Op-ed from Peace Action of San Mateo CA

It’s looking more and more like a full-blown regime-change war in Venezuela could start any day. Trump could be bluffing, but it’s important that we act proactively or risk witnessing a disaster. Over Thanksgiving, he warned in typical vague and dark fashion that land strikes inside Venezuela will begin “very soon” and declared its airspace “closed" amid the Pentagon’s buildup of the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group, destroyers, F-35s, and 15,000 troops under “Operation Southern Spear”. On December 2, he doubled down on “very soon”, repeating the threat in stark terms during a Cabinet meeting (at which he later dozed off while members of his cabinet were showering him with typical adoring platitudes).

Venezuela is a nation on the edge of catastrophe. Its people, crushed by sanctions and collapse, would face not rescue but deeper agony: bombs tearing families apart, refugees overwhelming our borders, oil chaos spiking prices, and years of insurgency like Iraq or Libya – all for a policy that polls show most Americans reject as reckless overreach. This isn't security; it's a constitutional betrayal in which one man claims war powers that the nation’s founders reserved for Congress.​

At this time, Sens. Tim Kaine and Rand Paul stand ready with Senate Minority Leader Schumer and our own Sen. Adam Schiff to force a War Powers vote…but they plan to act once the strikes escalate to Venezuelan soil. We get the legal, procedural, and political hurdles holding the Senators back, after prior bids fell short along party lines. But we’ve also seen how wars harden once they start; we need to take principled action now to prohibit unauthorized attacks, slash war funding, and demand congressional say-so before the first land missile flies.​

Meanwhile, the House already has two war-powers resolutions: H Con Res 61, “Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities with presidentially designated terrorist organizations in the Western Hemisphere”; and the recently-introduced H Con Res 64, “(to) direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress”.

(The latter measure has among its currently seven co-sponsors GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, thus can be considered bipartisan.)

Action

Tell Sens. Schiff and Alex Padilla to support immediate war powers legislation to block U.S. strikes on Venezuela. Suggest that while Sens. Kaine and Paul may be ready post-attack, this should be voted on now to prevent them. Likewise tell Rep. Mullin or Liccardo, or whomever represents you, to co-sponsor both H Con Res 61 and H Con Res 64 – and become part of the effort to stand up to the president. Suggest the best time to end a war is before it consumes us.

And if you want to get some insight into what it was like to deal with these kinds of issues with effective organizing in years past, be sure to join us on December 14 at 7 PM for a virtual screening of the award-winning documentary film American Agitators. The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3289220486?omn=84416053331 .

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121