U.S. Claims Western Hemispheric Domination, Denies that Russia Has Legitimate Security Interests On Its Own Border

U.S. launches military strikes against Venezuela and seizes Maduro while CIA escalates involvement in attacking Russian refineries.

I woke up this morning and saw the news that, last night, the U.S. launched a military operation against Venezuela and swiftly captured President Nicholas Maduro. The Trump administration released the following image of the detained man on board a U.S. military aircraft.

As I drank my morning coffee, my thoughts drifted not to Venezuela, but to the French diplomat and political philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, who visited America 1831-1832 to study our prison system. Along the way, he made many observations of American society, which he later presented in his book, Democracy in America, published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840.

I’ve long been a great admirer of Tocqueville, who combined keen powers of observation with deep philosophical insights into human nature. Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution are masterpieces of social and political philosophy.

I often wonder what Tocqueville would think about America if he travelled the country today. I’m confident he would be hard-pressed to reconcile the extreme malaise—both physical and spiritual—of the American people and their cities with the extreme confidence of their leaders that the United States should rule the world.

Being a gentleman and diplomat of noble ancestry, he was doubtless familiar with the Maxims of François de La Rochefoucauld, a famous courtier, soldier, and writer during the 17th century. The Maxims are a reflection on our boundless capacity for self-deception, self-serving conduct, and virtue-signaling. The following are some of my favorites.

• “We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves.”

• “We confess small faults only to convince people that we have no greater ones.”

• “We are strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others.”

• “The extreme pleasure we take in talking about ourselves should make us afraid that we may scarcely be giving any to our listeners.”

• “Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgment.”

• “We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all the motives that produced them.”

• “No people are more often wrong than those who will not allow themselves to be wrong.”

• “If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.”

• “Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.”

• “One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.”

• “A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and the one that we take the least care of all to acquire.”

Many scholars have suggested that he was being cynical, but I believe he was just telling the truth about human nature. I perceive in Rochefoucauld’s Maxims a forerunner to Carl Jung’s reflections on the “shadow” side of human nature—the archaic, primitive emotions that we don’t like to see ourselves as possessing and driving our decisions.

I digress. Back to the action in Venezuela.

The U.S. is now hauling Nicolas Maduro back to New York to stand trial for various offenses. The Justice Department has cited the legal precedent of the Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega, who was seized by a U.S. military raid in 1990 and hauled back to Miami to stand trial for various charges.

To President Trump’s credit, he isn’t indulging in too much humbug virtue-signaling about this military action. In his statements to the press, he has already mentioned that the U.S. will now be “very strongly involved in Venezuela’s oil industry.”

Apparently aware of the incongruity of taking out Maduro while leaving the (far more powerful) Mexican cartels intact on our own border, Trump said, “something is gonna have to be done with Mexico.”

Rochefoucauld and Tocqueville would have doubtless remarked that the American people should do something about their own monstrous addiction to narcotics and stimulants before they self-righteously fulminate against the depravity of their suppliers.

This is the moral and spiritual equivalent of a morbidly obese sugar addict railing about the depravity of Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill and demanding that their high fructose corn syrup refineries be bombed.

Speaking of bombing refineries: A few days ago the New York Times published a report about the CIA’s escalating involvement in helping Ukraine to target Russian oil refineries.

Additionally, the US State Department re-issued an urgent advisory warning Americans not to travel to Russia. The renewed advisory instructs American citizens currently in Russia to depart immediately, citing the danger associated with the ongoing war with Ukraine.

Back in Feb. 2022, when Russia launched its military operation against Ukraine, many Americans were appalled that Russia would violate the territorial sovereignty of its neighboring country, even though it has long been understood by anyone paying attention that the CIA had been meddling in Ukraine since 2005, and that NATO had been updating and preparing the Ukrainian army for war with Russian since 2014, when the CIA assisted in overthrowing Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was in favor of good Ukrainian-Russian relations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated—most notably in his Feb. 6, 2024 interview with Tucker Carlson—that Russia would like to have friendly and cooperative relations with the United States, but achieving this will require that the United States recognize the legitimate interests of the Russian people and state.

With last night’s attacks on Venezuela, the Trump administration reasserted the full force of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, in which President James Monroe stated in his annual address to Congress that the U.S. would not tolerate European meddling in the Western Hemisphere.

The U.S. invoked the Monroe Doctrine when it supported the overthrow and execution of the French backed Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, even though he was a thoroughly decent and liberal minded man.

To express my personal view of the matter: I agree with Rochefoucauld’s view that war is always about a kingdom or nation trying to secure and extend its interests. He was extremely skeptical of all moral justifications for war. Great powers want to expand—they want what other people have—and they are therefore extremely suspicious when other great powers show up in their backyard.

The U.S. sees Venezuela as a vital strategic asset with the largest proven oil reserves on earth. The U.S. government perceives Maduro’s regime to be dysfunctional and ideologically misaligned with U.S. interests, and therefore wants to replace him with a U.S. puppet regime that will open the country and its vast mineral assets to exploit them in a strategic partnership with the U.S.

I suppose this is all fine and well, but to be completely fair and honest, how can the U.S. government reassert the Monroe Doctrine, claiming Western Hemispheric domination, while denying that Russia has legitimate security interests in a border region of ethnic Russians that starts 280 miles from Moscow?

When contemplating this, consider that Venezuela is 2000 miles from Miami and poses zero military threat to the United States.

It seems to me that the Trump administration should stop applying such a crass and extreme double standard and immediately recognize Russia’s legitimate security interests. This means immediately ending CIA operations in Ukraine and terminating all support for the corrupt Zelensky regime.

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