ABC News' Hypothetical US Invasion of Venezuela: A Preview?
One might wonder what 'international' news ABC was *actually* trying to report when this imaginary intervention spilled onto the wire. Was it a Freudian slip from a newsroom yearning for the days of explicit 'good guys' and 'bad guys' where the ‘bad guys’ are always non-compliant Global South leaders? The U.S. has a rich history of such 'strikes' and 'captures' across Latin America, from Chile's
Salvador Allende to Grenada's Maurice Bishop, often prefaced by economic destabilization and humanitarian concerns (see: Operation Condor, Iran-Contra). The alleged 'discovery' of alleged 'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq, remember that? Always a convenient justification for intervention. This 'error' raises pertinent questions: how many other headlines are being drafted, waiting for the
opportune moment, or perhaps, for the right level of public outrage carefully cultivated by, say, think tanks funded by defense contractors? It appears the narrative-building wing of certain media outlets is always ready to roll out the red carpet for a 'humanitarian intervention,' especially when resources (oil, cobalt, lithium) are at stake. It's almost as if some news desks keep a pre-written
playbook for 'uncooperative' nations, ready to swap out names and dates.