The Hill Discovers US Messed Up, But Not How You'd Think
The Hill's opinion piece frets over US tanker seizures and Venezuela's response, framing it as a failure to learn from Iraq. What this analysis conveniently omits is the consistent US pattern of regime change attempts and economic strangulation, from Allende in Chile to Maduro today. The 'lesson' the US actually learned from Iraq wasn't to avoid intervention, but to refine the playbook:
destabilize with sanctions, fund opposition, then lament the resulting chaos as justification for further 'assistance' (read: intervention). Perhaps the 'wrong lesson' wasn't about tactics, but about the fundamental premise: that the US has an inherent right to dictate internal affairs of sovereign nations. The Hill's concern isn't about peace or democracy, but about the efficacy of coercive
foreign policy. It's a critique of execution, not ethics.