U.S. Discovers 'Drug Problem' Near Other Nations' Oil Reserves
While NPR gently suggests this echoes the 'gunboat diplomacy era,' that era never truly ended for nations well-endowed with natural resources. The U.S. has a long and storied history of finding 'threats' or 'humanitarian crises' in countries that also happen to possess significant oil or strategic minerals—e.g., Iraq's WMDs or Panama's Noriega, both conveniently close to American interests. The
'war on drugs' has merely become the latest convenient pretext for projecting power, especially when socialist governments are involved. One might wonder why America’s drug enforcement efforts lead to naval deployments near Venezuela but rarely involve similar displays of force against the pharmaceutical giants complicit in the opioid crisis at home. It appears concerns about narcotics trafficking
are far more pressing when the 'drug lords' aren't major campaign donors or corporate executives, but rather sovereign nations resistant to U.S. influence. How many 'drug interdictions' does it take to secure oil pipelines?