Donald Trump has ordered “a total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.
So, we’ve all decided, internationally and legally, that here are sanctions. If people bust the sanctions – bust that international law – then what do we do? Arrest the sanctions breakers?
Seems logical, even fair, really. So, what’s the argument against this? Other than Trump bad, socialists good?
I think you’ll find that “international law” isn’t available to just any Tom, Dick or Harry. It’s restricted to Adolfs, Benitos and Xi’s.
Oh, and Kiers and Richards. Silly me…
Well worded statement.
All he needs to do is replace Venezuela with BBC and oil tankers with ‘journalists’
Ah, but “we all” haven’t sanctioned oil tankers internationally, legally or otherwise. Trump/USA did so unilaterally a few days ago (after already seizing one, I think).
We’re grownups here; we don’t need to trouble ourselves with propaganda about drug smugglers and sanction running. The dumb socialists are getting too pally with the Chicomms and the Panama Canal is under threat. They need to go (from a US security perspective), international law be damned. Columbia should tread carefully . . .
There is no argument against it, apart from that.
Well, no.
The US and it’s vassal states have decided there are sanctions.
Russia hasn’t agreed to sanctions. It’s a sovereign nation.
If it’s boats are in international waters and/or it’s waters/the waters of a country that isn’t observing the sanctions, then there are no sanctions.
Looks like WW3 is about to kick of in a big way.
Over Venezuela? Nah. We’re (hopefully) not gonna fight WW3 over Ukraine. Not gonna fight over the Monroe doctrine either. And in any case, Venezuela doesn’t have allies like the United States. China and Russia don’t have the means to support Evil Bob Carolgees the way Zelensky’s government has been propped up. US Navy would murder them.
However, China may decide that, if it’s OK for the US to attack a different country on another continent, it’s ok for them to take back Formosa?
This build up also looks a bit performative to me. No doubt it is the most powerful armada to loiter off Darien with fighty intentions. But Venezuela can’t be militarily defeated by airstrikes. Trump is not averse to escalate to de-escalate, which is why his splendidly calibrated bombing of Iran brought a quick halt to the Israel-Iran war. But boots on the ground goes against his political instincts and would be pure cancer to Republican voters. President Trump is not a fascist, he just plays one on TV. He’s a dealmaker, trying to make the Venezuela regime an offer they can’t refuse.
Regime change will only work if the CIA has done its job this time and linked up with effective alternatives to Maduro who can sweep into power off the back of angry villagers rising up against the socialist creeps or Maduro fleeing to Cuba with suitcases of dollars. Last time under President Trump they embarrassed themselves by trying to nominate some random guy with no influence the “real” president of Vuvuzuela. Let’s hope it works this time.
I do wonder if Trump has set himself up to be defeated by clownshow Venezuela. If Maduro doesn’t go and can hide from any hits, I don’t know what Trump can do. What he’s done so far looks an awful lot like a bunch of blundering about.
Apparently he’s addressing the nation tonight.
Why would you wonder that? Donald Trump is the kind of guy who, if he lost a game of Snakes and Ladders, would sue you. He doesn’t like losing.
Not to say we can discount the possibility of malicious compliance or bog standard public sector incompetence.
But yeah, if there’s isn’t more going on than we know about, not easy to see how an oil blockade/possible JDAM surprises can remove Midori. However, I’ve learned it’s best to do a Wesley Snipes and always bet on Trump.
Maybe it was him who thumbed down my comment. Lol.
So now the Fake News PJF is saying I “lost” at Chutes & Laders! TOTALLY UNTRUE! Lying PJF BEGGED me to play that game, he was SICK AS A DOG and had to use his “Crooked Dice” to get to the square I ALREADY CLAIMED FOR THE UNITED STATES, BY PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDER.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
You left out cofveve.
Except a decent amount of Venezuelan oil actually ends up in China.
China won’t be happy that the Americans have suddenly decided that they shouldn’t be getting some of their oil.
America is firmly in Thucydides trap. At some point soon, they will start a conflict to try and prevent Chinese supremecy.
And America (as well as lots of the vassal states) need a war to distract from the home economic and immigration problems.
Seems odd that a number of European nations have suddenly in the past week or so said that we should all be ready to sacrifice our sons for the glory of Europe in the upcoming war with Russia, Glory to the greater Islamic Republic of Europa! And put conscription procedure frameworks in place…
And old king jug ears himself promised we would fight to defend Europe.
France commanded it’s hospitals to be ready by March for large numbers of combat casualties…
This Venezuela thing is just the latest in a line of escalations.
It probably won’t be the spark, but it’s definitely added powder to the pile…
That would be foolish as Fascist China is a million miles away from supremacy and it seems Chairman Pooh has got over recent political wobbles and now has full authority to continue tanking the economy. Only Europe’s net zero delusions are keeping China going.
Yes, and human history is full of people making smart decisions…
I’m not worried about conscription / trying to compel our children to fight Russia, but TPTB should be.
If they try that, we will kill them.
Have you seen the comments under any of these stories in the news? War won’t unite Europe. Like products from the Acme Company, it would immediately blow up in their face.
Ain’t nobody going to war to defend Europe’s precious windfarms, grooming gangs and mosques.
These belligerently failing Eurocoulro regimes, including Two Tier’s, are as frail and sickly as King C himself. One hard kick, and the entire clown tent is coming down for good.
Ain’t nobody going to war to defend Europe’s precious windfarms, grooming gangs and mosques.
Indeed, they go to, war to protect their daughters, wives and mothers.
It look like that because Covid was a damp-squib in the “population-reduction stakes” they’re going to have to try a war… So passée..
BJ – Funny you should mention that. Pre-COVID, pre-White Lives Don’t Matter, this warspunking would have worked. Most of the population would have gone along with it, while waving little flags.
Not anymore, lol. COVID and all the other bullshit has completely burned away all the residual trust, faith and goodwill the average Brit has for our “leaders” and their worthless “institutions”.
Read the comments under this article:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15387755/British-families-lose-sons-daughters-fight-Russia.html
You are Nathan Gill – and I claim my £5!
5 Roubles, Comrade-Captain.
Blockade means if the tanker doesn’t stop, it gets sunk.
I doubt they’ll be able to board and capture one without it blowing up if there’s any resistance at all. Rather questionable if they’ll seriously try.
Not quite like capturing a powder ship, but not too far from that.
What’s the minimum safe distance?
It might be somewhat safer if the tanker is empty; I’m not sure what measures they take to make the tanks safe after emptying and whether those measures work if there’s holes in them.
After the first one gets this treatment, good luck getting insurance for any others. Succeeding ones can be safely assumed to be government actors.
” l doubt they’ll be able to board and capture one without it blowing up if there’s any resistance at all.”
Seal teams on helicopters will take care of the boarding and capturing just fine. Tankers are big and slow to move so boarding will be easy. Untrained and poorly armed commercial crew will not provide a lot of resistance
Yarp. Isn’t it all Filipinos, Indonesians and other random Third World dudes on these boats? No fucking way Johnny Rico is getting killed to protect his $5/day job or some rich arsehole’s oil shipment.
Rag-tag bunches of Ethiopians seem to manage to take over commercial shipping relatively easily, so I’d expect troops, even American ones, to manage it/
I wouldn’t wait until the tanker had loaded at the oil terminal, I would stop it on the inward voyage while it was still in ballast. The people who aren’t going to like this very much are the members of Lloyd’s, and the various Swiss reinsurance giants. Let’s see which way they jump before predicting the outcome. Retaliation in Gulf waters is a possibility. Be prepared for long lines at the petrol pump.
A fully loaded tanker is safer than an empty one with residual product and gas in it. It’s the hydrocarbon gas that’s explosive which is why there was a spate of supertanker explosions occurring during tank washing operations in the 1970s.
The Trump administration has defended its efforts as a success, saying it has prevented drugs from reaching American shores, and pushed back on concerns that it is stretching the bounds of lawful warfare.
Oh won’t somebody PLEASE think of the Latin American drugs cartel sicarios?!?
Blockading oil was FDR’s chosen weapon to provoke Japan to go to war.
And the silly buggers fell for it.
But Japan was always going to fight the US in the 40’s. Building a big blue water navy is like Chekhov’s phaser, somebody’s getting shot. The US Navy was the natural target, as the only Western power (by the 20’s) capable of halting Japan’s imperial ambitions.
FDR’s sanctions were for their campaign of murderous terror across east Asia in general and French Indochina in partic.
FDR’s Japan policy was a lot more realistic than Britain’s Japan policy when we taught them how to create a powerful navy. And crucially, it was Britain wot showed the Japs the potential of naval aviation. I wonder which shower of retards permitted the Sempill Mission? And then failed to prosecute Lord Sempill for his treason in WW2?
Oh.
No use spluttering Steve: FDR – who had been re-elected on a peace ticket – wanted war with Germany and Japan and went about consciously provoking it.
The Germans were so stupid as to declare war on the US: fine soldiers, rotten strategists. (See also, war in North Africa, marching on Moscow: Napoleonic levels of reckless arrogance. Or, if you prefer, George W Bush levels.)
The Japanese fell for his ruse and made an attack that was most unlikely to succeed given that the US had cracked their codes and knew what was coming. So they ordered their carriers out to sea for safety and accepted the casualties at Pearl Harbour because that gave them the war they wanted. This stuff isn’t speculation, it’s documented.
DM – but has it been documented on the Jap side? (I have no idea what their historians say)
The oil embargo was from July 26, 1941. Pearl Harbour attack on December 7th.
Did Japan make the strategic decision to go to war, create a wehrmacht, then plan and execute their opening offensive, in just over 4 months?
Course not. They were preparing to fight the Yanks since at least 1937, when they started building the biggest battleship in the world. More realistically, the Nips were probably planning to kill roundeyes since Commodore Perry’s unwelcome visit in 1853.
If FDR hastened the inevitable, it was to the long term good.
I think it was the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty that (rightfully) pissed off the Japs.
True.
They thought that they hadn’t received their just rewards for being on the Allied side in the Great War and the naval treaties were an insult. Which they ignored anyway.
The development of the Japanese fleet by Britain was a strategic coup which paid off handsomely. At first.
Realising that even at the end of the 19th Century they were looking at serious naval overstretch, Britain started looking for partners. Japan in the far East and Chile in S America were furnished with ships, Britain held economic suzerainty in Argentina.
The Russo Japanese War was the pay off. It ended Russian interference in China.
Japan from 1937 onwards carried out plans for its expansion westwards, but became bogged down in China. The war in Europe gave the Japs just the chance to break out and seize British, Dutch and French possessions while their enemies were otherwise engaged.
Although Japan’s victories over Britain and the USA in 1941-2 were certainly impressive, they could never be decisive. This was typical hubris and overstretch of a conqueror whose victory lasted only as long as its enemies were weak.
Once the invasion of Europe had happened and that the Allies had both air and naval supremacy in Europe, Japan’s fate was sealed.
And yes the Japs , in their arrogance, walked onto the punch.
Towards the end of the reign of the Empress of India, Japan appeared a natural partner for Britain: both island nations with a hereditary Emperor/ress who could trace his/her dynasty back for more than a millennium, population vastly outnumbered by nearby rival/enemy powers; we could choose peaceful co-operation and mutually advantageous trade or fight each other to a standstill and let the jackals pick our bones.
K. Show us.
The US had been breaking Japanese naval codes in the 30s, but they were changed in 1938 and 1939, and AFAIK hadn’t been broken by December 1941.
Tora ! Tora ! Tora !
In the film, they had broken enough of the code to know that Pearl Harbor attack was imminent.
No one told Husband Kimmel.
Utter nonsense. See here for a summary of the locations of the main US naval assets on December 7th: https://youtu.be/S41syxgTnjQ?si=UdgQ_S6Zs6ivvEbV
Note that the vast majority of battleships (still considered to be main fleet unit, not carriers at that point) were there.
The idea the US was aware of the attack and let it happen is as retarded as the conspiracies that the moon landing was faked or 9/11 was an inside job.
Lord Sempill was not prosecuted for his treason in WW2 because a prosecution would have revealed that the British had broken the Japanese codes.
From a true story set in the future:
The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules; it is a philosophy… and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilisation, no matter how well-intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous
THAT is the problem with imperialism.
Across the globe, there are cultures of sentient beings who have evolved their culture over centuries. It is evil for outsiders such as us to interfere with their cultures. We may think them wrong, even barbaric, but it is NONE OF OUR FUCKING BUSINESS.
The US of A has a proud, principled history of only acting against evil dictatorships that have oil.
Neither Japan nor Germany had any oil.
Nor Vietnam. Nor Italy. Nor Aphaphistan.*
*Playing Risk in college, we had a player who couldn’t pronounce “Afghanistan.”
We told him he couldn’t attack it unless he could pronounce it.