force an alternative ( with luck non violent ) outcome of this situation.