Ep. 88: Here We Go Again...😑
Hey FRs,
Remember when we invaded Venezuela and abducted their president? That was crazy, right, like some colonialist fever dream?
That happened on January 3. On February 28, the US launched strikes on Iran (the timeline is insane). It's been hard to turn our focus away from the Iran shitshow since then, but this week we thought we should check back in on how things are going in Venezuela. I'm sure it's all fine.
I mean, twenty million Venezuelans don't have reliable access to water, ten million don't have enough food, but Washington just announced a three-stage nation-building plan! With our stellar history of successful nation-building, what could possibly go wrong?
Is the U.S. Venezuela strategy nation-building by another name?
Yep. The historical record on this is unambiguous. Washington's recently announced framework — stabilize, recover, transition — is a replica of the one applied in Iraq after 2003. We all know how that went. If you need a refresher, here ya go...
Is the U.S. intervention in Venezuela actually about China, not democracy?
Who the hell thought it was about democracy?! China poured billions into Venezuela over two decades and effectively owned its oil and gas export infrastructure. Venezuela also holds the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, plus the critical minerals required for semiconductor manufacturing and AI development. This was never about democracy.
When the Trump administration says it is rebuilding Venezuela, what it really means is its getting China the f*ck out of the Western Hemisphere.
Could U.S. aggression in Latin America accelerate the AI economic threat from China?
That is the under discussed risk here. The U.S. has already sold China over 100,000 advanced Nvidia chips and just greenlit a second round of H200 exports. If (when) China releases a competitive open-source AI model, the valuation logic propping up OpenAI, Anthropic, and the entire domestic AI stack collapses — taking with it the retirement accounts and index funds invested in those companies. American AI valuations are already being described as a speculative bubble. Locking China out of Venezuela while handing them the tools to detonate the U.S. financial system is not a coherent strategy.
Did J.D. Vance just promise Air Force graduates the exact war he campaigned against?
Word for word, yes. One year ago at the Naval Academy, Vance said: "No more undefined missions. No more open-ended conflicts." At the Air Force Academy graduation in Colorado Springs this month, he told the class of 2026 they were entering an era of irreducible unpredictability, promised force would be used "decisively with a clear objective," and closed by telling new officers that they would be the ones to guarantee Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. All jokes aside, those graduates will be deployable within 60 days and are likely to be the people who will pay for this growing gap between rhetoric and reality.
Watch the full episode and get even smarter!
Drop us a line....
Email us your questions and tell us your thoughts at Theforeignreportlpn@gmail.com.