The Donroe Doctrine of Regional Dominance, Obedience, and Theft
The Trump administration’s conflict with Venezuela is driven by a staggering economic incentive—Venezuela’s proven oil reserves amount to 300 billion barrels. Over the span of their extraction, if each barrel averages $100, the total value hits $30 trillion. This figure is roughly 80% of the vast American national debt. Naturally, the vast majority of this fortune will enrich multinational corporations and wealthy elites, rather than the citizens of either the U.S. or Venezuela. But fairness is rarely a factor in such matters.
The so-called Donroe Doctrine symbolizes a resurgence of ruthless, unapologetic capitalist dominance in the Western Hemisphere. Trump’s strategy echoes the calculated ruthlessness of Michael Corleone, the mafia boss featured in “The Godfather.” When his adviser Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) asks if they must eliminate everyone, Michael (Al Pacino) chillingly answers, “Just my enemies.” Anyone opposing the Corleone Family faces elimination.
Since Maduro defied the Trump “family,” he became a target for removal. Cuba and Iran may be the next “enemies” slated for destruction.
As Trump once declared in an interview, the U.S. possesses numerous killers. This reflects the stark reality of raw power—power exercised without ethics or principles, save for greed and securing dominance.
American democracy today is a facade. It’s a shamocracy, a thugocracy. The powerful impose their will; the powerless endure whatever fate they must. Control, authority, and profit remain the ultimate objectives.
As Caitlin Johnstone pointed out, Trump has been explicit about his intentions. To put it bluntly, the goal is oil, pure and simple.
“We’re gonna take back the oil that frankly we should have taken back a long time ago,” Trump told the press following Maduro’s abduction, saying “We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground, and that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela, and people from outside of Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela, and it goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country.”
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country, and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so,” Trump said.
“We have tremendous energy in that country. It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves, we need that for the world,” the president added.
Trump stands out as the most transparent U.S. president, revealing his schemes plainly. This is outright theft: simple and clear. The United States has the might to seize resources, and it intends to do just that.
There is a deep corruption at the heart of America today.
Original article: bracingviews.com
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