A brief review of US foreign policy in the last 3 years. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-25496299 The US supports 73% of the world's dictators. https://truthout.org/articles/us-pr...tance-to-73-percent-of-world-s-dictatorships/ In Syria, the US and its Arab allies, as well as Turkey have been supporting jihadist groups in their efforts to overthrow the Assad regime. An August 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report predicted that out of the Syrian war could emerge “a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime…” The author of the report assessed that “ISI [Islamic State in Iraq] could also declare an Islamic State through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its territory.” The report further noted that “the Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI [al Qaeda in Iraq] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” and that “the West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition.” Despite being fully aware of the likely results of a "rebel" victory - including the creation of a Salafist state and sectarian carnage - the coalition continued to back these groups. In Yemen, the US is providing targeting intelligence, weapons, and political support to the Saudi led coalition, which has been engaged in a campaign of siege warfare. More than 80,000 people have been killed and millions could starve to death. The UN labeled Yemen as "the world's worst humanitarian crisis." https://theconversation.com/us-comp...emen-spans-obama-trump-administrations-106896 https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/middleeast/yemen-worlds-worst-humanitarian-crisis-un-intl/index.html In Venezuela, the US is carrying out a program of destabilization. As was done Nicaragua in the 1980s and Chile in 1973, the idea is to "make the people suffer as you can until the country plunges into chaos, until at some point you can step in and impose your choice of government on that country." A former top State Department official predicts that US sanctions will result in "a default on their bonds and a collapse of internal investment and oil production ... civil unrest, refugee flows across their borders, and a cutoff of Venezuelan financial support to Cuba and Haiti that could lead to migration flows to the United States." The end goal, as John Bolton explained, is to "have American oil companies really invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela." http://amp.timeinc.net/time/5516920...ng-p-r-campaign-against-venezuelas-government
And this is the difference I guess. The form of government is not as important to somebody like me, so much as that the rights of the citizens are upheld and minority members (ethnically, religiously, or politically) are not suppressed. And interesting chart. I notice that both China and Russia are listed as "dictatorships", yet Venezuela is not. Hmmmm. A nation where the ruling party tossed out the Constitution, abolished all sources of media that did not agree with them, and has now abolished their own legislature. But it is not a "Dictatorship". Sorry, but I really do not take any of these statistics very seriously. Especially since Venezuela is in a mess entirely of their own making. An economy based almost entirely on a single commodity, which has actively oppressed their own people and made their own business climate so hostile that most international companies have already pulled out, and none want to invest in. The refugees have already started to flow out of Venezuela, but most are not going any farther than Columbia at the moment. They are hoping that things will improve in their country so they can go home still. Most do want to return at this time, but the longer this goes on the more will start to shift from evacuating to emigrating to other countries.
The US has had sanctions on Venezuela since 2017. Not responding to anything else. You're always wrong. You're still on my ignore list. All these years later.
