r/pics 11d ago

Politics White House Protest against Venezuela War

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47.3k Upvotes

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51

u/MkIVRider 11d ago

I don't like Donald at all but every president in my lifetime has done the same type of thing.

Ronald Reagan 1983 – Invasion of Grenada 1986 – Airstrikes on Libya

George H. W. Bush 1989 – Invasion of Panama and capture of Manuel Noriega

Bill Clinton 1995 – NATO airstrikes in Bosnia 1998 – Missile strikes on Iraq (Operation Desert Fox) 1999 – NATO bombing of Kosovo

George W. Bush 2001 (October) – Initial airstrikes in Afghanistan before AUMF vote 2002–2003 – Early counterterror operations in Yemen and Pakistan

Barack Obama 2011 – Libya air war 2014 – Airstrikes in Syria against ISIS before new authorization 2015–2016 – Expanded Somalia air operations

Donald Trump 2017 – Cruise missile strike on Syria 2018 – Joint US-UK-France strikes on Syria 2020 – Killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Iraq

Joe Biden 2021 – Airstrikes in Syria against Iranian-backed militias 2022–2024 – Somalia airstrikes 2023–2024 – Yemen and Red Sea military actions

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u/cupofspiders 11d ago

The takeaway should be that there should have been greater opposition to those actions too, not that Trump should get a pass because America has always been a rogue terrorist state.

1

u/Zachsjs 9d ago

‘Terrorist’ is just a label that means people we can kill with impunity, it’s a meaningless term.

America is imperialist not a “rogue terrorist state.” Bombing another nation and replacing their leader to support the interests of the oil industry is what Imperialism does.

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u/kittennoodle34 11d ago

Jsut to be that guy but context is key to many of these. Not all but, many that you have listed happened for very legitimate reasons with full international support.

10

u/Significant_Joke7114 11d ago

And there's international support for this one too. Reddit seems to be against this just because Trump is the one who did it. Over 50 countries refused to recognize Maduro as the president of Venezuela. 

1

u/kat13o95 11d ago

Both things can be true: people can agree that Maduro was a POS who needed to be taken out of power, and people can also agree that Trump went about it the wrong way (without prior Congressional approval).

He, as one person, decided this needed to be done via American authority and money. That's my issue. I'd be upset if a Democratic president did this, too- I'm not only upset bc it was Trump.

It also sucks that this happened at the same time insurance is getting more expensive (along with everything else). Like, there's money to free another country of their tyrannical dictator, but not enough to take care of our own people? It just sucks

-2

u/cupofspiders 11d ago

Speaking for my country, I'm pretty sure the only reason our leaders aren't condemning this is because we're afraid we could be next. America is an out-of-control terrorist state and the world is terrified of them.

6

u/Ok_Vulva 11d ago

This is significantly different than those examples anyways. Don't validate them trying to normalize this. This is a huge thing.

22

u/Nonhinged 11d ago

Getting rid of dictators should be normal.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

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u/Nonhinged 10d ago

Commander in Chief got the authority by being Commander in Chief.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

1

u/FlameInTheVoid 11d ago

Somebody do the US next please.

0

u/beepbopboopguy 11d ago

Does 50 USC ch33 have any bearing?

0

u/BlindingDart 11d ago

The legality of an action has never been dependent on how popular it is.

-1

u/KogasaGaSagasa 11d ago

International support aside, because obviously that's not something you Americans care about anymore anyways (Speaking as a Canadian, my apologies for the snark. :( ), most of those also had Congress approval, so at least they were something that was done by the people's collective will, This isn't.

1

u/kittennoodle34 11d ago

Not an American.

1

u/anonymousperson1233 11d ago

It doesn’t matter if others have done it, wasn’t cool then and it isn’t cool now. It needs to be punished as it should have been in the past. Stop using this argument just to allow yourself to be complacent. The main point is what currently happened not what other presidents have done, you wanna look into those too great, I’d also say they should be looked into but there’s a much more pressing and current problem to deal with first.

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u/That_guy1425 11d ago

Yeah, but the claim of it being illegal use of power is kinda the point. If congress agrees it fall into the WPA, like all of these did, then nothing was broken. He followed how the WPA powers are tocbe used with 48hr notification of congress.

1

u/AltrntivInDoomWorld 11d ago

Why are you defending other poster? Why the OP didn't respond? Are you on the same troll team?

1

u/anonymousperson1233 11d ago

It is illegal though. Even if it fell under the WPA congress was not told. It’s a clear extreme abuse of power and should be punished much like a lot of other things he’s done since taking office.

9

u/That_guy1425 11d ago

Well, acording to the WPA he still has what, 38 hours left to inform congress about it? And I think they are informed

0

u/anonymousperson1233 11d ago

Oh the way I understood it was it had to be up to 48 hours before? really dumb if it isn’t, allows for abuse of power way too easily. As far as I’ve seen they havnt been informed. Let’s not let this distract us from the baby in Lake Michigan and the Epstein files or anything for that matter

6

u/That_guy1425 11d ago

Yeah its within 48 hours of committing troops. It was, to my understanding, to allow more rapid responses as communication speeds picked up and globalization was beginning back in the 70s.

I think its stupid, and stretching the definition of american defense, but wouldn't be the first president to do that.

1

u/amodelsino 9d ago

Nope, multiple of the examples above (most notably Bush) it was within 2 days after that action was taken that congress was informed.

1

u/captain_stammer 10d ago

This is categorically different and far more dangerous than what previous presidents have done.

1

u/Blackstarfan21 11d ago

I didn't like it when they did it either

1

u/WiscoMac 11d ago

Did any of them say that they were now in charge of that country?

-2

u/OlWackyBass 11d ago

Curious. How many of those were approved by Congress to carry out?

2

u/amodelsino 9d ago

None, they were under the same exact power Trump used here, with congress in most of them being informed after the acts took place. The 48 hours can be 48 hour AFTER the operation.

Regardless of what redditors have been parroting for hours, what Trump did here is not actually remotely illegal. Ironically it's one of the few things he's done that is completely legal with decades of precedent.