Charlottesville and Venezuela

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Their common threat is right-wing extremism - fascist viciousness stalking a city like many others in America and a Latin American nation, targeted from within and abroad by Trump and bipartisan neocons infesting Washington.

Peaceful Charlottesville residents are threatened by violent white nationalists in their city, police not intervening to stop them.

On Saturday, clashes between them and counter-protesters left one woman dead, many others injured.

Removal of a Confederate monument was a thinly veiled pretext for what happened. Anything could have ignited it. The reality is right-wing extremism in America.

Street violence in Charlottesville is symptomatic of longstanding US culture - hard-right federal, state and local authorities at war with political dissidents; anti-war, environmental, human and civil rights activists; Latino immigrants; refugees of color or the wrong religion; and the nation's most vulnerable, inner city minority communities turned into battlegrounds.

America's military/industrial/media complex fosters permanent war against one nation after another, aiming for unchallenged power and profits. 

Conflicts rage in multiple theaters. Others loom, including possible nuclear war on the Korean peninsula, Russia, China and Iran threatened.

As president and military commander-in-chief, the buck stops with Trump. A White House statement said the following:

"President Trump reiterated to President Macron the United States' commitment to stop the North Korean nuclear menace." 

"President Trump stated that the United States is ready, along with its allies, to apply the full range of diplomatic, economic and military measures to achieve that goal."

"President Trump and President Macron pledged to work together with allies and partners to enforce United Nations sanctions and achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

Hypocrisy defines US politics. In response to Charlottesville violence, Trump said the following:

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."

It's one-sided - in Charlottesville pitting violent white nationalist extremists against peaceful counter-protesters. Trump failed to lay blame where it belongs.

Nor in Venezuela, blaming victims, not perpetrators for months of street violence, saying:

"We have many options for Venezuela. And by the way, I am not going to rule out a military option."

"This is our neighbor. You know, we are all over the world, and we have troops all over the world in places that are very, very far away." 

"Venezuela is not very far away, and the people are suffering, and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary."

CIA operatives and US-supported fascists in Venezuela bear full responsibility for what's happening.

Made-in-the-USA street violence caused over 120 deaths, more than 1,200 injured, and thousands arrested to try restoring order.

A violent US-orchestrated color revolution attempt is ongoing, aiming to replace Bolivarian social democracy with fascist tyranny.

Tactics include shootings, roadside bombs, arson and other vandalism against state facilities, barricades of burning rubbish, blocking roads, destroying a food storage depot, holding a maternity hospital under siege, in late June using a helicopter to attack the Interior Ministry and Supreme Court, along with other disruptive tactics.

Trump, other US officials, and media scoundrels disgracefully blame government authorities for criminality perpetrated by CIA-enlisted street thugs.

In response to Trump's threat, Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza responded, saying "(t)he US administration reaffirms its imperialist and neoliberal policy against the Venezuelan people."

Threats against its sovereignty "violate the principles of the United Nations and the norms of international law."

Constituent Assembly president Delcy Rodriguez said the body intends working with President Maduro to "defen(d) our beloved Venezuela." She denounced Trump's "insolent and vile threats."

Charlottesville's violence is symptomatic of fascist US war on humanity at home and abroad. Washington's bipartisan criminal class bears full responsibility for endless horrors ongoing worldwide.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.