Who might fill the power vacuum in a post-Maduro Venezuela? | DW News
It sounds like the Maduro regime is still in power. If the regime stays in power, was the military operation worth it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HHNKVhH2p4
Tag: conflict
Why Venezuela? Trump’s shifting explanations about military buildup
“Initially, Trump defended his military operations near Venezuela as keeping drugs out of the US, although experts say the cocaine that passes through Venezuela winds up mostly in Europe while fentanyl is sourced from China.
Trump also accused Maduro of emptying Venezuela’s prisons and “mental institutions” into the U.S., although there’s no evidence of that either. According to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have settled in the U.S. in recent years due to economic and political instability in their home country.
By mid-December, Trump accused Maduro of “stealing” U.S. oil and land. Trump appeared to be alluding to work done in the 1970s in Venezuela by Western oil companies before the government there opted to nationalize its reserves, eventually forcing out American companies.
In a Dec. 17 social media post – around the same time sources say Trump was making a decision to greenlight the Jan. 3 military operation — Trump said the U.S. military threat to Venezuela will “only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
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Two days later at a press conference, Secretary of State Marc Rubio offered a more general explanation than access to oil reserves, calling Maduro’s presidency “intolerable” because it was cooperating with “terrorist and criminal elements” instead of the Trump administration.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/why-venezuela-trumps-shifting-explanations-143759048.html
GEN Michel Yakovleff on Why the West No Longer Wins Wars
The West is losing its ability to win wars because: ,among other causes, they believe in fantasies that there will be a technical solution to winning tough wars that don’t involve great loss of life; they no longer have a demographic edge; and they don’t believe in the correctness and goodness of their overarching goals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlZ7cw_9pvc
Yemen is Dead. Here’s What Will Replace It.
The STC in Yemen has quickly conquered most of South Yemen after being in a stalemate for years. They are acting relatively competently and humanely, so the international community may eventually accept them as the rulers of South Yemen. The Houthis still control North Yemen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAOgc3IKBU4
French and German adults lean toward dialing back Ukraine support, new POLITICO poll shows
The French and Germans have turned into little bitches.
“In France and Germany, the EU’s two biggest democracies, new polling shows that more respondents want their governments to scale back financial aid to Kyiv than to increase it or keep it the same. In the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, meanwhile, respondents tilt the other way and favor maintaining material support
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The most frequently cited argument against additional assistance was concerns about the cost and the pressure on the national economy.
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Support for Ukraine was driven primarily by those who backed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election in the U.S.
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“In Germany and France, opposition to assistance was especially pronounced among supporters of far-right parties — such as the Alternative for Germany and France’s National Rally — while centrists were less skeptical.
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The softer support for Ukraine in France and Germany does not appear to reflect warmer feelings toward Moscow, however. Voters in all five countries backed sanctions against Russia, suggesting that even where publics want to pare back aid they remain broadly aligned around punishing the aggressor and limiting Russia’s ability to finance the war.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/french-and-germans-lean-toward-dialing-back-ukraine-support-new-international-politico-poll-shows/
Trump Orders Blockade Over Stolen Land and Oil
The reasons for current military action against Venezuela given by Trump and his allies are various. And the list of reasons to justify war sound a lot like Putin before and after invading Ukraine and W Bush before and after invading Iraq. Reasons for action in Venezuela include: drugs, terrorism, the influence of Russia and Iran, stolen land, stolen oil, opening up Venezuelan oil to American companies, and Maduro being the illegitimate ruler of Venezuela.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ocuj4Adtw
How Kazakhstan is Hedging Against a Russian Invasion
Russia has threatened to invade Kazakhstan. Russia is producing more weapons than it has in a long time. If it didn’t need them in Ukraine, it could use them to invade Kazakhstan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANW_qQFXAyk
How Russia keeps raising an army to replace its dead
“For Russian men, war now advertises itself like any other job.
Offers for front-line contracts appear on the messaging app Telegram alongside group chats and news alerts, promising signing bonuses of up to $50,000 — life-changing money in a country where average monthly wages remain below $1,000. The incentives go beyond cash, with pledges of debt relief and free childcare for soldiers’ families and guaranteed university places for their children. Criminal records, illness and even HIV are no longer automatic disqualifiers. For many men with little to lose, the front has become an employer of last resort.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/05/russia-planned-war-of-attrition-00672960
Military Pistols Don’t Actually Matter
Pistols have never determined who won a war. In WWI, they were less than .1% of kills and wounded. Modern, more compact rifles are more useful than pistols. Rifles have more range, accuracy, and can better punch through modern armor. For some troops, it may be better to carry more rifle ammo than a pistol. Modern pistols are like modern smartphones, there isn’t a huge difference between brands and the chance that one company’s pistol saves your life when another company’s would not, is low.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRlzblOE1-c
What the US wants from Ukraine: Leave Donbas, one way or another
““On the territory issue, Americans are simple: Russia demands Ukraine to give up territories, and Americans keep thinking how to make it happen,” a senior European official familiar with the negotiation process told POLITICO on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
“The Americans insist that Ukraine must leave the Donbas … one way or another,” the official added.
Ukraine has insisted that any peace deal must involve the war being frozen on current lines. At present, some 30 percent of Donbas is still in Ukrainian hands.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-wants-from-ukraine-leave-donbas-one-way-or-another/