No, Russia Hasn’t Begun a Syrian-Like Military Intervention in Venezuela
The Mainstream Media went into a tizzy after reports emerged that Russia dispatched military aid to Venezuela over the weekend, sending two planes full of unspecified wares and accompanied by roughly 100 troops. The President of the National Constituent Assembly later confirmed the arrival but declined to describe its exact purpose, which led to foreign observers wildly speculating that Russia might be in the opening stages of a Syrian-like intervention in support of the democratically elected and legitimate government of Nicolas Maduro against the rising foreign-backed threat of regime change terrorists. That interpretation of events, however, is “jumping the gun” after a diplomatic source from Caracas told Sputnik that the visit was planned far in advance and is in no way connected to the threat of a foreign military invasion of the country.
That didn’t stop National Security Advisor Bolton from having a field day about this, though, since he quickly took advantage of the Mainstream and even Alternative Media’s speculative reports to articulate the modern-day “Monroe Doctrine” of “Fortress America” by declaring on Twitter that “The United States will not tolerate hostile foreign military powers meddling with the Western Hemisphere’s shared goals of democracy, security, and the rule of law.” He recently railed against Russia just the other week for its energy and mineral deals with Venezuela precisely because such arrangements help keep Maduro’s government afloat during this tough time of sanctions, so it’s entirely within his character to make a big public deal out of its military aid in order to fearmonger about “foreign plots” to the hemisphere while distracting from his country’s own.
Back to the reality of what’s probably happening, it’s actually commonplace for military trainers to accompany weapons shipments abroad in order to train the recipient’s armed forces in how to properly use their new equipment, and the reported presence of Russian troops in Venezuela doesn’t mean that the country is preparing for a conventional military intervention there like some suspect. In fact, not only does Russia lack the prerequisite of reliable access to Venezuela that would make such a scenario feasible in the first place, but the presence of its uniformed men on the ground halfway across the world wouldn’t be a deterrent to any conventional US strike against the South American country because America hasn’t let this stop them from regularly bombing Syria where there are many more Russian troops, equipment, and even official bases.
The Mainstream Media wants to promote the narrative of a Russian military intervention in Venezuela in order to fearmonger about Moscow’s global intentions and justify more robust US action there, while the Alternative Media is curiously hinting at the exact same narrative but for the totally opposite reason of misleadingly portraying these events as supposed proof that Russia “saved” Venezuela and got the US to back down. This case study interestingly proves that diametrically opposed information forces can sometimes share a unity of purpose in promoting “wishful thinking” narratives for totally different reasons, with the end effect inadvertently being that the global media environment becomes muddled and the average information consumer is made very confused because they wrongly assume that there must be some kernel of truth to what’s being said if both the Mainstream and many Alternative Medias are saying so.
By Andrew Korybko
Source: Oriental Review
