If history is said not to repeat, it can be said it can resemble the past.
The thought comes to mind as President Trump has boldly launched an invasion of Venezuela that resulted in the capture of its drug-running thug of a president, Nicolás Maduro. Maduro, who was indicted in the U.S. back in the mists of 2020, was instantly transported to New York to stand trial. (RELATED: Yes, Trump’s Action Against Maduro Was Legal)
Predictably — all too predictably — there were Democrats who were instantly on the attack, going after Trump and, in effect, without saying so explicitly, defending Maduro and company.
Which is where history comes in. For those with a memory, recall President Reagan, back there in 1983, sent in U.S. troops to upend the Communist revolutionaries on the Caribbean island of Grenada, where American students were studying for medical degrees. The American students were being held hostage. And, no small thing, the nation’s prime minister, Maurice Bishop, had been assassinated by a far-left junta. And, oh yes. There were Cubans in Grenada busily expanding the island’s airport, presumably to accommodate military aircraft and a Soviet-Cuban military build-up that was a threat to the U.S. in its own backyard.
Reagan, like Trump today, wasted no time in swinging into action. Out of the seeming blue, surrounded in secrecy, Reagan launched “Operation Urgent Fury” to rescue the American students and protect the thousand Americans on the island.
And like clockwork, Democrats and others of the day were aroused to attack Reagan for the invasion. The United Nations, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Trinidad and Tobago all condemned the U.S. invasion.
By contrast, the American people supported Reagan, and the following year he was re-elected in a 49-state landslide. (RELATED: The Experts Were Wrong About Pete Hegseth)
It is worth noting and reminding that there is a history of American presidents launching military operations to protect American interests in South and Central America. A list:
1954 — On June 27, 1954, the then-president of Guatemala, one Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, was driven from power by militants supported by the Eisenhower administration. It wasn’t until decades later — in 2003 — that the role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was revealed.
1961 — The Kennedy administration quietly supports an invasion of Cuba by Cuban refugees at the Bay of Pigs. Alas, history records that JFK hesitated when the invasion was underway, holding back on all-out support for the Cuban invaders. The invasion failed. Ironically, history later recorded that the Soviets took note of JFK’s hesitancy and believed his weakness at the Bay of Pigs was a signal for the Soviets to send nuclear missiles to Cuba for installation. This led, in October of 1962, to a serious showdown known to history as the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was about as close to all-out nuclear war as had ever occurred. Eventually, after JFK blockaded the island and threatened to nuke the Soviet Union if any attack was launched on the U.S., the missiles were withdrawn, and, as it were, an uneasy peace was at hand.
1965 — President Lyndon Johnson sent in the Marines to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The purpose was to put down an uprising designed to support Juan Bosch, a leftist president ousted by generals in 1963.
The 1970s — President Nixon supported efforts to oppose leftist governments in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil.
1980s — President Reagan authorizes quiet military support ($20 million in aid) for the Nicaraguan “Contras” opposing the Nicaraguan government’s alliances with Cuba and the Soviet Union. President Reagan also sent military advisers to El Salvador to help crush a leftist rebellion. And in 1983, Reagan authorized the invasion of Grenada.
1989 — President George H.W. Bush sent the U.S. military to invade Panama in late 1989, dispatching 24,000 troops to topple Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega’s government. Noreiga was taken to the U.S. and put on trial for drug trafficking. Convicted, Noreiga spent 20 years in a U.S. prison before finally being extradited to France and then back to Panama, where he died.
Now comes President Trump, very much following all these precedents set by his presidential predecessors. U.S. troops swooped into Venezuela, captured Maduro, and whisked him off to New York, where he will be facing trial. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi vows that Maduro will be tried for his crimes. Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr says that Maduro could face a Noriega-style prison sentence, which is to say essentially spending the rest of his life behind bars.
The essence here?
As noted, President Trump, as said, has acted well within the precedents set by then-Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and Bush 41 — a decidedly bipartisan cast of presidential predecessors.
Those south of the U.S. border contemplating military or coup-related actions that directly threaten the United States and American interests or sovereignty can be said to be suitably warned.
And if they don’t believe that, they should study up on their history.
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