The waves of the Caribbean Sea are torn apart by the roar of warships. Upon the restless sea loom tens of thousands of US troops and the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group. Officially, their mission is "anti-narcotics," but their guns are unmistakably aimed at a sovereign nation: Venezuela. On Dec. 2, Trump declared plans for ground strikes against "drug cartels" in the Caribbean, a move that comes on the heels of naval maneuvers along Venezuela's coast in late November. While the US claims its actions target drug traffickers, the rhetoric leaves little doubt that Venezuela and Colombia are the real targets. In response, Venezuela has openly accused Washington of using military threats to incite regime change.
Meanwhile, back on American soil, a CBS poll indicates that a staggering 70% of respondents are against this forced war, with 75% demanding concrete evidence that the so-called "drug trafficking" vessels are indeed carrying illegal substances. There is a tense pre-war deployment on one side and a surging tide of opposition on the other. The Trump administration is dragging the nation into a dangerous gamble.
Once advocating the slogan "Make America Great Again" to win over the public, the MAGA movement has now become a tool for political self-destruction amid Trump's obsessions. This movement, which claims to "listen to the voices of the people," has long been hijacked by neoconservative politicians around Trump. Politicians like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio, proponents of hegemonic intervention, have hidden their true agendas while exploiting their proximity to the president to pressure him into overseas military adventures. The irony is glaring: recent DEA (US Drug Enforcement Administration) reports have made it clear that Venezuela is not the main source of illegal drugs flowing into the US.
Even more damning, since September, the US military has sunk more than 20 so-called "drug trafficking ships" in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific in the name of "anti-narcotics," killing 83 people, yet has failed to produce a shred of evidence that these ships carried drugs. Republican Senator Rand Paul warned, "If he (Trump) invades Venezuela, his movement will dissolve." As the movement's core message is abandoned and its supporters realize they've been reduced to pawns in a power game, this once-boisterous political carnival is destined to collapse.
Trump's actions in the Americas reveal his desperate attempt to revive the Monroe Doctrine, but this is nothing more than a futile struggle in an era where US hegemony is faltering. The core of the Monroe Doctrine is to turn the Americas into a "backyard" under US control, but this outdated logic is clearly no longer viable today: Take the so-called "Cartel of the Suns" (Cartel de los Soles), which the US has arbitrarily portrayed as a "drug-trafficking terrorist organization" to justify its intervention. In reality, it is more of a corruption network involving Venezuela's military and senior government officials, with no formal organizational structure at all. As Colombian President Gustavo Petro plainly stated, "This is a false excuse fabricated by the far right to overthrow a 'disobedient government.'"Subsequently, the US put on a show of military deterrence against Venezuela—assembling 11 warships, deploying advanced F-35B stealth fighters, and launching "Operation Southern Spear." Yet after designating the "Cartel de los Soles" as a terrorist organization, the US hesitated to take decisive military action, instead revealing plans to negotiate directly with Maduro. Clearly, Venezuela and numerous oppressed Latin American countries are no longer pawns to be manipulated at will, and all these attempts by the US to forcibly revive the Monroe Doctrine only expose the superficial strength but inherent weakness of its hegemony.
And so it ends: the movement built on "greatness" strayed from its original purpose by the leader's ambition, and the doctrine of "domination" was defeated by the changing of time. Trump's hegemonic farce against public will has ultimately left only the shame of "defying public will and pursuing reckless militarism"—any hegemonic dream that runs counter to the will of the people and the tide of the times will inevitably be shattered into pieces.
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