U.S. poised to strike military targets in Venezuela in escalation against Maduro regime

[LymphocyteLover]

Source: Miami Herald

The Trump Administration has made the decision to attack military installations inside Venezuela and the strikes could come at any moment, sources with knowledge of the situation told the Miami Herald, as the U.S. prepares to initiate the next stage of its campaign against the Soles drug cartel. The planned attacks, also reported by the Wall Street Journal, will seek to destroy military installations used by the drug-trafficking organization the U.S. says is headed by Venezuelan strongman Nicols Maduro and run by top members of his regime.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article312722642.html#storylinkcpy

(complete article is behind a paywall)

Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article312722642.html

---

THIS IS FUCKING AWFUL

[Klarkashton]

1. They didn't even wait for a full on recession to start a war

As the republicans usually do.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Peace Prize incoming?

[sop]

3. Trump believes he can kill anyone as long as he uses the magic incantation: "drug trafficking."

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Starting a war.

[PatSeg]

5. My god, he's really going to start World War III

[EX500rider]

10. How? No big power is going to step in and help Maduro nt

[LymphocyteLover]

13. Russians might... they sent a cargo plane there today

[Polybius]

17. They're too exhausted from their own war to do anything

Cuba might bark, but they what can they do? Nothing.

[EX500rider]

18. They can't even beat Ukr right next door, you think they could fight a war on the other side of the globe?

They want zero part of that.

Russia's 2025 military budget is estimated at 15.5 trillion rubles ($156 billion)

The US proposed a $1.01 trillion national defense budget for fiscal year 2026, a 13.4% increase from FY2025.

[PatSeg]

14. He seems to be hungry for war

and I think he'll look for or create conflict wherever he can so he can use the incredible military that he's inherited. After all, what a waste to have it if you're not going to use it (his logic, not mine). He's been pushing a lot of buttons and bullying a lot of countries. I think he wants to be remember as a wartime president.

[bluestarone]

16. Lot's of bad shit in that Epstein file, with lots of bad people involved

i fear anything could happen to STALL, STALL, STALL.

[PatSeg]

21. Yes, I think so

Possibly even worse than we're imaging.

[republianmushroom]

6. Another oil war.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. "US targets Venezuela over 'Soles' cartel. Does it exist?" (spoiler: probably not)

While some of US President Donald Trump's right-wing led allies in South America -- Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay -- have echoed his designation of "Soles" as a terrorist organization, many have doubts such a group even exists.

Venezuela itself, and neighbor Colombia, insist there is no such thing as "Cartel de los Soles."

Some experts agree, saying there is no evidence of the existence of an organized group with a defined hierarchy that goes by that name.
...
"There is no such thing, so Maduro can hardly be its boss," Phil Gunson, an analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank, told AFP of the so-called "Cartel de los Soles."

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250828-us-targets-venezuela-over-soles-cartel-does-it-exist

Lawyers, Guns & Money point to this "license to kill" that Trump has awarded himself:

The administration has designated drug cartels as terrorist organizations while claiming Trump has inherent constitutional authority to order the strikes to defend the country against attacks. But as legal experts note, this gives Trump the power to unilaterally execute civilians who are not in any meaningful sense akin to terrorist groups or waging war against the United States, with zero due process. Meanwhile, lots of evidence casts doubt on whether some of these people were even trafficking drugs to the United States in the first place.

Smith said the official legal rationale—offered in this week’s Armed Services Committee briefing—has gotten even more troubling. He said administration officials claimed they now have the authority to bomb people who are merely “affiliated” with groups that Trump has designated as “narco-terrorists.” But under questioning, they refused to say what “affiliated” even means.

“They did not in any way, shape, manner, or form explain what the ceiling and floor are for ‘affiliated,’” Smith told me. “Theoretically, that could go beyond whether they’re in the actual action of moving drugs.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/202537/trump-boat-bombings-venezuela-alarm-bells

Searching around my memory for an equivalent in history, this popped up:

How a False Flag Sparked World War Two: The Gleiwitz Incident Explained

In the German press, reports appeared claiming that German nationals living in Poland had been subjected to torture. But something more eye-catching was needed to convince the world of Poland’s provocation.
...
This plan included an attack on the customs house at the then German border village of Hochlinden, in which six inmates from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp were dressed up in Polish uniforms and shot. A second similar operation was carried out against the Pitschen forestry lodge. But perhaps the most famous incident took place in Gleiwitz.
...
On the evening of 31 August 1939, a seven-man SS team stormed the transmitter station disguised as Polish insurgents. They pushed past the German staff, seized a microphone, and announced in Polish:

“Attention! This is Gliwice. The broadcasting station is in Polish hands.”

The day before, the SS team had arrested a 43-year-old unmarried German farmer named Franciszek Honiok. To complete their deception at Gleiwitz, the SS officers dressed Honiok in a Polish uniform, murdered him, and left his body at the entrance of the transmitter station.

https://www.historyhit.com/gleiwitz-incident-explained/

[LymphocyteLover]

12. a war based on a fantasy... why does that sound so familiar?

[bluestarone]

8. Everything about TSF and his terrorists are UNHOLY!!

3 more fucking years of this bullshit, unless his blood stops flowing.

[generalbetrayus]

9. ♫ Well it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for? ♫

[MarineCombatEngineer]

11. Country Joe and the Fish....

&list=RDft0vkKCadgk&start_radio=1

[Prairie Gates]

15. Criminal US regime planning illegal murders in Venezuela

[JCMach1]

19. Regime change and he will 'seize' the oil...

The 🍊 🧩 of 💩 telegraphed what he would do years ago.

[Aviation Pro]

20. No new wars, kid fucker?

Lies made, lies kept.

[Bayard]

22. This is Congress's job!

He doesn't have the power to just declare a war on his own say so.

Who do we have to sue to stop this bullshit? And fast!



Power to Declare War
“The Congress shall have Power To . . . provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.”
—U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8, clause 1

“The Congress shall have Power . . . To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
“To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
“To provide and maintain a Navy;
“To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
“To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
“To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress”
—U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8, clauses 11–16

https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/War-Powers/

[EX500rider]

23. Unfortunately with the War Powers Act he can deploy troops for up to 60 days in combat without Congressional approval

[thomski64]

27. Congress? We don't need no stinkin' Congress

[mackdaddy]

24. What happens if they shoot back?

Ukraine has been doing some serious strikes with cheap drones.

They have sent many Russian ships to the bottom with drone swarms.

They have used drones deep inside Russia to blow up fuel refineries and multi-million dollar aircraft sitting on airfields with cheap drones.

This could get ugly.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

25. Protestants vs. Catholics. Coming to a TV screen near you!

[LymphocyteLover]

28. there's a new angle-- wheee!

[Skittles]

26. Cadet Bonespurs starting a war

FUCKING DISGUSTING