Sixteen years after the Iraq War, the drums of war are beating again. This time, the U.S. presidency has Venezuela in the cross hairs, plotting to topple the government of Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.
On Feb. 5, 2003, the then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented his country’s rationale for the Iraq War at the UN Security Council. Back then, the quasi-majority of American mainstream media journalists failed to question whether Saddam Hussein supported Al Qaeda or possessed weapons of mass destruction. These shapers of public opinion tended to push the White House narrative indisputably and adopted the justifications that this war was necessary for eliminating terrorism and promoting democracy.
The Iraq war proved to be a big mistake. It caused thousands of American casualties and drained billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers for the sole benefit of few corporations. It was also a crime against the Iraqi nation; the U.S. invasion destroyed millions of lives and shattered the Iraqi infrastructure and economy so badly that the rebuilding and restoration efforts will take decades. However, mainstream U.S. media organizations, more often than not, participated in the patriotic gung-ho, and acted as sheer conduits of information warfare that paved the way for military operations.
Sixteen years later, the drums of war are beating again. This time, the U.S. presidency has Venezuela in the cross hairs, plotting to topple the government of Nicolas Maduro in Caracas. What’s more, the White House is bringing up the “democracy’s repertoire” again, even though this rhetoric was not among Trump’s favorite themes. Nevertheless, John Bolton, the national security advisor, and one of the tenors of the Trump administration, has also blatantly promoted the anti-Venezuela action as a campaign to take control of the Venezuelan oil for the benefit of U.S. corporations.
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