US Raids Venezuela, Cries Foul When Russia, China, Iran Drill with S. Africa
A Russian warship joined Chinese and Iranian vessels for drills off South Africa, a development Al-Monitor frames as 'risking further damaging Pretoria's relations with Washington.' The article notes these exercises 'draw together several nations feuding with the US administration' and conveniently drops a single line about 'heightened tensions following Washington's raid on Venezuela.' (A raid
which, for the record, the US has repeatedly denied direct involvement in, despite the presence of US-trained mercenaries.) The media-approved script frames this as an alarming 'axis of evil' without questioning why nations would seek military cooperation outside of US influence. Perhaps decades of unilateral interventions, sanctions, and actual destabilization efforts—like the 2002 attempted coup
in Venezuela supported by the US, or the 2011 Libya intervention, or the omnipresent naval presence in the South China Sea—have encouraged a few countries to develop their own 'multilateral defense options.' One might wonder if the US expects geopolitical rivals to simply... not have allies?