Above and below, US strikes on Caracas – El Pais, January 3
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It’s a measure of the immaturity of the gadfly Andrew Korybko that his response to today’s news, of the criminal act of a criminal empire, was not to condemn the abduction of Nicolás Maduro and his wife. It was to seize the moment to take gleeful sideswipes at the “Alt-Media Community” he delights in traducing.
Nevertheless, aside from a few corporate sources struggling to make sense of the still breaking news as I arose early to write about the US threat to Greenland, this irksome popinjay was first in with his take. Nor is he wildly off the mark with his Five Takeaways From The US “Special Military Operation” In Venezuela. Many of us have indeed been caught napping.
Or, just as bad, indulging in wishful thinking.
Take my December 5 post, Venezuela: follow through or dial down? It set out two alternative scenarios, given the armada assembled with menace aforethought in the Caribbean. One was that Trump would eventually seek a face-saving climbdown, Maduro having remained defiant; the other that a full scale attack on Venezuela would be mounted. While I considered the latter less likely, I – along with many others, including an ‘AMC’ the Korybko misses no opportunity to crow over – could not dismiss it entirely.
What none of us – Korybko included – predicted was that the more powerful of the world’s two premier rogue states would snatch Maduro while leaving – for now – his government intact and, as best we can tell, defiant. Yet for the snatch to have been possible, powerful players in the country’s defence must have been bought off. That dreadful realisation must be exercising the loyalists still seemingly in charge.
For now.
After Korybko, second to comment were the Duran duo. I’ll bring more takes as and when they emerge but for now it’s over to Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforou …
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OMG. What to say? Except you and others are thank goodness saying it.
Happy New Year Phil. Let’s hope 2026 will be a good for for us even if in the shadow of so much darkness. x
Happy new year to you too Anne x – and, as you say, OMG …
I’m presently working my way through a small but growing mountain of analysis and comment on this event.
Jeffrey Sach’s interview with Glenn Diesen is probably as good a place as any to start. ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZuTOuwKGA
….Simply because the key focus is on the anarchy which ensues from tearing up any pretence of having any rules. One example which occurs being how do you operate, in any practical sense, global logistical supply chains when skull and crossbones is the operational context?
Another interesting piece can be found here:
https://heininger.substack.com/p/venezuela-an-outrageous-blunder-beyond
Which argues that this represents a major blunder on the part of the US:
“A superpower crossed an ocean, bombed a sovereign country, captured its president, and calmly announced it would “run” the territory until it deems the transition complete.
This was done in a country where China has become the dominant external stakeholder—major creditor, main oil customer, and partner in long‑term energy projects—making the move a direct insult to Beijing as much as to Caracas.
For China and Russia, this is not simply an outrage against a distant government; it is a direct strike at their interests and at the notion that any state in the Global South can be safe if Washington decides it wants what lies under its soil. Chinese companies have poured billions into Venezuelan oil; Russian diplomacy has defended Caracas at the UN; together they have treated Venezuela as part of a wider project to prove that another pole of power is possible. Trump has just sent them a message: “We don’t care.” The only question now is how they answer it.….
…….Every government that has quietly hedged—trading with China and Russia, borrowing from Western banks, voting cautiously at the UN—now sees that the “rules‑based order” includes the rule that a president can be kidnapped if he inconveniences Washington too much. If this can be done to Caracas, what guarantee do Manila, Jakarta, Pretoria, or even New Delhi really have? The lesson is brutal: safety lies not in making yourself a better client, but in joining a bloc strong enough that the strike never comes.
This is where the true magnitude of the blunder lies. Venezuela does not just humiliate a single state; it delegitimizes the entire story the United States has been telling about itself since 1945. The mask of “defender of democracy” slips, and underneath is a frightened empire that will wreck any country it can reach if that buys a little more time at the top. Once seen, that face cannot be unseen. It becomes the image every BRICS summit, every South‑South conference, every speech about multipolarity can point to as Exhibit A.”
Finally, for the moment, Daniel Davis’s Deep Dive take:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ckFEQgUZs
Happy New Year, Phil! I’m sorry to hear that you were laid low with the lurgy. I came across a good video about the importance of vitamin D and the rda in Britain is very low, and then heard on the radio that we should all take supplements in the UK because of our latitude, so I’m a month into taking vitamin D supplements, and initial results seem promising. My passion for wildlife photography and age means I need all the help I can get to avoid lurgies these days!
I have you to thank for introducing me to Brian Berletic, who has posted another good video today, this one regarding recent events in Venezuela and how it fits in with the bigger picture of controlling the flow of oil to China, rather than the obvious lie that it’s anything to do with smug druggling!
Oops, the link wasn’t copied with the comment:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ6SCrjwt4k
Thanks for the Vit D tip. I’m better now but will give this a try. As for today’s offering from BB, I saw it this afternoon and will be hosting it tomorrow. All the best.