Former Republican House of Representatives Member John J. Duncan, Jr., in a Thursday editorial published at the Miami Herald, urged current Republican members of the House to oppose impending war against Venezuela just as he and five other Republican members voted in 2002 against the Iraq War before it began.
Duncan concluded his editorial with the following appeal:
I write this not to revel in having been correct. I write this because Republicans now stand in the same shoes I did. This is not a partisan issue. It is an American issue. It is a moral issue. It is a common sense issue. We must say “No” to war with Venezuela.
Duncan, who represented a Tennessee district in the House from 1988 through 2019, further presented in his editorial the argument that the decision to oppose war against Venezuela now appears simpler to make than was the decision to oppose war against Iraq 23 years ago. Wrote Duncan:
Unlike in 2002, the American public — Democrats and Republicans alike — do not support using military force or covert action to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. The people voted for Trump in part because he promised to reject new foreign entanglements.
Unlike in 2002, the blowback of regime change in Venezuela would be in America’s own backyard. Ironically, a destabilized Venezuela would create the perfect conditions for the very organized criminal and narco-trafficking activities that the Trump administration seeks to combat. It could also trigger a new wave of Venezuelan migration.
Above all, unlike in 2002, we now have decades of accumulated wisdom that misguided military ventures, be they outright invasions like Iraq or hybrid regime change wars like in Libya, only lead to catastrophe.
Read Duncan’s editorial here.
Duncan is an Advisory Board member for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
