Perhaps Trump can take Albanese off our hands.

I raised the issue of the Monroe doctrine years ago in how it applies to Ukraine and Taiwan.
You think Russia or China want the U.S. on their doorstep?

If the U.S. wishes to argue it's own regional security needs, then Russia and China's arguments against the U.S. become completely valid.

In truth, the U.S. failed with war against Russia, will fail with their war against China - and they know it, and are instead now focused on robbing and looting from all the other countries in the Western hemisphere to try and save themselves from economic ruin.

Unfortunately, Binoy is right. The kidnapping was illegal, unwarranted and will make the world a riskier and more dangerous place. If the USA doesn’t even pretend to respect international law and conventions it will make it even less likely that other countries will. And for a middling power like Australia, those laws and conventions are important.

Maduro is a vile and violent dictator who has fraudulently stolen elections and a kleptocrat who has destroyed what could have been one of South America’s most prosperous economies. I hope at least that the long-suffering Venezuelans get a better government out of this whole mess, although the history of US-induced regime changes doesn’t give much grounds for optimism.

Donald Trump's action in instigating the attack on Venezuela elevates the United states to join with Russia and China in proclaiming a disdain for a rules-based order to international relations.

Planned on a "premise" that the narcotics trade into the US was a perceived as a national security threat to the US, the counter response was a Presidential order to capture Maduro by force. This authority "legitimised" an over-ridding priority to achieve a mission objective through any means at any cost.

Any form of rebuke or condemnation of the events on the 3rd January 2026 from nations voicing their opposition to US action have been a mix of restraint and rhetoric.

Paradoxically, Russia and China offer their criticisms of US action while making no secret of their territorial ambitions to the world community. Is Donald Trump simply attempting to assert his presence in the league of the BIG Three?

I'd have to say that this event raises more questions that it is possible to get answers for, at least in the immediate short term.

#…Trump has, without knowing it, joined a most dubious club…#

Trump has, with full knowledge, spearheaded a course for support of US interests which build on his open and very clear endeavour to MAGA.

Wresting control of the greatest oil reserves in the world, will surely do that. His justification is simple, the oil wells once belonged to US interests, Nationalised by the succession of communist Dictators in the interests of China. As a bonus, the drug supply networks of Latin America are severely disrupted.

His move kisses the back side goodbye, of the multilaterists congregating in the defunct United Nations and sets the US firmly on its more traditional unilateral path of self interest.

A win-win for all Americans top to bottom, and what could be wrong with that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine

ttbn said "Perhaps Trump can take Albanese off our hands." Answer- Good point

Armchair Critic said "If the U.S. wishes to argue it's own regional security needs, then Russia and China's arguments against the U.S. become completely valid."
"- Answer- This could be a false equivalency. The Monroe Doctrine was ostensively about the stability and non-interference in Latin American independent nations. Given that both China and Russia could be said to be based on unstable nihilistic authoritarian principles of Marxism suggests that regional dominance by China and Russia is invalid. It's not just about "spheres of influence" but about stability in their sphere of influence, note this doesn't mean that Spain for example can't participate in the stability of Southern America in the 1800's but they should probably go through the US (ie consult and be directed by the stakeholders in the region).

But the US could fail against China if their allies don't understand the nature of the threat I suppose, good doesn't always win against bad, at least in the short term. In a sense the US principles have become corrupted in successive waves (maybe that is what AC is seeing when he says that the US is bad- ttbn says something similar but still supports the west- I find it hard to believe that AC actually believes that authoritarian Marxism represents a superior political system to the European model in spite of it's faults). You could say that the current 100 year period represents a decline of traditional political wisdom capital by opportunists, Yuri Bezmenov warned of the corruptibility of open societies in his decried Harvard address.

I think President Trump a good force in the sanity battle, and he stopped 8 wars. Maybe Binoy Kampmark supports Chinese drug pre-cursors, Canadian imports, and El Salvador drug lords too.

Reagan captured General Noriega, Nicaragua 1989.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_strikes_on_alleged_drug_traffickers_during_Operation_Southern_Spear

Even if part of the reason is oil, it's still a good reason, sane powers need to maintain world dominance, oil is a critical resource for world stability, and Marxism isn't sane. This isn't only about law it's about sanity.