Ugghhh...Do we want to get involved in Venezuela?

[tRidiot]

Wether or not you think our neighbors had 'real' elections or rigged ones is up for debate. However, at this point, the assumption is that these people voted for this. They had plenty of examples of failed socialism from which to draw their data points. And yet, they apparently chose poorly.
In regards to the USofA: When you're a sinking ship, such as we are due to our drowning debt, you cannot go save other ships. Sorry, sometimes have to make the worthwhile effort to save themselves. Otherwise it's not as appreciated.

No, I'm not making any assumptions. Please don't attribute that to me, my post had/has nothing to do with political systems or whatever system they chose or voted for or whatever. If they did, they chose wrongly and are now paying for it, but having been around alot more than many Americans I also know that in many of these smaller places without America's protections, manipulation of the vote and fraud and corruption by politicians can get out of hand and become systemic very quickly. I don't care who is to blame when children are starving and old people are suffering and dying needlessly - do you?

Just because we have our own problems, do we let the rest of the world burn? Seriously... could you stand on a street corner in a place like that, watching people suffer knowing you could do something about it, and yet... not? Just because of their political system? Which they may or may not have voted for, either by not being allowed to vote or due to their system being so corrupted there was no avenue for change?

 

[caojyn]

I also know that in many of these smaller places without America's protections, manipulation of the vote, fraud and corruption politicians can get out of hand and become systemic very quickly.

America's protections, manipulation of the vote, fraud, and corruption....we'd never do that

 

[Chuckie]

What do we do when 10's or 100's of thousands are dying, when children are quite literally physically starving to death and the entire country has become a war zone? And when this happens in America's own backyard and the entire world is standing up and screaming at us to help, and how could we let this happen, and all the other things that go with it?

Does America stand by and let people starve to death needlessly to make a political point?

I'm not advocating for one thing or another here, I'm asking - for realz, people, what do we do? Would you sit on your comfortable porch in a rocker, eating watermelon and drinking sweet Southern iced tea while you watched your 80-year old neighbor fall on her driveway and let her sit there and suffer with a broken him until she died of exposure? Or watch small children sit there and suffer and starve in filth and excrement because their parents were meth heads and you didn't want to get involved?

What would you do for your neighbors? And what should we do for people in the next town over? Or in the next state/area of the country with a natural disaster?


Americans help. That's traditionally what we have tried to do, or at least it seems that way to me. That's what I thought of America growing up. Have our goals/morals/designs changed that much?

As an American I have no reservation about helping those in need.
Where I draw the line is when we continue to send Billions of dollars EVERY year to countries in Africa, Asia, South America, the Middle East, India, and just about every other damn Third World country on this planet, and yet, the aid given NEVER seem to improve the lives of those affected.

As an American I have no reservations about going to war to effect a regime change if it is for the betterment of the peoples of those countries who are suffering poverty and a humanitarian crisis at the hands of their government.
Where I draw the line is when our warrior/children are NEVER allowed to achieve a decisive victory because our 'leaders' prefer to drag wars out for . . . personal profits?

As an American I have no reservations about allowing those truly being persecuted for their beliefs to be welcomed within our vast country.
Where I draw the line is when tens of thousands of non-endangered people flock here simply for economic gains.

Generally speaking, those that scream the loudest, do the least.

 

[caojyn]

As an American I have no reservation about helping those in need.
Where I draw the line is when we continue to send Billions of dollars EVERY year to countries in Africa, Asia, South America, the Middle East, India, and just about every other damn Third World country on this planet, and yet, the aid given NEVER seem to improve the lives of those affected.

100% agreed
I'd rather a million Haitian orphans starve than 1 American.

 

[D. Hargrove]

SNIP:

Just because we have our own problems, do we let the rest of the world burn? Seriously... could you stand on a street corner in a place like that, watching people suffer knowing you could do something about it, and yet... not? Just because of their political system? Which they may or may not have voted for, either by not being allowed to vote or due to their system being so corrupted there was no avenue for change?

Problem with the USofA's involvement would be simply that Russia and China both have stake in the Venezuelan oil production, to the tune of about 13 million barrels of oil due them last time I read about it. So it becomes less of a humanitarian mission and more of a "you are stealing" issue with regards to the Russians and Chinese. Talk about second and tertiary order effects, the implications alone would drive the UN insane.

 

[GlockPride]

No, I'm not making any assumptions. Please don't attribute that to me, my post had/has nothing to do with political systems or whatever system they chose or voted for or whatever. If they did, they chose wrongly and are now paying for it, but having been around alot more than many Americans I also know that in many of these smaller places without America's protections, manipulation of the vote and fraud and corruption by politicians can get out of hand and become systemic very quickly. I don't care who is to blame when children are starving and old people are suffering and dying needlessly - do you?

Just because we have our own problems, do we let the rest of the world burn? Seriously... could you stand on a street corner in a place like that, watching people suffer knowing you could do something about it, and yet... not? Just because of their political system? Which they may or may not have voted for, either by not being allowed to vote or due to their system being so corrupted there was no avenue for change?

I'm assuming that Hugo Chavez was originally elected under my vague remembrance of history without looking it up. If you have other data, I'm willing to accept it.
And, yes, we simply cannot fight all wars and nullify all the evil in the world. Especially when we have darn near 50% of this country trying to tear us down from the inside to resemble the same thing in Venezuela. Also, we cannot even take care of our veterans as they are now, the homeless, the invalid or the psychologically disturbed. I get the desire to help, I really do. I used to, as a conservative, want the country to fight for anything and everything. I wanted to think we could solve all the world's problems as the big 'Super Power'. But as I've grown, matured and studied that simply isn't an option. I'm more libertarian in my views now and conservative on others. Which leads me more to a bring them home and let the world sort itself out. But, that also isn't reality either. I get that too.
If you can go in with a small team, shoot one bullet and change the country for the better, then ok, I'm in.
We have to commit ships, planes, men by the tens or hundreds of thousands, and years upon decades of 'rebuilding' then I'm out. Our 'product' of delivering 'freedom' has NOT worked the last dozen times we've tried it. What makes us smart enough to think it's going to work here simply because it's not geographically located in the Middle East?

 

[918evo]

Generally, we should fix what is wrong with our country before we go over and try to fix or help other countries. We need to pay off the national debt and come up with economic strategies/budgets that work first. America does not need to be the world police, solely responsible for helping out third world problems. If we go into a country for humanitarian issues, there needs to be an equal share of responsibility with our allies.

 

[deerwhacker444]

Just because we have our own problems, do we let the rest of the world burn? Seriously... could you stand on a street corner in a place like that, watching people suffer knowing you could do something about it, and yet... not? Just because of their political system? Which they may or may not have voted for, either by not being allowed to vote or due to their system being so corrupted there was no avenue for change?

Most of us agree, what's going on in VZ is terrible, however there is still a gov't in charge that is the result of a democratic election. And that gov't controls many tens of thousands of troops. If the US were to enter in any capacity even just as peacekeepers, the gov't in charge would see this as a hostile invasion and would act accordingly. Then you'd be trading American lives for VZ lives. Is that really what we want to do? I'm not too keen on it.

IMO, This is something that needs to be sorted out by the VZ people. They voted for it way back when they elected Chavez. They had legit elections back then and they chose to go with Evil. Now they need to deal with it. Many of them will die for sure, and perhaps a whole generation will live in poverty because of the bad choices they made. But ultimately it was their choice.

Should Americans die because of a population's bad decisions? Could you tell a soldier, "we're sending you to fight and possibly die for people who continually make bad decisions"? I couldn't do that.

Our Gov't could always arm rebels, if they haven't already. They've done it many times in the past, especially in Central and S. America.

Just my $.02..

 

[SMS]

Venezuela is hardly right in our backyard. It's located on another continent and is run by an elected government.

Maduro received a higher percentage of the vote than Trump did. He might suck but elections have consequences. If the people of Venezuela want a change, it's up to them. I'm sure there are things we can do to help short of military intervention if any groups there express an interest in receiving outside help.

 

[TerryMiller]

In reference to Venezuela's elections, and specifically to Maduro's, do we know what the actual vote tally was? How many dictators over the years have reported 90%+ votes for themselves?