US is sending an aircraft carrier to Latin America in major escalation of military firepower
US is sending an aircraft carrier to Latin America in major escalation of military firepower
This is not just an aircraft carrier. For starters, this is the USS Gerald Ford, a Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, the latest shit. A US aircraft carrier is a monstrous group of war machines, not a single boat (though it's the size and population of a small town). We got 11 aircraft carriers in total, to cover planet Earth.
For context, US aircraft carriers are sent to regions to project force. "We can ruin you if you fuck around and we don't have to be in sight of land to do so. Also, good luck fending us off, because you can't." Short of a boomer (nuclear sub which you'll never hear about) an aircraft carrier group is the deadliest thing mankind has ever deployed.
So, we're sending nearly 1/10th of our global naval warfighting machine, the very tip of the spear, to checks notes> Venezuela?!
I have no snarky comment or bullshit prediction here. I cannot imagine WTF is going on except to guess... what? A major escalation against... who? And why? There's something going on here that's not going to be obvious until it kicks off.
Oil. It's always oil.
I see a two fold rationale:
The US is effectively a petro-state, just like Venezuela or Saudi Arabia, but is rarely seen as one, more like Norway. The US produces more oil products than anyone else in the world, and this administration wants to lean on that as a large part of our economic future. The only other major player in the region exporting oil is Venezuela, so fucking them up makes our oil more valuable. I doubt taking over Venezuela to steal their oil exports is even a goal, as they produce far less than the US does.
The second reason this benefits the current government is that it provides a great excuse to further their domestic agenda by claiming they are going after Venezuelan gangs on US soil. Creating a shadow enemy that doesnt even really exist as they have already been doing to excuse intensive ICE raids and national guard deployments. By starting a war they will even be able to “justify”locking up or deporting citizens with Venezuelan or other Latin American heritage, using the same rationale that was used to intern Japanese Americans in WWII. “They’re sympathetic to the enemy” is a refrain that will play to their base just fine, since most of them are racist assholes anyways.
Shit could, and probably will, get ugly very quickly considering the military is not refusing to participate in this baseless war. They claim its about fentanyl even though fentanyl pretty much exclusively comes to the US from China by way of Mexico. None of their arguments for doing this shit makes any sense. But the two fold rationale of psycho white supremacist government turned petro terrorist state makes perfect sense
This, and Venezuela is aligning with China in the US's back garden .
Wartime powers to lock things down domestically more than he already has been? That's my BS guess.
Carriers have been the be all and end all for 80 + years now.
It’s only a matter of time before land based defences are just too good.
The Chinese hypersonic missile seems to be the beginning of that.
Once they have enough of those and have them perfected, they will move on Taiwan.
Just my armchair opinion.
Yeah I don't see how giant aircraft carriers will exist in 20+ years. When it costs billions to make, shit tons of man hours, training and take forever to move around, and someone can put a giant hole in the side of it and sink every $100 million dollar plane that's on it along with all the people for under $20 million, it's just seems dumb.
Like for scale, someone could sink every Aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet for cheaper than the cost of 1 ballroom.
This podcast will shed light on some of your questions.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/podcasts/the-daily/us-venezuela-maduro-boat-attacks.html
Does anyone realize how much cocaine gets imported into the US everyday?
This administration has done exactly zero to stymie it. Blowing up a few random boats of accused drug dealers amounts to murder and has to be the biggest clown shows ever.
What is even worse is cocaine isn't the drug killing Americans. If you were really trying to fix things you would be shutting down chemical plants in China.
Big Pharmacy in the US as well as the death panels ran by US Health Insurance Corporations are responsible for killing more Americans than whatever chemical plants in China are doing.
But hey let's use the Chinese as a scapegoat once the brown folks get rounded up.
For sure the US is horrible with its healthcare and their chemical companies that have polluted the whole world. We can agree on that.
But when it comes to drugs killing people from overdoses, which is what the admin was arguing, it is fentanyl. This comes from China. Note I said we should be shutting these down not blowing them up.
I know people personally that have died from fentanyl, so I am not trying to mince words here. This is also just harm reduction because you can't really stop this. If China agrees to crack down what is to say another country won't pick up the slack.
This points to the need for cooperation not competition. The US promoting this pigheaded, imperialistic, and bombastic foreign policy is bad for everyone.
I heard on TV your muppet VP say something about "300 thousand Americans dead from drugs a year" to justify this shit and one word immediately came to my mind:
The actions of this American Administration have nothing at all to do with protecting the potential victims of drugs.
from a recent article, since trump pulled the CBP off the borders, the cocaine has been being imported unabated, to the point the prices halved somewhat.
the US everyday
'Everyday' means 'unremarkable' or 'mundane' and should precede the object as per adjective order. 'Every day' means 'daily'.
What part of the US is the Unremarkable US? The middle-South?
Every day, missed the space.
You blame everyone except the people who want drugs.
I work with people in recovery, I am acutely aware that people choose to do drugs. If you speak with a someone who has a substance use disorder they will often explain it is their right to do what they want with their body.
I am not hurting anyone is something they will typically say. I have also found quite a few people on Lemmy that share this sentiment as well. Obviously this is a complex topic.
To answer you, no I do not blame everyone else. I do recognize that environment, opportunity, and healthcare play a huge role in this equation.
If you have not had the chance, look up the Rat Park Experiment. I think it highlights the concept that it is disconnection and a lack of opportunity that causes most addiction.
https://youtube.com/shorts/XVFGEDs95MI
https://www.usersnews.com.au/home/2017/4/10/the-view-from-rat-park
Can we just leave people the fuck alone. Fuck man.
We’re invading someone now?
Yeah, Venezuela, I think they have oil or something and need some freedom™ forcefully traded to them for it.
Can't the rest of the world just start boycotting trade with the US already? BRICS is a fine start but it needs to speed up and stop giving them any more support if they're turning from the world's police to its bully.
Minus Russia then yeah agreed!
This is a frankly absurd and comical waste of resources in an environment that absolutely does not call for the deployment of the newest, most advanced, and most expensive naval asset in the USN inventory.
In no universe is it reasonable to deploy the Ford (or really any of our CVNs) to the Caribbean for combat operations. For disaster recovery, sure - you can probably hook up the reactor output to land lines in a pinch, if some hurricane came and wrecked a major city down there, and a stopgap power supply was needed. But for pretty much anything combat related, the absolute maximum of a reasonable naval asset to stick there would be an LHA/LHD - that is, a “landing ship” whose primary job in terms of aviation is to host a bunch of helicopters and a small handful of F-35Bs. As well as a bunch of smaller boats that could be used for, you know, patrol and boarding.
It’s so fucking embarrassing, on so many levels, for so many reasons - the humanitarian aspect is just the first-order outrage. There’s multiple layers of rank idiocy.
This is a frankly absurd and comical waste of resources in an environment that absolutely does not call for the deployment of the newest, most advanced, and most expensive naval asset in the USN inventory.
I think that second point is very important, as I think violence has its own overton window and Israel and Russia have seriously pushed it with each of their respective belligerent invasions; Israel more effectively since Russia seems to have failed almost completely in its goals.
Everything but releasing the Epstein files.
a distraction from the files and the protests at home, plus the shutdown too.
Where are the kamikaze when you need them...
Carriers are incredibly vulnerable, which is why they stay in deep water and are always escorted by a carrier group. What are the chances they override the people who know what they're doing, send JUST the carrier, and we get to see a Venezuelan speed boat full of C4 reduce the US carrier fleet by a 10%?
its also very expensive maintenance wise, 600-1bn a year cost.
Trump thinks that intimidating the entire world into obeying his orders, or else, is the same thing as Peace, and they'll happily give him the Peace Prize for it.
epstein files, protests distraction. conveniently started this right when the protest and Us house seat member was about to get sworn in, before the shutdown. they need something to feed THE MSMs and propaganda channels for thier supporters somehow.
Just like China buzzes Taiwan every so often. (Darth Vader theme starts playing).
Big stick policy?
As a British person, I know gunboat diplomacy when I see it.
So, is America officially at war?
Working for the black gas
Illigitimate, Illegal, Warciminals.
I hope they don’t plan on taking the spotlight out of Israel.
Sadly, chaos is an opportunity. I expect emboldened assholia.