we've seen this movie so many times there's no doubt how it will end but that doesn't stop the empire as it attempts to march on, and here cole make some good points i hadn't previously considered;


There are many things wrong with National Security Adviser John Bolton, but the worst is his fixation on petroleum politics. His response to the complex crisis of Venezuela is to hope that US energy corporations can produce some of that country’s oil (“It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.”) He probably deliberately let journalists see a note he had made about sending 5000 US troops to Colombia, which neighbors Venezuela, as a way of threatening Caracas.
The hawks around the isolationist Trump have slow-rolled him on his withdrawal plans and have even inveigled him into increasing US troop levels in some countries, such as Afghanistan and Syria, from which he now seems determined to withdraw.
Given Trump’s erratic and volatile temperament and given the even more erratic and volatile temperament of the far right wing nuts like Bolton with whom he has surrounded himself, the question arises whether the US will be dragged into a military engagement in Venezuela. Over oil..........https://www.juancole.com/2019/01/bolton-gerontocrats-venezuela.html