When I think about the Trump administration’s seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, I can’t help but think about the quote from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.” The peacemakers are losing ground.
The United States was founded through conflict and built on war. Violence is part of its DNA and embedded in its identity. For most of its 250 years, the U.S. has been at war. Contrary to the patriotic narrative, very few of those wars were about defending the country; they were primarily about the acquisition of land, resources and power. What happened last week was no exception. It’s all about the oil. Period.
The constant point of contention — that such military action needs congressional approval — is irrelevant. The 1973 War Powers Resolution was passed to curb presidential abuse of power, but both parties are guilty of exploiting loopholes. An even older and supposedly more revered document is the U.S. Constitution. Article I clearly states that only Congress has the authority to declare war.
What if one avoided using the term “war” and described this illegal military aggression in other ways, couching it under national security justifications? The Trump administration claimed the U.S. didn’t declare war on Venezuela; instead, this action was merely “a law enforcement function to capture an indicted drug trafficker.”
After the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Congress confronted both real and perceived threats to U.S. national security. It enacted legislation that granted sweeping powers to future presidents under the broad justification of combating terrorism.
We should also remember the military operations that resulted in the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Moammar Gadhafi. These were men of color who opposed U.S. imperialism, and the actual threat they posed to the U.S. remains debatable. The U.S. military violated the sovereignty of two countries to reach them.
Many people, both within and outside the U.S., have questioned the fate of leaders in this country who may be viewed unfavorably by other nations. Would they have the right to snatch up Trump and hold him accountable for his crimes?
The record of Congress on military actions confirms it will vote for such action, as it did when the Bush administration lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. The War Powers Resolution is as impotent as the current Congress.
We have a president who now wants to run Venezuela. The only running Trump has done for us is to run this country into the ground. Our responsibility to stop his domestic and international destruction has just intensified. To do this, we must organize more effectively than the lovers of war.
Jamala Rogers is an opinion writer and one of the founding members of the Organization for Black Struggle, based in St. Louis.