The US strike on Venezuela on Saturday, capturing Nicolás Maduro amid oil disputes and narco-terror charges, mirrors a historical non-nuclear coercion pattern.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasised the dominance of the US in the Western Hemisphere, but history suggests otherwise.
The strike on Venezuela, which has no nuclear infrastructure, made it more vulnerable to US threats.
The use of military aggression has been a pattern used by the US over the past. The US has repeatedly targeted non-nuclear nations with military and economic pressure for regime change.
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US Past Non-Nuclear Coercion Pattern
- The 1983 Grenada invasion: America’s repeated habit of targeting non-nuclear states with swift military action under humanitarian or security pretexts. US forces overthrew the Marxist government, citing American student safety and Soviet influence fears, in a 2-day operation, seizing an arms cache.
- The Operation Allied Force: The 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia exemplifies the US pattern of targeting non-nuclear states with overwhelming conventional airpower. The 78-day US-led operation pounded Serbia, which lacked nuclear power, destroying 25% of its tanks and forcing then-President Slobodan Milošević to cede territory without ground troops or nuclear risk.
- The 2003 Iraq invasion, one of the major operations carried out by US forces, perfectly illustrates America’s habitual targeting of non-nuclear states through fabricated threats. Post-1991 disarmament, the US justified “shock-and-awe” bombing with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) claims and alleged Al-Qaeda links, despite International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmations of no nuclear presence, overthrowing Saddam Hussein amid large civilian deaths.
- Operation Odyssey Dawn: The US-led NATO operation in Libya in 2011 is another example of a US strike on a non-nuclear state. Gaddafi abandoned Libya’s nuclear program in late 2003 after secret negotiations with the US and UK, fearing an Iraq-style invasion. NATO launched airstrikes in March 2011 amid Arab Spring protests, leading to the overthrow of Gaddafi and his assassination.
President Trump’s recent raid on Caracas, capturing Maduro and exploiting a non-nuclear regime after years of sanctions, mirrors the past US operations.
The pattern signals to non-nuclear nations like Iran, Colombia, and others of the US threat, potentially igniting a new global nuclear arms race.
