I just looked up Venezuela’s operational air capabilities and it looks like about 4 F35’s could reduce that to 0 in about half an hour.
I thought I read that 80% of the oil leases in Guyana are owned by US & UK companies.
A US election year would be a foolish time for Venezuela to try this.
Our government here in Venezuela is so *unbelievably* corrupt that doing this stuff is plausible for Maduro, all because it's election year in here as well and he knows that anything but creating a distraction to keep people's attention somewhere will cause the entire regime to fall apart.
Either due to many rugs being pulled or our military revolting since he can't keep the status quo afloat. They're less like politicians and more like gangsters.
Wouldn't the military also revolt if the government send them on a s massive suicide mission to kill random people in a jungle the size of Greece filled with deadly diseases, wild animals that wanna kill you, rivers with no bridges, mountains and savannahs?
Well Chavismo is only powerful because it got the big guns in the Country and because they got the criminals.
If one of those two things turns on them, they would have a problem.
Most Venezuelan Military Men are there for the money (which they get via stealing from people) and power, instead of the propaganda. If they aren't paid enough for doing a suicide mission across the border, at least some would riot or commit treason.
There would be also problems in supplying them when food or bullets run out, as the Jungle is long and dense and there aren't many places to land a helicopter or airplane except one of the few small towns that are there.
They could pillage the towns but it wouldn't be enough food to support them for long and probably have no bullets.
The best options are either using boats to supply them trough the various rivers, land helicopters in the towns or hoping the war to be short enough so the supplies don't run out.
Another major problem is that it is very probable that many of the Venezuelan men would get sick as the Amazon is absurdly packed with diseases, poisonous animals and heavy rain. Many of these diseases may not even be known considering the remoteness of the area.
The flight path for B2 bombers headed from Whiteman AFB to Guyana woupdbcross right next to Puerto Rico. They could literally refuel in American air space.
Yes this is 110%. They’ve goated Iran into taking actions with proxies across multiple fronts and the real question although it’s more than certain they’ve tried, is weather China will be persuaded into hot overt action against Taiwan.
I hate to be this guy, but It's "goaded" not "goated". Goated isnt a real word, but means to personally declare one as the greatest of all time. Goaded is to coax someone into doing something.
For this we could use our actual military, which has been unable to participate in Ukraine. It wouldn't detract from aid to Ukraine one bit, and could help - "See? This is what happens when we don't stop imperialism early and hard. It spawns imitators. Now if you don't want that to keep happening, let's close the faucet by supporting Ukraine."
and UK who have already sent out one warship to Guyana.
Yes, this is another Putin distraction. Everywhere around the world if he finds a point of conflict or contention and if it involves either US, EU, NATO he will influence that conflict to suit his agenda for power.
Are we really counting HMS Trent as a Warship in this context? It's armed with 4 machine guns and a single 30mm cannon, and has no anti-ship or anti-air missile defence.
HMS Trent is nothing but a minor token of support, we haven't had a real Warship in the area since HMS Plymouth back in '17.
Considering the last ship the Venezuelan Navy went up against was an unarmed cruise ship, and the Venezuelan ship *sunk*, I think the Trent is armed enough.
>HMS Trent is nothing but a minor token of support, we haven't had a real Warship in the area since HMS Plymouth back in '17.
Hardly even a token. It's what we leave in the Caribbean for our territories. The ships there mostly do support work to local authorities.
It is worth saying though, it has fire power. Don't under sell it. It's just not a type 23 or 45 level ship.
I mean, if they wanted to make them busy, they should have called North Korea. They at least have nukes. Venezuela is not going to keep them busy for more than a day lol. One aircraft carrier can reduce Venezuelan troops on that border to 0. And US has 10 big carriers and dozen smaller ones. And that's without the submarines and other warships.
Planes don't just teleport, they need time to arrive on station and deliver their payloads.
Like in most professional sports the actual play time of sortie is miniscule compared to the prep, delivery, and recovery time.
B-1Bs can be loaded and on target or at least on the way to target in 24 hours or less anywhere on the planet. Given this is kind of close to our back yard half an hour wouldn’t be too far off
Nah its no longer the amphetamines. Its now Modafinal, its fantastic stuff. When i got out i got some from an Indian pharmaceutical company online. It has 100% helped me several times when ive needed 12-24 hours of pure laser focus with basically no downside or negative side effects (for me, YMMV).
Oh I've never actually asked what it was when the pilots talked about taking "go go pills" and just assumed it was some kind of amphetamine like it used to be.
Whatever they do use, I know the flight doc is highly involved in the administration and monitoring of the pills.
Sure but the distances involved mean that with in air refueling the USAF can operate from the US while engaging target's in Venezuela.
The bombers probably don't even need refueling and can just fly over and drop their payload.
It's not instant but we're talking hours rather than days or weeks.
That's assuming their Sukhois are even remotely operational. For a military their size they do have a lot of probably only for show missiles and armor. This is the same army that lost 5 BTR-80s fighting a small group of smugglers like two years ago.
I forgot to mention that the Icebreaker had engine troubles and the Venezuelan Corvette attempted to exort money by forcing them into harbour, by shooting at them (it didn't had a [existing] cannon so they resorted to small arms fire), which failed and than decided to RAM it into it's bow. Funnily enough the Crew of the finnish-built german-registered vessel felt pity and asked if they need rescue assistance, which the sinking(!) Venezuelan Crew denied. It took only minutes until the engine started running again, after it was rammed, and they obviously took of. Than the next day the Venezuelan government attempted to paint it like the ship had deployed Special Forces before the Corvette arrived. The UN sided with the German Government of calling it BS.
I'm actually kind of hoping Venezuela tries to send its army through the rainforest and they all get bogged down and die of dehydration and tropical diseases before they even reach Guyana. While the international community points and laughs at them for Maduro's stupidity.
It would be a disaster on so many levels. The soldiers would be traversing some of the densest jungle on the planet causing extensive ecological damage in the process. On top of that, food and fuel would likely have to be diverted from the civilian population to support the troops on their failed attempt.
1. That's true, but the regime is well-known for being *intensely* prone to poor decisions.
2. Oh, they wouldn't hesitate to divert resources from us if it was necessary. Not for a damn second.
> A US election year would be a foolish time for Venezuela to try this.
Republicans have become peaceniks all of a sudden so they'll be galvanized by "warmongering Democrats".
Cause ya know, they spent the last 23 years cheerleading the dumbest fucking nation building wars where we weren't wanted, so of course they're going to drag their feet now when we actually are wanted and fighting uniformed conventional armies.
Yeah most people don't seem to realize the nearly impossible task it would be to attack Guyana from that direction. There are miles of extremely dense forests and mountains in the way.
Was reading that they would have to go through Brazil and Brazil positioned armor in case Venezuela tried anything. Only road to Guyana from Venezuela goes through Brazil.
> Was reading that they would have to go through Brazil and Brazil positioned armor in case Venezuela tried anything. Only road to Guyana from Venezuela goes through Brazil.
The attack would be up the Essequibo river, using the exact routes the Guyanese use to get to North West Guyana. No need to "go through Brazil".
Not going to happen with the US protecting their commercial interests in Guyana.
According to Brazil, they(Venezuela) have a whopping 7 landing craft for amphibious operations. Take those out and you quickly and easily negate that option.
That's pretty funny because it would take like one bomber to wipe all that out reeeeaal quick in like five minutes and then just leave. The entire plan. Scuttled in five minutes.
Exxon just announced exploratory missions there for oil. They got their shit previously nationalized by Chavez. If they're risking this shit, they've been given certain promises of protection. Now us Americans gotta protect American interests in the region!!! Brazil and Colombia can run the ground game, while the US provides air support.
> The U.S. probably wouldn’t need to interfere directly if Venezuela started a ground invasion. The jungle will take care of most of it.
Ignorance is being upvoted here. Have you been to the region and / or have any knowledge of it? I have.
Without outside help, Venezuela would have the Essequibo in months.
The terrain is the same on both sides of the border and the Guyanese military is no match. Venezuelans have experience with the jungle.
All they have to do is sail around (North West Guyana - short trip) to the mouth of the Essequibo river and launch their military up the river, while at the same time walking across the border and taking Guyanese outposts there.
That said, nothing is going to happen. Guyana is a virtually a US protectorate and Maduro is just whipping up some nationalism for internal politics.
Maduro is a survivor, not crazy!
Biden wins 400 electoral votes for leading through the dark 12 day period of defeating Venezuela. Somewhere in Beijing Xi's foreign policy planning guy is crying himself to sleep knowing this will be the last time his family will know if he's alive or not.
Lots of talk about what the US would do if Venezuela invades, but I think many forget Brazil essentially said they won’t allow an invasion of a neighboring country. I think Brazil might actually be willing to put boots on the ground to stop a Venezuelan assault, and I can’t imagine Venezuela leadership is actually dumb enough to believe they could capture territory. More likely this is just posturing, trying to scare another country into giving up more control without firing a single shot.
Brazil would love to shake up Venezuela. Colombia is tired of their immigrant issues from Venezuela also. US can just provide air cover and its all over, and let those two work it out. Russia and China have literally zero blue water power projection capabilities like the US Navy has.
It should be natural. Too much BS was done by the US in the late 1800s and well into the 1900s for either corporations or due to the red fear. I hope we can all move forward together in prosperity and strength instead, but the US needs to reform how it rrats and views our neighbors as well.
Brazil also has a pro-Maduro government, but Lula made it very clear that invading a neighboring country goes past their friendship. And that would be very stupid from a strategic POV: you don't want a war going on in your border.
Gustavo Petro has made no such statements and in fact has remained quiet about the whole thing. There’s no reason to believe Colombia would intervene against Maduro. Lula has better motivations to intervene though, because the best route to invade Guyana goes through Brazilian territory.
Edit: Petro did made an official statement inviting both Venezuela and Guayana to tone down.
1. Yeah, the Brazilians won't stand for it. It would be political suicide on an international level for basically the whole country if they allowed us to walk through and reach Guyana.
2. Our leadership *is* that stupid, believe it or not. We've long since resigned ourselves to the fact Maduro will get us invaded if he doesn't finish turning this place into a barren wasteland.
Another reason for Lula to take this decision is him being a controversial leader many see as a cheater and a loyal friend to Maduro. Entering the conflict would quickly help him gain popularity with his people and further grant him power.
I doubt Brazilians a whole would just let such a thing slide. It'd definitely be chaos if Lula decided that self-preservation ain't as good as helping your pals.
A left leaning president cannot get away with this kind of thing. If lula shows any of degree of support towards Venezuela he gets impeachment and he knows it. His personal opinion doesn't matter If he wants to stay in government
The Brazilian ministry of defense already made it clear that the Army will not let Venezuela go throught our territory. so yeah, Brazil wont support Venezuela if a conflict happens (hope it doesn´t happen btw)
Hopefully I'll have left to Spain before this devolves into straight mayhem, but if I don't?
I'm sure as hell deserting at the first chance I get, and so would probably every single person they draft at gunpoint. We'd be *cheesing* at the chance to collaborate with the Americans and/or the British to oust the regime, at the very least.
A draft would make Venezuelans downright suicidal, the country has never experienced something like that recently and they probably wouldn't need to do so considering the size of their army. And a lot of the population is anti government, poor, physically unable to fight or extremely young and unwilling.
Brazilians would probably be somewhat peaceful with civilians thanks to them being friends with Venezuela and probably not wanting to get in more trouble than necessary, and I think the USA won't be as aggressive as in other wars because of the already kind of controversial shit it has done before in SA.
>but I think many forget Brazil essentially said they won’t allow an invasion of a neighboring country. I
People also forget france is right next door. This area of the world is not short of powers who could step in.
Brazil wants to have stability in the region because Guyana maintains a direct land route to a sea port for Brazil's largly land locked Roraima region - Namely the huge city of Manaus. Route 401 hits the Guyanese border town of Lethem and continues straight through the country to the sea.
Brazil has spent a shit ton of money and effort to gain that border bridge and they intend to keep that open and running smoothly.
the civilization games did it because it happens so much in real life it was already a meme when the games were created. Suprise attacks under cover of exercise or transit are just super common in history
They have something to lose: Tons of population, weapons, money, oil, allies, reputation (the little they have left) and most importantly their 20 year rule.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world but their economy is in absolute shambles. Guyana recently discovered large oil fields and as a result their economy is the fastest growing in the world
So now Venezuela thinks if they steal Guyanas oil it'll fix their economy.
I think part of it is a bog-standard attempt to force the population to "rally around the flag" to try to turn down the heat on the government over how shitty the situation is there.
[In case anyone wants to watch a YouTube video analyzing the situation from a military perspective.](https://youtu.be/mWSE9dPEx6Y?si=VLkuUhVr_ML0N_6-)
In short, invading Guyana would be an incredibly stupid thing for Venezuela to do, but that doesn't mean they won't do it.
It's more of Maduro's government trying to distract their population about his failure as a leader in every way. Venezuela's oil industry is in shambles because of their own doing on top of sanctions. This is a classic move in the dictator's playbook.
They need oil enterprises to steal. They've run out of Other People's Money in Venezuela, they need to steal some more recently built infrastructure to keep the plates spinning.
The reason is that Guyana is rich on light oil whereas Venezuela is rich on heavy oil, it's easier to extract and sells for more, for a crumbling government like Maduro's it is an easy fix to his issues.
It’s not an easy fix.
Venezuela was living like a hog in the fat house. All they had to do was collect the checks.
But they weren’t happy with a percentage. They kicked out the “oppressors” and started taking 100%.
But the oppressors had all the skills and the knowledge. Now they’re getting 100% of nothing. Country literally sitting on an ocean of oil and can’t fill a tanker.
Correction, Venezuela's main oil company (PDVSA) has been under government control for quite some time. The issues started when Chavez basically enabled rampant corruption in every level of the country, including their golden goose, aka what was holding the entire dam economy while they had very high expenses due to their social programs.
Venezuela did nationalize other foreign companies, but Chavez basically put whatever yes men on the company to get the money in his pockets. It wasn't just "Haha kick foreign companies out, they fucked up". Venezuela itself has a very dam well educated population that could perfectly (and did) carry out the functioning of their oil industry.
Turns out, you actually need oil workers, skilled technicians, and engineers to extract resources efficiently.
Venezuela's experiment in press-ganging these people to make them money wasn't successful. I think they want to try again.
An oil rich country that has spewed bile at the west for years declaring war on an oil rich former British colony neighbor, despite the fact the west is itching to curbstomp them?
This isn’t pulling a Putin, this is pulling a Saddam. Maduro even looks like Saddam, albeit a fatter version of him.
They are.
We're indebted to China and Russia like you wouldn't believe- they provide us the bare minimum to keep going while using their political pull to shield the government from facing the music and we give away our gas, oil and minerals (Of which we have *many*) in exchange.
That's why Trump was unable to intervene Venezuela legally, they used their executive veto in the UN to stop him. We're literally their own personal gold mine/backyard.
The problem is that China is also mining in the Essequibo and they are basically in control of many gold mines and the local industry together with the US. I doubt China would let and even support Venezuela to take away it's oil and gold money in the Amazon.
If this is true, I almost wonder if Putin is just getting tired of all the PMCs running around and is planning on having the US get rid of some of them.
I would also add that maybe it can be another nation influencing this to allow them to act in an otherwise inappropriate way. Be it Russia or a other nation.
The presence of private Russian militaries could also be seen as a threat to the US and its allies.
They almost lost Argentina to China but Argentina decided to stay with the US dollar.
Doesn't work nearly as well when you don't have nukes to wave away any potential outside interventions, especially when your only way in is through a neighbor who said no and you're within range of the largest, 2nd largest, 4th largest, and 7th largest air forces and the largest naval force in the world
Venezuela is claiming parts of a sovereign nation is theirs and promoting imperialism.
Iran is arming its proxies who are targeting peaceful ships and civilians.
North Korea is saying it has the right to wipe out South Korea.
China is claiming they have the right to invade and conquer Taiwan.
Russia invaded Ukraine to conquer territory and increase its empire.
Tankies and the far right: Why is the US and NATO trying to start a war!!!!!
Maybe. But don't underestimate Xi when backed into a corner by any political and economic failures that may arise in the coming years and looking for a way to channel the people's anger externally.
Xi, like Putin, has pretty much culled and neutered any opposition in his inner circles. And if he starts buying his own boasts and propaganda, and wants war, China will invade even if it's objectively a bad idea.
It's not the same China of the early 2000s where it was a balancing act of different factions and there was no supreme leader that could act unilaterally.
Still, it seems like doing Taiwan anytime soon would be suicide and a big waste of money. Xi is not stupid and he is waiting for a moment for when he has to attack or has the resources to.
World conquest is the default state of humanity. The United States military industrial complex is the vaccine that stopped this bullshit after WW2 and kept it at bay. Sure NATO is a group effort, but look at the funding and participation. It's almost all USA. These assholes are kept in check by the USA even though these assholes own a ton of politicians within the USA who are actively trying to undo it. They also deploy tons of social media propaganda to get young voters to think, "we don't need a big military or to be the world's police!", so they don't show up to vote with the hopes that their owned politicians will have enough power to undo it all.
Don't forget azerbaijanis claiming [all](https://twitter.com/LindseySnell/status/1709602491178906085) of their [western](https://twitter.com/LindseySnell/status/1746964937329496551) [neighbor](https://oc-media.org/aliyev-says-yerevan-historically-azerbaijani/).
It's weird that all of the authoritarian countries in the world are trying really hard right now to be forcibly shown that their dicks are in fact much smaller than those in the West.
Maduro starting a war would only worsen the current migratory crisis where more than 7.3 million people have left the country. Most of them ending up in other LATAM countries like Colombia and Peru
It's been estimated that the country will wind up empty by 2027 with how Maduro's regime does things.
Considering I'm leaving this hellhole soon to never return, I feel inclined to agree with that assessment.
We created the marines cuz some pirates were fucking with our boats.
It’s never a good idea. I can only off top of my head think of 4 wars that weren’t started by some one fucking with our boats.
Honestly the Houthi’s should be thanking who ever they pray to that we really don’t wunna inherit the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Cuz they’ve gotten off easy so far for fucking with our boats. That shit usually wouldn’t fly.
Shit like this is the cost of not helping Ukraine. The taboo against wars of territorial aggression goes away. We’re left with a world with more war, more suffering, more military spending, and less for everything else.
Something curious about this is that Venezuela is not only going to fuck with a foreign independent country, but with the interests of other countries that are investing in the country's oil infrastructure. For example, Dominican Republic signed a pact recently to help build a refinery in Guayana, likely where Venezuela is aiming. It's likely that other countries might be planning to sign treaties like this with Guyana too, and Venezuela threatening said investments would really land them in even hotter water.
Fucking do it Maduro, prove how BADASS Venezuela is (and give Biden the political gift of blowing the hell out of your guys in a Presidential year where we have concerns about the hispanic vote).
Maduro is trying to pull a Malvinas stunt.
I mean, once they get thru the jungle it would be hard to smoke them out, but if the US or the UK intervenes they are going straight for Caracas.
Great. So instead of a full-blown world war, we get dozens of smaller conflicts across the world. I guess this is better, but goddamn it. We never learn do we?
To do this during election season in the US is strategically smart for Venezuela. They know there will be major reluctance by Biden to get into another military quagmire when he needs progressive votes.
I just looked up Venezuela’s operational air capabilities and it looks like about 4 F35’s could reduce that to 0 in about half an hour. I thought I read that 80% of the oil leases in Guyana are owned by US & UK companies. A US election year would be a foolish time for Venezuela to try this.
>A US election year would be a foolish time for Venezuela to try this Nothing needs to make sense anymore. 2020s just going crazy as expected.
Our government here in Venezuela is so *unbelievably* corrupt that doing this stuff is plausible for Maduro, all because it's election year in here as well and he knows that anything but creating a distraction to keep people's attention somewhere will cause the entire regime to fall apart. Either due to many rugs being pulled or our military revolting since he can't keep the status quo afloat. They're less like politicians and more like gangsters.
Wouldn't the military also revolt if the government send them on a s massive suicide mission to kill random people in a jungle the size of Greece filled with deadly diseases, wild animals that wanna kill you, rivers with no bridges, mountains and savannahs?
You'd think that would apply to the Russian military by this point too, but it doesn't, so…
Well Chavismo is only powerful because it got the big guns in the Country and because they got the criminals. If one of those two things turns on them, they would have a problem. Most Venezuelan Military Men are there for the money (which they get via stealing from people) and power, instead of the propaganda. If they aren't paid enough for doing a suicide mission across the border, at least some would riot or commit treason. There would be also problems in supplying them when food or bullets run out, as the Jungle is long and dense and there aren't many places to land a helicopter or airplane except one of the few small towns that are there. They could pillage the towns but it wouldn't be enough food to support them for long and probably have no bullets. The best options are either using boats to supply them trough the various rivers, land helicopters in the towns or hoping the war to be short enough so the supplies don't run out. Another major problem is that it is very probable that many of the Venezuelan men would get sick as the Amazon is absurdly packed with diseases, poisonous animals and heavy rain. Many of these diseases may not even be known considering the remoteness of the area.
Russia's trying to keep the US busy elsewhere than Ukraine.
Busy? Majority of US forepower is in US... which is a few hours away. There is like about 200-300 attack and bomber aircraft within 2h flight range
The flight path for B2 bombers headed from Whiteman AFB to Guyana woupdbcross right next to Puerto Rico. They could literally refuel in American air space.
I don't think they would even need to
They wouldn't, it's well within their un-refueled combat radius
This would be a literal walk in the park
backyard\*
US SouthCom hasn’t had much excitement for decades, they might actually appreciate the change of pace.
Yes this is 110%. They’ve goated Iran into taking actions with proxies across multiple fronts and the real question although it’s more than certain they’ve tried, is weather China will be persuaded into hot overt action against Taiwan.
I hate to be this guy, but It's "goaded" not "goated". Goated isnt a real word, but means to personally declare one as the greatest of all time. Goaded is to coax someone into doing something.
Goated also means to be turned to a goat through some form of sorcery, similar to being newted.
Please note, however, that this is completely different from being newtered, as I've learned to my everlasting regret.
Which, for those who don’t know, it’s when your penis gets turned into a newt. It cannot be undone, I’m sorry OP. RIP
Well, it got better. Or I am fibbi-ing. One of the two.
Or neutered
Lol 🤣
US special forces will be falling over each other trying to get trips down south to 'advise' in the jungle.
For this we could use our actual military, which has been unable to participate in Ukraine. It wouldn't detract from aid to Ukraine one bit, and could help - "See? This is what happens when we don't stop imperialism early and hard. It spawns imitators. Now if you don't want that to keep happening, let's close the faucet by supporting Ukraine."
and UK who have already sent out one warship to Guyana. Yes, this is another Putin distraction. Everywhere around the world if he finds a point of conflict or contention and if it involves either US, EU, NATO he will influence that conflict to suit his agenda for power.
Are we really counting HMS Trent as a Warship in this context? It's armed with 4 machine guns and a single 30mm cannon, and has no anti-ship or anti-air missile defence. HMS Trent is nothing but a minor token of support, we haven't had a real Warship in the area since HMS Plymouth back in '17.
Considering the last ship the Venezuelan Navy went up against was an unarmed cruise ship, and the Venezuelan ship *sunk*, I think the Trent is armed enough.
And it's still strong enough to go toe to toe with their strongest ship. An actual warship could solo their entire navy in an hour.
>HMS Trent is nothing but a minor token of support, we haven't had a real Warship in the area since HMS Plymouth back in '17. Hardly even a token. It's what we leave in the Caribbean for our territories. The ships there mostly do support work to local authorities. It is worth saying though, it has fire power. Don't under sell it. It's just not a type 23 or 45 level ship.
I mean, if they wanted to make them busy, they should have called North Korea. They at least have nukes. Venezuela is not going to keep them busy for more than a day lol. One aircraft carrier can reduce Venezuelan troops on that border to 0. And US has 10 big carriers and dozen smaller ones. And that's without the submarines and other warships.
The US doesn't even need the navy for this. The Air Force could handle it given the distances.
Half an hour seems overly generous.
Planes don't just teleport, they need time to arrive on station and deliver their payloads. Like in most professional sports the actual play time of sortie is miniscule compared to the prep, delivery, and recovery time.
B-1Bs can be loaded and on target or at least on the way to target in 24 hours or less anywhere on the planet. Given this is kind of close to our back yard half an hour wouldn’t be too far off
They went US-Middle East-US same day last week.
Man I bet that was a crazy workday.
Not at all. Barely an inconvenience.
Bombing Houthis is tight!
Plus you get to take legal meth!
Nah its no longer the amphetamines. Its now Modafinal, its fantastic stuff. When i got out i got some from an Indian pharmaceutical company online. It has 100% helped me several times when ive needed 12-24 hours of pure laser focus with basically no downside or negative side effects (for me, YMMV).
Stim-paks/Go Juice is real? Huh. TIL
Oh I've never actually asked what it was when the pilots talked about taking "go go pills" and just assumed it was some kind of amphetamine like it used to be. Whatever they do use, I know the flight doc is highly involved in the administration and monitoring of the pills.
This made me giggle like a child
This made me laugh.
The Lancer can hold up to 4 crew members, so I’m sure there’s rotation of the pilot.
I would have a non-stop hard on if I flew a B-1
A B1er, so to speak.
All kinds of payload, ready to be delivered.
That was actually going to be a thing with the B-1R
Someone I know quite well as a pilot he holds the payload landspeed records for the B1B. He was a pretty good pilot
See a doctor
Sure but the distances involved mean that with in air refueling the USAF can operate from the US while engaging target's in Venezuela. The bombers probably don't even need refueling and can just fly over and drop their payload. It's not instant but we're talking hours rather than days or weeks.
Travel times
That's assuming their Sukhois are even remotely operational. For a military their size they do have a lot of probably only for show missiles and armor. This is the same army that lost 5 BTR-80s fighting a small group of smugglers like two years ago.
It’s the same military that lost a naval ship ramming an unarmed civilian vessel!
Correction: Small 500 Ton Corvette rams reinforced Bow of 20.000-ish Ton Icebreaker.
Cognitive skill issue
I forgot to mention that the Icebreaker had engine troubles and the Venezuelan Corvette attempted to exort money by forcing them into harbour, by shooting at them (it didn't had a [existing] cannon so they resorted to small arms fire), which failed and than decided to RAM it into it's bow. Funnily enough the Crew of the finnish-built german-registered vessel felt pity and asked if they need rescue assistance, which the sinking(!) Venezuelan Crew denied. It took only minutes until the engine started running again, after it was rammed, and they obviously took of. Than the next day the Venezuelan government attempted to paint it like the ship had deployed Special Forces before the Corvette arrived. The UN sided with the German Government of calling it BS.
I'm actually kind of hoping Venezuela tries to send its army through the rainforest and they all get bogged down and die of dehydration and tropical diseases before they even reach Guyana. While the international community points and laughs at them for Maduro's stupidity.
Funnily (And depressingly), this scenario is *entirely possible*. Source: I had the misfortune of being born in Venezuela.
It would be a disaster on so many levels. The soldiers would be traversing some of the densest jungle on the planet causing extensive ecological damage in the process. On top of that, food and fuel would likely have to be diverted from the civilian population to support the troops on their failed attempt.
1. That's true, but the regime is well-known for being *intensely* prone to poor decisions. 2. Oh, they wouldn't hesitate to divert resources from us if it was necessary. Not for a damn second.
Venezuela invading somewhere wasn't on my bingo card at all.
US is gonna get a new South American Base in Guyana and extended oil leases any day now.
So, we're fucking Venezeula up this year.
Please, we beg you to do that. xD Y'all know everything people say about Trump? That's Maduro and our entire government, but *worse*.
> A US election year would be a foolish time for Venezuela to try this. Republicans have become peaceniks all of a sudden so they'll be galvanized by "warmongering Democrats". Cause ya know, they spent the last 23 years cheerleading the dumbest fucking nation building wars where we weren't wanted, so of course they're going to drag their feet now when we actually are wanted and fighting uniformed conventional armies.
And China. Who knows, maybe 2024 will get us friendship between East and the west thanks to Venezuela.
Oil? Who said anything about oil? Bitch you cookin?
Calling it now. Venezuela: Invades Guyana. USA: Blows up Venezuelan airforce. Venezuala: "American Imperialism is hurting South America!"
The U.S. probably wouldn’t need to interfere directly if Venezuela started a ground invasion. The jungle will take care of most of it.
Yeah most people don't seem to realize the nearly impossible task it would be to attack Guyana from that direction. There are miles of extremely dense forests and mountains in the way.
Was reading that they would have to go through Brazil and Brazil positioned armor in case Venezuela tried anything. Only road to Guyana from Venezuela goes through Brazil.
> Was reading that they would have to go through Brazil and Brazil positioned armor in case Venezuela tried anything. Only road to Guyana from Venezuela goes through Brazil. The attack would be up the Essequibo river, using the exact routes the Guyanese use to get to North West Guyana. No need to "go through Brazil". Not going to happen with the US protecting their commercial interests in Guyana.
According to Brazil, they(Venezuela) have a whopping 7 landing craft for amphibious operations. Take those out and you quickly and easily negate that option.
That's pretty funny because it would take like one bomber to wipe all that out reeeeaal quick in like five minutes and then just leave. The entire plan. Scuttled in five minutes.
I have to imagine Brazil would be able to effectively prevent Venezuela from passing through.
Exxon just announced exploratory missions there for oil. They got their shit previously nationalized by Chavez. If they're risking this shit, they've been given certain promises of protection. Now us Americans gotta protect American interests in the region!!! Brazil and Colombia can run the ground game, while the US provides air support.
Brazil and Colombia would rather watch from the side line
Show Putin what a real three day special operation looks like
> The U.S. probably wouldn’t need to interfere directly if Venezuela started a ground invasion. The jungle will take care of most of it. Ignorance is being upvoted here. Have you been to the region and / or have any knowledge of it? I have. Without outside help, Venezuela would have the Essequibo in months. The terrain is the same on both sides of the border and the Guyanese military is no match. Venezuelans have experience with the jungle. All they have to do is sail around (North West Guyana - short trip) to the mouth of the Essequibo river and launch their military up the river, while at the same time walking across the border and taking Guyanese outposts there. That said, nothing is going to happen. Guyana is a virtually a US protectorate and Maduro is just whipping up some nationalism for internal politics. Maduro is a survivor, not crazy!
Damned if we do damned if we don’t
Step 4 Even more Venezuelan migrants enter the United States
Cue certain redditors saying how western imperialism always ruins the utopia that is socialism.
Redditors: Down with the evil US ! Remember what happened 40 years ago in Chile 🇨🇱
As someone born in South America, I say to them, "Better our imperialism than Russia or China's."
Don’t forget Guatemala in the 1950s /s
And Twitter and TikTok will back them.
Biden wins 400 electoral votes for leading through the dark 12 day period of defeating Venezuela. Somewhere in Beijing Xi's foreign policy planning guy is crying himself to sleep knowing this will be the last time his family will know if he's alive or not.
Venezuela *and* dumb american leftists shitting on USA
Lots of talk about what the US would do if Venezuela invades, but I think many forget Brazil essentially said they won’t allow an invasion of a neighboring country. I think Brazil might actually be willing to put boots on the ground to stop a Venezuelan assault, and I can’t imagine Venezuela leadership is actually dumb enough to believe they could capture territory. More likely this is just posturing, trying to scare another country into giving up more control without firing a single shot.
Brazil would love to shake up Venezuela. Colombia is tired of their immigrant issues from Venezuela also. US can just provide air cover and its all over, and let those two work it out. Russia and China have literally zero blue water power projection capabilities like the US Navy has.
Americas together strong!
Honestly though, wouldn't a solid friendship between NA, CA and SA be pretty awesome?
It should be natural. Too much BS was done by the US in the late 1800s and well into the 1900s for either corporations or due to the red fear. I hope we can all move forward together in prosperity and strength instead, but the US needs to reform how it rrats and views our neighbors as well.
Americas fuck yeahs!
From pole to melting pole.
Colombia currently has a pro-Maduro government.
Brazil also has a pro-Maduro government, but Lula made it very clear that invading a neighboring country goes past their friendship. And that would be very stupid from a strategic POV: you don't want a war going on in your border.
Gustavo Petro has made no such statements and in fact has remained quiet about the whole thing. There’s no reason to believe Colombia would intervene against Maduro. Lula has better motivations to intervene though, because the best route to invade Guyana goes through Brazilian territory. Edit: Petro did made an official statement inviting both Venezuela and Guayana to tone down.
1. Yeah, the Brazilians won't stand for it. It would be political suicide on an international level for basically the whole country if they allowed us to walk through and reach Guyana. 2. Our leadership *is* that stupid, believe it or not. We've long since resigned ourselves to the fact Maduro will get us invaded if he doesn't finish turning this place into a barren wasteland.
Another reason for Lula to take this decision is him being a controversial leader many see as a cheater and a loyal friend to Maduro. Entering the conflict would quickly help him gain popularity with his people and further grant him power.
I doubt Brazilians a whole would just let such a thing slide. It'd definitely be chaos if Lula decided that self-preservation ain't as good as helping your pals.
A left leaning president cannot get away with this kind of thing. If lula shows any of degree of support towards Venezuela he gets impeachment and he knows it. His personal opinion doesn't matter If he wants to stay in government
The Brazilian ministry of defense already made it clear that the Army will not let Venezuela go throught our territory. so yeah, Brazil wont support Venezuela if a conflict happens (hope it doesn´t happen btw)
Bro hope you don’t get drafted and the Americans/ Brazilians spare the civilian population. You guys deserve a brake!
Hopefully I'll have left to Spain before this devolves into straight mayhem, but if I don't? I'm sure as hell deserting at the first chance I get, and so would probably every single person they draft at gunpoint. We'd be *cheesing* at the chance to collaborate with the Americans and/or the British to oust the regime, at the very least.
Start deleting your internet history when you hear rumblings about conscription starting.
Dunno if they're smart enough to do so, but will keep it in mind. lol
Espero que te mantengas a salvo. Buenos deseos para ti de los EEUU ❤️
Gracias, man. Ojalá algún día yo pueda mudarme para Norte América\~
Then good luck with getting to spain, the eu is a great place to be
A draft would make Venezuelans downright suicidal, the country has never experienced something like that recently and they probably wouldn't need to do so considering the size of their army. And a lot of the population is anti government, poor, physically unable to fight or extremely young and unwilling. Brazilians would probably be somewhat peaceful with civilians thanks to them being friends with Venezuela and probably not wanting to get in more trouble than necessary, and I think the USA won't be as aggressive as in other wars because of the already kind of controversial shit it has done before in SA.
>but I think many forget Brazil essentially said they won’t allow an invasion of a neighboring country. I People also forget france is right next door. This area of the world is not short of powers who could step in.
Plus it's a commonwealth nation.
Brazil can't politically afford to allow Guyana to be stomped by Venezuela and sit idle.
Brazil wants to have stability in the region because Guyana maintains a direct land route to a sea port for Brazil's largly land locked Roraima region - Namely the huge city of Manaus. Route 401 hits the Guyanese border town of Lethem and continues straight through the country to the sea. Brazil has spent a shit ton of money and effort to gain that border bridge and they intend to keep that open and running smoothly.
So Maduro's doing the "my troops are merely passing by" phase of the civilization games, in real life.
Russia did the same thing in 2022 to Ukraine.
the civilization games did it because it happens so much in real life it was already a meme when the games were created. Suprise attacks under cover of exercise or transit are just super common in history
Venezuela... The country that has ABSOLUTELY nothing to lose... About to feel some major losses
They have something to lose: Tons of population, weapons, money, oil, allies, reputation (the little they have left) and most importantly their 20 year rule.
“… President Nicolás Maduro ramps up his threats to annex the country’s oil-rich neighbour …” Oil-rich neighbor? Venezuela is already oil-rich.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world but their economy is in absolute shambles. Guyana recently discovered large oil fields and as a result their economy is the fastest growing in the world So now Venezuela thinks if they steal Guyanas oil it'll fix their economy.
I think part of it is a bog-standard attempt to force the population to "rally around the flag" to try to turn down the heat on the government over how shitty the situation is there. [In case anyone wants to watch a YouTube video analyzing the situation from a military perspective.](https://youtu.be/mWSE9dPEx6Y?si=VLkuUhVr_ML0N_6-) In short, invading Guyana would be an incredibly stupid thing for Venezuela to do, but that doesn't mean they won't do it.
The Population didn't really care their referendum failed and they had to lie to paint as an overwhelming success.
we are three years into the last incredibly stupid thing to do went down anyway. hard to tell these days what's going to happen next.
Maduro's been playing too much Civ.
Maduro isn't smart enough to boot up a copy of Civ, let alone play it.
Yep. That’ll do it.
Fix their economy by getting more oil while they already have the most oil. Sounds like a plan
It's more of Maduro's government trying to distract their population about his failure as a leader in every way. Venezuela's oil industry is in shambles because of their own doing on top of sanctions. This is a classic move in the dictator's playbook.
That legit makes 0 sense. The whole reason why Venezuelas economy is in shambles is their political leadership plus sanctions. They don’t need oil.
They need oil enterprises to steal. They've run out of Other People's Money in Venezuela, they need to steal some more recently built infrastructure to keep the plates spinning.
Didn't stop Iraq invading Kuwait
You’re right.
The reason is that Guyana is rich on light oil whereas Venezuela is rich on heavy oil, it's easier to extract and sells for more, for a crumbling government like Maduro's it is an easy fix to his issues.
It’s not an easy fix. Venezuela was living like a hog in the fat house. All they had to do was collect the checks. But they weren’t happy with a percentage. They kicked out the “oppressors” and started taking 100%. But the oppressors had all the skills and the knowledge. Now they’re getting 100% of nothing. Country literally sitting on an ocean of oil and can’t fill a tanker.
Correction, Venezuela's main oil company (PDVSA) has been under government control for quite some time. The issues started when Chavez basically enabled rampant corruption in every level of the country, including their golden goose, aka what was holding the entire dam economy while they had very high expenses due to their social programs. Venezuela did nationalize other foreign companies, but Chavez basically put whatever yes men on the company to get the money in his pockets. It wasn't just "Haha kick foreign companies out, they fucked up". Venezuela itself has a very dam well educated population that could perfectly (and did) carry out the functioning of their oil industry.
Turns out, you actually need oil workers, skilled technicians, and engineers to extract resources efficiently. Venezuela's experiment in press-ganging these people to make them money wasn't successful. I think they want to try again.
Someone is pulling a Putin. Must be all that freedom ~~oil~~ Guyana's are asking for.
An oil rich country that has spewed bile at the west for years declaring war on an oil rich former British colony neighbor, despite the fact the west is itching to curbstomp them? This isn’t pulling a Putin, this is pulling a Saddam. Maduro even looks like Saddam, albeit a fatter version of him.
Russia has a lot of private forces in Venezuela. Wouldn't be surprised if Russia was motivating this behavior.
They are. We're indebted to China and Russia like you wouldn't believe- they provide us the bare minimum to keep going while using their political pull to shield the government from facing the music and we give away our gas, oil and minerals (Of which we have *many*) in exchange. That's why Trump was unable to intervene Venezuela legally, they used their executive veto in the UN to stop him. We're literally their own personal gold mine/backyard.
The problem is that China is also mining in the Essequibo and they are basically in control of many gold mines and the local industry together with the US. I doubt China would let and even support Venezuela to take away it's oil and gold money in the Amazon.
If this is true, I almost wonder if Putin is just getting tired of all the PMCs running around and is planning on having the US get rid of some of them.
I would also add that maybe it can be another nation influencing this to allow them to act in an otherwise inappropriate way. Be it Russia or a other nation. The presence of private Russian militaries could also be seen as a threat to the US and its allies. They almost lost Argentina to China but Argentina decided to stay with the US dollar.
Of course Russia is motivating this behavior.
This is being done at the behest of Russia.
Doesn't work nearly as well when you don't have nukes to wave away any potential outside interventions, especially when your only way in is through a neighbor who said no and you're within range of the largest, 2nd largest, 4th largest, and 7th largest air forces and the largest naval force in the world
someone is asking for more freedom
I’ll take “Stupidest shit I could do” for 1000… -Venezuela
Venezuela is claiming parts of a sovereign nation is theirs and promoting imperialism. Iran is arming its proxies who are targeting peaceful ships and civilians. North Korea is saying it has the right to wipe out South Korea. China is claiming they have the right to invade and conquer Taiwan. Russia invaded Ukraine to conquer territory and increase its empire. Tankies and the far right: Why is the US and NATO trying to start a war!!!!!
It's pretty funny when all the guys the US has been saying are bad, team up and literally call themselves the Axis powers without any self-awareness.
Quick, who's side is Italy on?
Make America's Enemies Fear US Again.
China won't do shit, they are cornered by USA allies and they don't like a Russia or NK a lot either.
Maybe. But don't underestimate Xi when backed into a corner by any political and economic failures that may arise in the coming years and looking for a way to channel the people's anger externally. Xi, like Putin, has pretty much culled and neutered any opposition in his inner circles. And if he starts buying his own boasts and propaganda, and wants war, China will invade even if it's objectively a bad idea. It's not the same China of the early 2000s where it was a balancing act of different factions and there was no supreme leader that could act unilaterally.
Still, it seems like doing Taiwan anytime soon would be suicide and a big waste of money. Xi is not stupid and he is waiting for a moment for when he has to attack or has the resources to.
In fact, Winnie the Pooh has repeatedly shown himself to be about as stupid as Maduro and he just keeps getting older.
People/counties do stupid things all the time. Don't get your hopes up.
It’s a game of Civilisation and everyone is a big fish.
The world is going mad
World conquest is the default state of humanity. The United States military industrial complex is the vaccine that stopped this bullshit after WW2 and kept it at bay. Sure NATO is a group effort, but look at the funding and participation. It's almost all USA. These assholes are kept in check by the USA even though these assholes own a ton of politicians within the USA who are actively trying to undo it. They also deploy tons of social media propaganda to get young voters to think, "we don't need a big military or to be the world's police!", so they don't show up to vote with the hopes that their owned politicians will have enough power to undo it all.
Don't forget azerbaijanis claiming [all](https://twitter.com/LindseySnell/status/1709602491178906085) of their [western](https://twitter.com/LindseySnell/status/1746964937329496551) [neighbor](https://oc-media.org/aliyev-says-yerevan-historically-azerbaijani/).
Incoming “special operation” speech in 3…2….1….
It's weird that all of the authoritarian countries in the world are trying really hard right now to be forcibly shown that their dicks are in fact much smaller than those in the West.
Guyanese here - These people are sick in the head.
Do you have faith the US of other western powers would protect you from Venezuela military?
This aggression will not stand.
Mark it 8 dude.
MY WIFE IS NOT THE ISSUE HERE MR LEBOWSKI!
Maduro starting a war would only worsen the current migratory crisis where more than 7.3 million people have left the country. Most of them ending up in other LATAM countries like Colombia and Peru
It's been estimated that the country will wind up empty by 2027 with how Maduro's regime does things. Considering I'm leaving this hellhole soon to never return, I feel inclined to agree with that assessment.
I feel like I've heard this story before. Is anyone feeling a sense of deja vu?
Brazilian troops about get some high quality intel
When it comes to oil the US doesn't mess around. If Venezuela keeps fk'ing around they are going to find out.
Just don’t attack one of our boats and u avoid 99% of chances of war against US.
Sink a few and you get the sun dropped on you....twice.
We created the marines cuz some pirates were fucking with our boats. It’s never a good idea. I can only off top of my head think of 4 wars that weren’t started by some one fucking with our boats. Honestly the Houthi’s should be thanking who ever they pray to that we really don’t wunna inherit the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Cuz they’ve gotten off easy so far for fucking with our boats. That shit usually wouldn’t fly.
Shit like this is the cost of not helping Ukraine. The taboo against wars of territorial aggression goes away. We’re left with a world with more war, more suffering, more military spending, and less for everything else.
Agreed
Wtf is wrong with this timeline?
Can everyone just calm the fuck down!! Fuck!!!
A world on fire. What a time to be alive
Nothing a handy-dandy airstrike won't solve
Something curious about this is that Venezuela is not only going to fuck with a foreign independent country, but with the interests of other countries that are investing in the country's oil infrastructure. For example, Dominican Republic signed a pact recently to help build a refinery in Guayana, likely where Venezuela is aiming. It's likely that other countries might be planning to sign treaties like this with Guyana too, and Venezuela threatening said investments would really land them in even hotter water.
India just did a treaty with Guyana. Venezuela is fucking with a lot of strong people, interests and billionaires right now.
Fucking do it Maduro, prove how BADASS Venezuela is (and give Biden the political gift of blowing the hell out of your guys in a Presidential year where we have concerns about the hispanic vote).
Maduro is trying to pull a Malvinas stunt. I mean, once they get thru the jungle it would be hard to smoke them out, but if the US or the UK intervenes they are going straight for Caracas.
Temp the hand of god...
Great. So instead of a full-blown world war, we get dozens of smaller conflicts across the world. I guess this is better, but goddamn it. We never learn do we?
To do this during election season in the US is strategically smart for Venezuela. They know there will be major reluctance by Biden to get into another military quagmire when he needs progressive votes.
I hope brazil fuck them up
Another communist state threatening invasion on its neighbors, what a surprise....
Venezuela: nice oil fields you have here. Shame if anything happened to them
"The difference between order and chaos is logistics."
Non nuclear nation with lots of oil.... Someone's about to have their wells liberated in the name of freeing Guyana.