This time around they didn't even bother to bring out a glass vial containing fentanyl or coke into UN meeting like Colin Powell which shows how little consent manufacturing matters with current day American hogs as they don't care one single bit.
this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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Now they are just quoting Powell's "you break it, you buy it" instead
You know the world has gotten worse when even the United States doesn't do imperialism like it used to.
I don't think it's entirely similar. Bush was riding a massive wave of popularity at the time thanks to 9/11 and there was a massive campaign to manufacture evidence from both the media and the Bush administration itself, plus of course American hogs were incredibly bloodthirsty. The Trump admin is neither as popular as Bush was at the time nor is it competent enough to execute that kind of media campaign.
At the time, there also seemed to be this undercurrent, a remnant of the end of history 90s, that the US could and should act as a "world police".
Also the concurrent invasion of Afghanistan by NATO was considered a universal good like the very recent invasion of Yugoslavia (a different case of brain worms)
To me it feels like Libya with the surgical strike on the head of state, minus the nato involvement/arming isis. What's to be seen is if the country will fall into civil war like they did, no doubt though they're about to get the old shock doctrine.
minus the nato involvement/arming isis
Not so sure they won't fund a few paramilitary death squads to keep the peace.
I've been having 2003 flashbacks for months, it doesn't help that all the kids are dressing that way. Jon Stewart is back, pop girls are back, at this rate we're going to get the next half life soon
Yeah, but in some ways worse. Like, we don’t have the mass troop invasion (yet) and there’s the possibility here of international pressure keeping the post-kidnapping government from becoming a complete puppet state.
But, Iraq happened in the shadow of 9/11 which had put the whole country into a manic state. The neocons leveraged that to create a hyper potent manufactured consent. This time though, there’s no mass bloodlust campaign, Venezuela is nowhere close to being anyone’s top concern, and they’re completely phoning in the manufactured consent routine this time around. Which oddly feels more disheartening as TPTB not even caring if they sway the masses or not speaks to the fascist decline.
Yep, but minus the horrorific casual islamophobia and racism that permeated the entire amerikkkan political and media landscape. From South Park episodes to Flash animations on Newgrounds. Obviously islamophobia hasn't disappeared, but the way how widespread it was back then even among your average lib was scary.
i thought the fucking "hey mr taliban turn over bin laden" song from newgrounds era was like the original song because I'd never heard Harry Belafonte before 😔
they even offered to do that but the bush admin didn't take them up on it.
almost like casus belli is just latin for "excuse to fool the rubes"
Same. I can't even listen to the original without hearing the stupid parody. 
it's pretty fucked tbh, the original is great
Hairy Belafonte
Idk it sorta feels like Islamophobia is in vogue again among the hogs what with Mamdani becoming mayor, post-Oct 7 need to support Israel*, Somali childcare fraud fearmongering and preparing for regime change in Iran. Maybe not post-9/11 levels but I have no doubt they’ll get there
*obviously not true of all hogs since many oppose Israel due to antisemitism
Yeah sure, I don't disagree. What I meant is that it wasn't just the chuds who were openly islamophobic.
Do you remember the "Ground Zero Mosque" breakout when a new mosque was built in Manhattan?
I need to see how it plays out over the next few weeks. I was too young to participate, but the Iraq War protests were one of my first radicalising experiences because everyone around me turned into a flag-fucking Khorne cultist. Yellow ribbons were ubiquitous on every house and hog, while the worst opposition allowed in public discourse was "I am waiting to see the WMDs before supporting the invasion but I do support our troops". Maybe on par with 9/11 and the initial bombing of Afghanistan, most liberals I saw were pro-Bush until the first phase of the invasion was over.
Right now the media is falling in line and seems very reminiscent of 2003, along with the 
. I already know there won't be any consequences for the architects, pirates, or kidnappers participating in the Special Military Operation. I'm expecting most officials to support it until something goes wrong because the kidnapping was a success in a decades-long string of failures.
The main psychosocial thing that's up in the air for me is public opinion and how enthusiastic normal people will be about the mission and losses. I don't think that will parallel Iraq as strongly or as long. The main group calling for it outside of oil companies is the gusanos, and they're legally on par with refugees from Somalia and Afghanistan now as far as ICE is concerned. It remains to be seen whether the liberal hatred of non-white people will outweigh their hatred of Trump.
1000%. Watching the explosions in Caracas on the news last night took me straight back to watching that night-vision footage of “shock and awe” (i.e. mass murder) in 2003
also all of the media coming out of libya and the terrible things that happened to gaddafi :/
Very reminiscent. When trump was giving his speech he said something like "we haven't seen an assault like this since..." Then he paused before saying WW2
I'm pretty sure he had to stop himself from drawing parallels to iraq
First as farce, and then again as an even dumber farce.
It won't be like Iraq
The US has no desire or appetite for such a conflict again, and they probably don't need to do such a thing again
They'll execute Maduro or imprison him for life, then help install some pro west sycophant that will let them suck the country dry
I truly believe the military will coup if they install someone like machado
Why would they do that? I doubt the military are bought in to Chavismo and Machado seems more than capable of sucking up to whoever she needs to.
PSUV is deeply interwined with their military and vice versa. Chavez and Maduro actually purged and rebuilt their militaries unlike some Latin America leaders. Given the old military removed Chavez early in his presidency (didn't take) and he also was a former officer.
Why didn't they shoot back then?
they did, some manpads got shots off before they got lit up by the apaches
that they didn't down any of them isn't all that surprising, their actual AAA was outclassed and got flattened leaving only manpads firing in the dark at low flying, fast, stealthy helicopters that have countermeasures specifically designed to render IR guided manpads ineffective
Was any of it caught on video?
there was a video somewhere in the newsthread of a small amount of return fire, shared by Awoo i think
the yankees admitted to one helicopter being damaged at least
bear in mind the entire raid was over within an hour in the middle of the night, not all that much time to get good video
There's like a host of reasons they might not have ranging from electronic warfare to bribing a small number of guys (which is easier than a whole ass coup).
As i understand it the military in Venezuela is explicitly structured to be friendly to the current government
Yeah, big time 
Oh yeah. This is PNAC v2 for sure.
Oddly enough I don't feel as worried about it all this time around. The PNAC crowd were certainly as brutal as Trump&co, but they were also unified by a competent cabal, and facing a non-unified world with dramatically inferior military capabilities. Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bolton and the rest had a single vision and had practical plans to try to accomplish it.
Trump&co are just winging it. No plan, just vibes. They're also facing off against a less dis-unified world that's also in far better shape to oppose the United States.
I was listening to S1 of blowback the other week.
It is literally play by play, only substitute wmds for drug cartels.
Been having bush era flashbacks for a while now
the lack of 9/11 behind it makes a real difference but they're running a lot of the same plays
I am already simmering with anticipated hatred for all the excuses the democrats will make for their behavior over the next few weeks. This is a real doozy for them. On the one hand Trump just boldly advanced the imperial hegemony of the USA in the Americas, with da troops, both things they love! But he did it icky bad way and he is orange man bad and this is kinda a giant blow to the vaunted neoliberal world order.
So, fun Gordian knot I suppose. Just kidding. They’ll find the nearest boot and get to licking.
I wish I could go on strike but I'm broke and surrounded by Americucks who will complain but never anything else 🤢
Help build/participate in mutual aid networks around you, emphasis on anything doing food distribution. Doesn't help now but in the future if there is to be a general strike we need to create systems that will keep people fed when they are broke and hungry struggling against this system.
So this is how it felt like
:yea:
Don't get me wrong, this is bad, but fake drug running accusations probably won't have the same consent manufacturing impact of 9/11. I don't think people will fly into homicidal rage if you say that going to war against Venezuela is quite clearly just to steal resources. All bets are off once the first American soldier is killed.
Real uncanny seeing Iraq happen now as an a voting adult instead of some kid in grade school listening to playground rumors.
It's weird it feels like my gut is but my head is not