Trump Is the Destroyer of Peace

Initiating a war is a despicable thing to do regardless of the pretext.

The president issued another deranged threat against Venezuela over the weekend:

President Trump on Saturday said that the airspace surrounding Venezuela should be considered closed, ratcheting up tensions with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and offering yet another sign that he is considering striking targets on land.

Trump’s statement came a few days after he reportedly spoke to Maduro and gave the Venezuelan president an ultimatum to leave. The administration’s terms were apparently unacceptable to Maduro and his allies. Since then, the president has been hinting that an attack may come very soon.

The president is threatening to destroy the peace between our countries for the sake of an ideological agenda that does not serve the interests of Venezuela or the United States. The administration has manufactured this crisis with Venezuela. There is no legitimate cause for conflict.

If the president orders an attack on Venezuela, it would be unauthorized and illegal. It bears repeating that a U.S. attack on Venezuela would be entirely unjustified. No government has the right to attack another country. The Venezuelan government has done nothing to our country, and it is doubtful that it could do anything even if it tried. Using force to topple another government is nothing less than unprovoked, unjust aggression.

The crime of aggression is rightly considered the “supreme international crime” because all the other crimes committed in war stem from it. Initiating a war is a despicable thing to do regardless of the pretext. If the U.S. starts a war with Venezuela it will be yet another black mark on this country’s reputation.

Virtually no one is asking for this intervention except for hardline ideologues, exiles, and a few foreign politicians. Most Americans reject attacking Venezuela. The American people do not support aggression against Venezuela. All of this is being driven by the whims of a tyrannical president and the obsessions of his advisers.

The president’s coming war with Venezuela is deeply undemocratic and unconstitutional. It is Mr. Trump’s War. He is its instigator and he will be responsible for the consequences.

The Wall Street Journal is begging the president to strike:

But if Mr. Maduro refuses to leave, and Mr. Trump shrinks from acting to depose him, Mr. Trump and the credibility of the U.S. will be the losers. Mr. Trump chose this showdown, and it will cost America and the region dearly if Mr. Maduro emerges triumphant.

Attacking Venezuela would be a crime. Launching an attack on another country for the sake of so-called credibility is one of the worst possible reasons for using force. Bombing Venezuela in pursuit of regime change would be a blatant violation of international law and the U.N. Charter. Committing criminal acts of aggression against another state would do far more damage to America’s credibility and reputation around the world than backing down. Hawks care about credibility only when it can be used to start wars rather than avoid them.

The president has boxed himself in with his repeated threats. Trump is incapable of acknowledging that his Venezuela policy is a disaster in the making. He is also being advised by some of the most fanatical and ignorant hardliners in Washington, and they keep goading him on. A wise president would banish all of them from his administration, but then a wise president would never have chosen them in the first place.

It is not too late for the president to change course and avoid this completely unnecessary war, but that seems unlikely at this point. Trump is too weak and easily swayed by hardliners to do the right thing. He wants to be known as a peacemaker, but his Venezuela policy confirms that he is the destroyer of peace.