TRUMP CAN'T KILL HIS WAY OUT OF VENEZUELA / Lt Col Daniel Davis & Larry Johnson

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Danny and Larry Johnson argue that recent U.S. rhetoric and military posturing toward Venezuela is reckless and deeply dangerous. Mike Waltz publicly labeled Nicolás Maduro as an illegitimate leader, a fugitive from U.S. justice, and the head of a drug cartel, while stating that President Trump is prepared to use the full military power of the United States to destroy such cartels. Combined with reports that roughly 15% of the U.S. Navy is positioned near Venezuela, the speaker sees this as laying the rhetorical and diplomatic groundwork for military action.

The critique is that this approach is based on bravado rather than serious planning. The speaker warns that Trump believes he can “kill his way out” of complex political problems, a strategy that would likely devastate his presidency and cause massive Venezuelan civilian casualties and U.S. military losses. Venezuela, they argue, could become far worse than Iraq or Afghanistan due to its size, jungle terrain, mountains, borders with Brazil and Colombia, and the ease with which an insurgency could form.

Drawing on past U.S. failures, the speaker cites Trump’s Red Sea campaign against the Houthis—portrayed as a decisive success but in reality marked by heavy losses, abandoned objectives, and no real change on the ground—as well as exaggerated claims about “obliterating” Iran. These examples are used to show that Trump has no clear record of successful military interventions.

The speaker stresses that naval power, blockades, or small numbers of elite troops cannot control Venezuela. Special forces have limited capabilities in conventional or counterinsurgency warfare, and even massive troop deployments in Vietnam and Afghanistan failed to control territory. In jungle warfare, U.S. forces would be highly vulnerable to ambushes and shoulder-fired missiles, with insufficient troop numbers even to secure basic supply routes.

Finally, the speaker challenges the legal and moral justification for attacking Venezuela. Even if Venezuela is a major drug trafficking route (as cited from a UN report), that does not legally authorize a U.S. attack. The argument is that the U.S. routinely ignores international law when convenient, selectively defines threats, and applies double standards—especially given drug production and trafficking realities in Mexico and Afghanistan, including past U.S. complicity. Overall, the speaker concludes that claims of legality and rule-based order are a hollow “fig leaf” masking dangerous, hypocritical, and poorly thought-out military escalation.