I agree to stay out of Venezuela. But I also disagree with this false equivalency. The "Syrian rebels", as the media used to refer to them back when they were trying to get everyone to go along with this, were already REALLY bad guys. Same with Libya. There was a website, I think it got taken down, but it was like obamassyria.com or something that was up when this whole thing was first kicking off... It showed these guys on video doing horrific things, sawing off live people's heads with a knife, lots of executions, raping, etc.

In Venezuela, there are no significant terrorist groups (unless you count some pretty horrific acts by the government). Certainly there is crime, but that's done for money rather than bloodlust, and those people don't care who wins in any conflict that doesn't directly involve them.

But here's the thing, and this is why our involvement in Venezuela will not be like Syria. WE DO NOT ARM MODERATES. We will not be sending guns to people who aren't killers. We armed the Syrians BECAUSE of their violent proclivities, not despite them.

For Venezuela, the playbook would much more closely resemble Iraq (as in, invasion). But that's not going to happen under Trump I think. He seems to have a distaste for war, unlike his predecessors.

But no amount of aid or intervention is going to help the Venezuelans. To accept outside intervention is to surrender their fate to the will of their rescuers. What they need is a hard turn to capitalism through a sale of state assets and change of laws. And that's not going to happen until Maduro is gone, and Maduro is not leaving without intervention, so..... Assassination maybe? I don't know. It's really a sad situation.