By Matt Underwood Okay, so the buzz is all about these meetings the Trump administration is supposedly setting up with oil companies, all centered around Venezuela. Honestly, my first thought is, this is probably going to be a lot of corporate cheerleading, a chance for these companies to tell the former President how amazing he is and then quietly negotiate for some juicy tax breaks or subsidies somewhere down the line. It’s the kind of thing you can see from a mile away.
The core issue here is that investing heavily in Venezuelan oil right now is incredibly risky, and those oil company executives are probably fully aware of that fact. The political instability, the potential for nationalization, the general economic turmoil – it’s a minefield. This whole situation feels reminiscent of past foreign policy blunders, the kind where we’ve intervened in other countries, supposedly for some noble cause, but really just to benefit the buddies of those in power. Remember the Iraq War?
The idea of sending in carriers and sending troops to the region in the hopes of controlling oil feels like a disaster waiting to happen. Consider the sheer cost of securing these operations. You’d need a constant security presence, huge expenditures on equipment and manpower, all to protect assets on foreign soil. And what about the opposition? You’d be stirring up a hornets’ nest with the potential for attacks from cartels and other groups that would absolutely try to take advantage of the situation. It’s a logistical and financial nightmare that would drag on for years.
Then you have China and Russia already poking around, trying to exert their influence. They’d undoubtedly be looking to undermine any U.S. efforts. It just seems like a completely terrible plan, one that would require so much investment with such high potential for catastrophic failure.
It’s hard not to feel like this is a blatant grab for power and profit, disguised as something else. The whispers about potential under-the-table deals, the influence peddling, the apparent willingness to use taxpayer money to subsidize these ventures…it’s all pretty nauseating.
Then, there’s the whole question of what comes next. What if the political landscape shifts? What if a new administration comes in and reverses everything? The oil companies would be left holding the bag. They’d need ironclad guarantees, and those are hard to come by in a volatile country like Venezuela. The question is, who is going to protect them, who’s going to ensure the security, when the reality is that the country is not under our control?
The most unbelievable part of this entire situation is the level of audacity. The corruption is blatant. The fact that this is all, at its core, about oil is not even being hidden. And yet, there seems to be a significant number of people who are still willing to believe the narrative, regardless of the obvious self-interest at play.
This is a scenario that could very well unfold into another Iraq, especially when you add the fact that Trump has not spoken to some of these oil executives.
Adding to the mix, there’s the news about potential U.S. subsidies to rebuild Venezuela’s energy infrastructure. That means the taxpayers will pay for it. That would be just awful. It’s hard to imagine these oil companies, seeing the writing on the wall, and wanting to invest their own money in something this risky.
And, of course, the ultimate irony: Even if they did get everything up and running, the next administration could just reverse course, leaving the oil companies in a disastrous situation. They would be exposed to the risk of attack, and, in the end, would be left with nothing.
There’s also the question of what Congress thinks, who should be involved and who should be left out. It would be a disaster. The average citizen is being left out of the loop.
It’s almost comical how openly corrupt this all is. The question of accountability, or lack thereof, is quite striking. You have to wonder how much money is changing hands to make these ventures happen. It’s a sad reflection on the system when this is allowed to go on, with so little opposition.