CrossFireArabia
By Rashad Abu Dawood
Our generation was always captivated by cowboy movies popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The hero always spoke with his gun and not with his mouth. He kicks the wooden bar door wide open with his foot, not his hand. The patrons tremble with fear as they watch the hero pull his hat down to half of his face and stretch out his legs in his high-heeled shining brass boots, placing them on the table in the face of whoever appears to be sitting across from him.
The terrified bar-tender approaches and asks what he wants to drink, and without even looking at him, he utters a single word. If the bra-tender pours him other than what he ordered, he pulls out his gun and fires a single shot at a bottle on the shelf. If he hears anyone utter a word that displeases him, he raises his gun and… silences them forever!
When he’s about to leave, he demands the baman hand over the dollars in the safe. If the owner refuses, he kills him and takes the money, then… struts out, basking in his power and glory. Of course, morals and values have no value in the world of the cowboy. I don’t know why I remembered this as I watched what Donald Trump did to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on that dark night in world history.
Trump said he felt like he was watching a live television program as US forces arrested President Maduro. I and many others around the world, saw a totally different image of an American president that of the reckless, arrogant cowboy.
What happened wasn’t an arrest, but the ‘kidnapping’ of a head of state from his country’s capital, indeed, from his bedroom while he and his wife were in their pajamas.
The operation was meticulously planned, taking over four months. The soldiers that carried it out was part of the so-called Delta Force, the most powerful unit in the US Air Force. This is the same unit that took part with Israeli soldiers in their failed attempts to free the hostages in the Gaza tunnels.
The US administration paved the way for the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president by claiming the objective was a war on drugs. However, Trump, true to form, exposed the truth and made statements clearly declaring that he wanted Venezuelan oil, which possesses the largest reserves in the world.
He called on American companies to prepare to return to Venezuela after they were expelled by former President Hugo Chávez, whom Washington had attempted but failed to capture as well.
This is not the first time the United States has been involved in assassinating or overthrowing heads of states in Latin America. It has previously carried out operations in Panama, Guatemala, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua.
This is in accordance with the Monroe Doctrine, which considers South America a backyard for the United States, where no regime should be in power that is not loyal to Washington and its interests.
Trump was not content with seeing Maduro in handcuffs and under guard; he also threatened the leaders of other Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Colombia, under the grossly misleading pretext of fighting drugs.
The president, who is fond of taking “unprecedented” actions, such as officially recognizing occupied Jerusalem as the “capital of Israel” and annexing the Golan Heights, may well continue invading other countries in the “Latin American backyard,” and beyond, starting with Iran. In doing so, he is about to dismantle the international law and order that was born out of World War II and could well pave the way for World War III.
What if now Putin kidnapps Ukrainian President Zelensky, or the Chinese president kidnapped the president of Taiwan? Trump will surely be told: “We did the same as what you did to the Venezuelan president”.
The dealmaker is acting recklessly and is leading America and the world down to the jungle of abyss!
The writer is a columnist for Ad Dustour daily in Jordan and the above article is a translation from the Arabic version.
