Oil Colonialism In 2025? WTF Is Going On?

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The story of the day is an obvious one. Making sense of it is not as easy.

Donald Trump and his merry gang of peacemakers, chasing the Nobel Peace Prize, have bombed Venezuela and abducted its leader and his wife, Nicolás and Cilia Maduro. Reportedly, the US Army’s Delta Force took them from their bed in the middle of the night.

A lot of people are confused about what is going on, and concerned about where it’s leading. One reason it’s odd is that Trump campaigned quite consistently on how he was supposedly against the Iraq War in 2003. He was supposed to be very anti-interventionist. This was something that got many people to vote for him initially. War hawk Hillary Clinton was apparently going to get us into a big new war, World War III. Trump was going to disentangle us. How’s that going?

But, again, what is happening? Why is Donald Trump saying we are going to run Venezuela for now? Why did he kidnap the leader of the country and bomb it without Congressional approval?

One common assumption is that Trump wants the US to take Venezuela’s oil, or secure special access to it in some way. Of course, Maduro has been a demon incarnate to many American politicians for a long time, and Marco Rubio and crew may well love the idea of taking over Venezuela, but Donald Trump is in charge, and he’s got to have reasons for it.

When asked about the “future of Venezuela’s oil industry,” Trump responded, “Well, I see that we’re going to be very strongly involved in it, that’s all. I mean, what can I say? We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.”

The US produces more oil than it consumes. Oil prices are relatively low, gas prices are relatively low. And global oil demand may even be declining. There is no clear, urgent need to go taking another country’s oil. Right?

Note that Trump has given some clues, clueless as they might have been, previously about this. “This wasn’t the first time that Trump has admitted his war with Venezuela is at least partly motivated by oil,” The New Republic writes. “Earlier last month, the U.S. military seized two Venezuelan oil tankers. Asked what would happen to the oil, Trump replied, ‘we’re going to keep it,’ then added: ‘Maybe we will sell it, maybe we will keep it. Maybe we’ll use it in the Strategic Reserves. We’re keeping the ships also.’”

Trump has an obsession with polluting fossil fuels and against cleantech. Is the whole point really just about trying to get more black gold for the United States?

Even more selfishly, maybe he’s just trying to raid Venezuela for his family and friends. Perhaps he thinks he can take over the vast oil resources in Venezuela and gift them to family members, friends, and supporters.

There are a couple more more potential explanations for what Trump could be thinking. Perhaps they are stupid and ridiculous, but they are also somehow believable.

It was just a comment on reddit that I happened to run across, but this is one interesting theory:

It can be hard to remember or believe, but the invasion of Iraq did give George W. Bush a big boost in support. The economy is not going well here for normal people, layoffs are piling up, the US government even skipped publishing a jobs report, and the ICE raids, mass deportations, etc. are creating serious problems beyond being completely absurd, often illegal, and inhumane. He may be looking for a “win” and a distraction…. Perhaps he is simply looking for a way to become popular and thinks this is it.

Frankly, I’m not a big fan of that theory, but I think it’s possible.

A third option is that he’s a power-hungry dictator wannabe who idolizes people like Putin and has a dream of taking other countries or territories for the United States, leaving a mark like that of a former land-conquering king. He didn’t get to buy Greenland, and he isn’t making Canada into a 51st state, but could he take over the country of Venezuela? This is the kind of simple, Neanderthal thinking that drives this man. Greenland and Canada may be off limits, but Venezuela may be politically feasible enough. The other things above could be bonuses, other “benefits” in his mind, but could the thing driving this mostly be his idea of becoming the US king president who conquered Venezuela?

I wonder how people who thought he was going to be a non-interventionist president who would disentangle us from military affairs around the world are viewing this.

Featured photo by Maria Isabella Bernotti, via Pexels