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The performative garment-rending over "All options are on the table" re: Venezuela is too much to bear. They all say that, as they should, even when it's a bluff. Obama admin repeatedly used the phrase re: Iran, when you know that all options most certainly weren't on the table.
Hate to tell you, folks, but an admin that says "there's no military option in Venezuela" could be forced to reverse itself if there is an implosion of a state rich with oil, weapons, and drugs that becomes a haven for terrorist networks and incubates a refugee crisis.
No one wants deployments in Venezuela. Believe me, it wouldn't be pretty. But, yes, you have to be prepared to contain a crisis. That's responsible statecraft any admin would pursue. And everything this admin has done re: Venezuela makes that *less* likely.
The competence with which State coordinated the Western Hemisphere's recognition of guaido was a marvel. Spain is following. Military leaders are defecting. The Maduro regime is on the back foot and the army has not massacred as it did in 2014, 16, and 17.
There's a strain of commentary that hears names associated with the neoconservative movement and assumes as debacle is imminent, but they have to ignore what's right in front of their eyes to render that verdict. I know what I'd call that.
As right-leaning commentators go, I'm among this administration's more vocal critics. But you should be intellectually honest enough to give credit where it's due. The Trump admin has handled the opportunity to rid the world of a bloody, oppressive socialist despot is laudable.
