So we woke up today to learn that we’re kidnapping people outside the US now too. The president and whoever was the last person to talk to him decided to attack Venezuela because of drugs, oil, democracy, domestic politics, unresolved daddy issues, FIFA peace prize, whatever. And he didn’t ask Congress because only people who know or care how things are supposed to work would do that.
Concerns Are Raised, such as who’s next, including us (now that he can pretend we’re at war, who thinks he’s not going to try more illegal things at home), and we can each spin out our own nightmare scenario (play along at home!). The cries of illegality are of course both right and also borderline absurd, since these people have been saying to us since day one that if he does it, it can’t be, but we can’t help but say hey, this isn’t how we do things. As is already being pointed out in The News, this is both accurate and not. If you look at US history, administrations do attack foreign countries, and they do it for reasons other than self-defense (of the nation, that is). There’s usually some pretext of permission, but who expected these guys to ask?
What stands out is the barely half-hearted attempt to sell this attack to us.
They’re almost not trying at all, and maybe that should be the most alarming thing. They don’t think they need to. And maybe they’re right. Or maybe, just maybe, this will be the time to show them, and the party they lead, and the courts that enable them, and the leaders of the many institutions folding under the least pressure like cheap suits–because that’s what they’re showing themselves to be–that they just can’t do any damn thing they want to in our name.
Samuel Cohen 