Yet another war with bipartisan roots

Again?!

Last night’s attacks on Venezuela are a perfect reflection of what makes America criminal. They form the latest examples of a longstanding pattern that stretches back decades.

Many critics of Washington will characterize Trump’s war on Venezuela as an example of the president’s supposedly unique belligerence, an extension of his notoriously fragile ego. They will likely include Democrats concerned about the president’s foreign policy objectives and recurring willingness to violate laws.

Those voices will, unfortunately, be ignoring history and reality.

Our country’s criminal history is replete with any number of illegal airstrikes, drone attacks, invasions, assassinations, and regime change plots engineered by American “defense” or “intelligence” agencies. Many of these crimes were executed, orchestrated, assisted, or covered up by figures including leading Democrats.

Obama’s drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan a decade ago paved the path of Trump’s arbitrary drone strikes in the Caribbean this year.

Clinton’s congressionally unauthorized airstrikes on Serbia set a precedent abused by subsequent presidents, including Democrats.

America’s war on Venezuela is outrageous, and should confirm for the rest of the world how our country represents the greatest threat to the peace on Earth for which billons of people mouthed prayers over the recent holidays.

Just don’t pretend that it’s only Trump’s fault.

A poem that woke me up

My latest poem was prompted by a conversation with a houseguest who visited our home for the holidays. During a chat over the dinner table one night, he asked when I thought the contradictions of the empire would finally force its collapse.

I woke up this morning with the answer I offered that night swimming in my thoughts—just before reading the news about Washington’s attacks on Venezuela.

How the cookie crumbles (1/3/26 at 6:30am PT)

It won’t exactly
collapse
until enough
pieces
break off to
force
the rest into
dust

When will the
ship
hit the sand?
When will the
machine
finally grind to a
halt?

What makes anyone
think
that it didn’t already
long ago?

Every eviction
conviction
contamination
gentrification
termination
escalation

reflects
entire
worlds
fallen to
ruin
out of
sight