Jackassery: Former top national security officials criticize Trump’s attack on Venezuela

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s military action in Venezuela is further isolating the United States from the rest of the world, was carried out without a strategy for next steps, threatens to destabilize Latin America and raises concerns about the president’s mental deterioration, a group of former top national security officials warned.

In a call with reporters Tuesday, former veteran CIA and foreign policy officials struggled to convey the level of ineptitude and recklessness they see in Trump’s decision last week to send U.S. forces into Venezuela in the middle of the night to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Both are now in New York City, facing charges brought by the United States government.

“There is no longer any process in our foreign policy,” said Luis Moreno, a former ambassador to Jamaica and a former foreign policy official with years of experience in the Caribbean. “We’re doing foreign policy, and to some extent defense policy, through a tweet at 3 in the morning, and everyone has to respond to that.”

Because Trump did not seek congressional authorization before the military strike, which is required by the Constitution, Republican and Democratic foreign policy leaders on Capitol Hill are in the dark about what the United States is doing in Venezuela, a country of 28 million inhabitants that already supported decades of political repression and corruption.

The Trump administration has yet to lay out a coherent plan for what happens now. Trump has stated that the United States is now “execute” Venezuela and be “very involved” in taking the country’s oil. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to backtrack, saying the United States is overseeing the “address” of the country. Vice President JD Vance said the raid was about “narcoterrorists” while Rubio linked him to Iran and Hezbollah.

But Trump has also suggested that the surprise attack was partly an economic decision, referring to Venezuela’s oil as Stolen American oil” and saying that he consulted with American oil companies. before and after the assaultsomething they have questioned. This framework comes at a time when Trump’s economic approval reach a new low last month, at 36%.

The decision to remove Maduro by force is particularly “disturbing” because it underscores how Trump is moving the United States away from supporting democracy and human rights globally toward something dark, said Brian Naranjo, a former senior foreign service official who spent more than 30 years serving primarily in the Western Hemisphere.

“Frankly, this is an effort that seems very neo-imperialist and neo-colonial to me,” Naranjo said. Other countries in the Western Hemisphere are now reorganizing to better prepare to respond to the United States, he said, which is eroding decades of work by American diplomats to build stronger relationships with these nations.

“This nonsense that the White House is inflicting is being taken very seriously throughout the hemisphere,” he said. “For all intents and purposes, the United States is acting alone in this, but for the absence of a plan, resources and manpower.”

Joe Raedle via Getty Images

Democrats in Congress have been demanding that lawmakers immediately pass legislation limiting Trump’s war powers against Venezuela, which is precisely the role Congress is supposed to play under the Constitution. They have emphasized that while Maduro is a corrupt dictator, his regime did not pose the kind of immediate threat to the United States that justifies bypassing congressional approval.

“It is simply unacceptable that Donald Trump continues to ignore that constitutional requirement,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran and co-sponsor of a war powers resolution on Venezuela, said in a statement.

Trump’s comments suggesting an indefinite military presence in Venezuela have already brought comparisons to the disaster of the Iraq war.

“While Donald Trump may never understand that the true costs of war are measured not just in dollars and cents, but also in the blood, sweat and sacrifices of our troops and our military families, our military knows all too well how costly it can be when our nation engages in a war over oil without a plan for what comes next,” Duckworth said.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is the only Republican to sign the Venezuela war resolution. Most other Republican senators have shrugged, saying they believe Trump already has the authority to unilaterally carry out military raids like the ones he ordered in Venezuela. Apparently the limit for them is when it could involve send US ground troops to the country.

To be sure, past American presidents have taken direct military action against foreign leaders. Former President George HW Bush, for example, ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989, which led to arrest of dictator Manuel Noriega, who turned himself in and faced drug trafficking charges in the United States.

But Steven Cash, a former CIA official and intelligence operations specialist, said the “constellation of events” surrounding Trump’s military incursion into Venezuela makes this incident distinguishable from others.

“I think the lack of information to Congress, the lack of authorization or even discussion of this, and indeed the multiple reports of affirmative disinformation presented to Congress by, among others, Secretary Rubio, are unprecedented in the 20th and 21st centuries,” said Cash, who is currently the executive director of The Steady State, a network of former top national security officials and the group that organized Tuesday’s press conference.

Republicans on Capitol Hill must become aware of their role in overseeing the president’s military actions, he said, offering them specific questions.

“Are they really giving up the foreign affairs power that the Constitution vests in Congress? Are they giving up their appropriation powers entrusted to them by the Constitution?” -Cash asked. “Are you worried about now having a leader who seems to be acting much more in the authoritarian mold… than any previous president?”

via News

Trump, of course, ultimately decides the path forward for the United States and Venezuela, and that is precisely what has long worried national security experts. He is erratic and impulsive and, at 79 years old, the criticism is increasingly concerned about his mental state.

“The concern we all have … is the president, the man himself, who is sinking deeper and deeper into some form of dementia,” said Bill Piekney, a former CIA executive who worked at the intelligence agency for 30 years.

“He can’t talk. He can’t think,” Piekney said. “The absence of a Kissingerian-style figure who can sit down and do long-term strategic planning is absolutely astonishing.”

And unlike his first term, Trump has now completely surrounded himself with advisers too fearful to confront him. With congressional leaders showing little desire to curb their military plans and Trump’s inner circle simply following orders, it’s hard to see what security barriers even remain.

“There is absolutely no one around him who can tie him up and get him out of whatever dangerous position he has chosen,” Piekney added. “In fact, they enable it, encourage it and empower it.”