By GHK Lall- Venezuela is in the bag. Who’s next on the new chessboard that has all the makings of a New American World Order? I nominate Iran as being the most promising next target. It is out with the domino theory and in with the triumph of The Trump Way. As much as I like the American Way more than the others, like democracy, there is much that disturbs, enough to give the jitters.
I always harbored the belief that national sovereignty was in a category of its own. Now that has been blown to bits in the predawn hours of Saturday just past. A jarring beginning to the New Year, and that is speaking in terse terms only. Civilization got turned on its head, when the atrocities against the Palestinians in the Gaza went to more and more heinous depths.
It is good to have the biggest brother on the global bloc on one’s side; a brother that lets the world know that he will not be passive, that he watches, and that he is armed and ready for battle. Locked and loaded, as they say. The whole of the Middle East, plus the rest of the global neighborhood stopped dead in their tracks. Reduced to whimpering rhetoric was all that I heard. And what should have resonated around the world was not the Monroe Doctrine dusted off and put into motion, but a bigger, more menacing phenomenon.
I describe it as Trump-in Charge, and it comes with two gift-wrapped commandments. Get with the program, or get smashed. There is no norm, other than what Mr. Trump says is one. The US Congress was bypassed, but its members will now fall over themselves to stand and salute their heroic commander-in-chief. America had its Rough Rider (Teddy Roosevelt), and what is it that is has today with Donald Trump? Let’s see. I submit American Gladiator.
Think of this: it is one thing to snatch a drug merchant, but a national leader? There’s a precedent for Guyanese, and a warning to leaders, whether in office or not. There’s no such thing as immunity, for the American Bulldozer, DT Trump. An Osama bin Laden, I could make some leeway for, but a president-as malevolent as he is-is asking way too much of a thinking man. Casting a wider net, the Russia of Vladimir Putin always looked like an ‘also ran’, but the Chinese went into their shell, and stayed there.
My first question is what deal was cut to get the Chinese to agree to the demeaning role of voiceless bystander? Were Venezuela and Maduro the sacrificial lambs for much larger considerations? Trump loves doing a deal, while the Chinese would love to do one. Any kind to get some business done in the huge US markets. At this stage little adds up, other than some bombs fell on Caracas and Maduro and spouse are off to New York, visa-free.
The latest was that the US will “run” Venezuela, which now adds a new dimension to all these developments. This gets wilder by the minute, and that is stating matters succinctly. Will the US “run” Venezuela through a domestic lackey? Or will this running be like the one did in Iraq, which cost so much treasure and led to so much destruction? I can foresee part of a US “run” Venezuela having as one of its early policies the dispatching of 100,000 Venezuelans to Guyana, since there is much land here, and so few people here. What is Pres. Ali going to do, object? I have a script for him: accepting on humanitarian grounds, for that is what being a good neighbor means. And I thought that I was crazy.
In these fast-moving flurries, this thought came. It is more of free advice to those Guyanese who see themselves as friends of Exxon and Alistair Routledge. It includes those fawning, bowing Guyanese in the PPP Govt, and the Opposition. Make one funny sound with that oil, and there is a plane waiting to fly the offender-senior of junior-to Florida. The US has the goods on those in the power set, and it is as easy as one, two, three, to get a barrage of charges to lock these lovely folks up.
Recall what I have always said: who are (or were) friends of whom. Who ran protection rackets for whom? Maduro floated around making loud speeches, with heavy drug business hanging over his head for five years. Now either he is in the Tombs in Lower Manhattan or Rikers Island. The bottom-line logic is simple: do as America says, or get barbequed.
