[DrProtic]

You seem to think US did this because Maduro was a dictator. They themselves clarified it's because of oil.

Why they don't attack Saudi Arabia then? Saudi's even had a role in 9/11.

Decades of lies shaped the narrative that all invasions US do is because countries have dictators, it's being the narrative even now when they explicitly say it's because of oil.

[cragfar]

They didn't do it because of oil (well to take for ourselves). They did it because Venezuela has been cozying up way too much to Russia and China, and sending both of them a lot of oil.

[Tadpole9181]

The President of the United States quite literally plainly stated on national TV that we did it for oil and will be sending US oil companies in to steal their oil to sell for ourselves.

[deepsquirrelnet]

He even went so far as to say it was “our” oil a few weeks ago. That was quickly forgotten among a stream of other outrageous things that happen daily.

Today seems like a day to rewatch Team America: World Police

[terminalshort]

Maybe try learning something about oil extraction before making insane claims that it is even possible for an oil company to just roll up and "steal" oil and send it back to the US.

[myvoiceismypass]

Maybe try realizing that everything out of that man's mouth is fucking insane?

[jacquesm]

That doesn't matter. What matters is what Trump thinks he's going to do.

[pegasus]

I'm no fan of Trump, and I believe he's basically gone rogue, but, literally, he never said what you say he said. If I missed something, please provide a reference, but I doubt you'll find anything. You simply misheard. He's been extremely brazen in mentioning such a crass topic as American interest in Venezuelan oil, which normally would be pushed vigorously under the rug, but he didn't go as far as saying that's the reason. The official (and preposterous by itself) reason is still the drugs.

My take concords with what @JumpCrisscross said elsewhere in this thread:

"HN sometimes has trouble understanding coalitions. Some support for oil. Some want to unseat a dictator. Some are concerned about Venezuela being a hive of Chinese, Russian and Iranian activity. Some did it to destabilise Cuba, or lay the groundwork for hitting Iran. Still others are just plain psychopaths and like blowing things up."

I would add that personal pique probably had as big a part in this decision as anything else.

[goatlover]

"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country, and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so," Trump said.

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/03/g-s1-104346/trump-venezuela-m...

[Sabinus]

Do you think the plan is for American companies to come in and pump out the oil and pay nothing for it? 1800s colony stuff?

[goatlover]

I think oil should not be a reason to take over the government of a sovereign nation, whatever deal is made with American companies.

[pegasus]

Yes, and? Read my comment and the comment I was replying to. Nowhere did Trump "literally admit" they went in "for the oil". Nor that they plan to "steal the oil". I'm not saying that that's not part of the reason (probably is, but not the only one). Trump though, didn't "literally admit it". This whole adventure is outrageous and misguided enough as it is, without us needing to bend the truth to make it feel even more so.

[jacquesm]

Check the talking points memo distributed at 14:15 for an update.

[terminalshort]

That's the last place I would ever check to find out why a government did something

[JumpCrisscross]

HN sometimes has trouble understanding coalitions.

Some support for oil. Some want to unseat a dictator. Some are concerned about Venezuela being a hive of Chinese, Russian and Iranian activity. Some did it to destabilise Cuba, or lay the groundwork for hitting Iran. Still others are just plain psychopaths and like blowing things up.

[PantaloonFlames]

People, not only patrons of HN, like simple answers.

They look at clouds and see the patterns they want to see.

It turns out things are usually more complicated than that.

[pegasus]

Personal pique probably, sadly, also played a role.

[khazhoux]

Personal pique positively played a primary part.

[erxam]

It definitely did. Not Trump, though.

It's Narco Rubio. He probably started shooting ropes the very moment he knew the operation was successful.

[lenkite]

Yes, and oil will now flow to Florida - for as long as an obedient US puppet lives. The gal who actually won the election is not obedient enough for Trump since she doesn't have "support and respect" of the nation according to Trump.

[yes_really]

Oh, I don't think the US should just topple all dictatorships!

If the US could press a button and have all dictatorships automatically become stable, liberal democracies, I'm pretty sure they would do that and we'd all be happy.

But the US cannot just topple the government of all dictatorships at once. If it tried that, it would just cause immense chaos, and all those countries would unite against the West.

The US has to ally with some dictatorships against other dictatorships, like it did with the USSR against the Nazis and how it does with Saudi Arabia against Iran.

Iran hates us since the Islamic Revolution (when we supported the Shah), and finances multiple terrorist groups such as Hesbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship, but at least it's not a revisionist state (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revisionist_state) and has a more peaceful objective towards its neighbors.

If the US refused to ally with dictatorships, the only country in the entire Middle East that it could ally with is Israel. It would have to fight all other countries at once.

[morshu9001]

Why doesn't the US take Saudi Arabia's oil then?

[jeltz]

Because they already have it under good enough control. Your question is like asking why the US does not invade Texas and take their oil.

[morshu9001]

They don't pay us anything to sell their oil. We have a relatively small partnership with them, but that's about it. And they're part of OPEC, which is deliberately designed counter to US interests.

[clot27]

because saudi already pays them. Saudi is already in their control. Iran isnt so they are plotting a regime change there too, use your brain.