The arrival of the year 2026 was greeted not by the popping of champagne bottles, but by the merry sound of high explosives and bright lights that lit up the sleeping streets of the Venezuelan capital that provided its lucky inhabitants with a spectacular, and absolutely free, fireworks display in the dead of night.

And a VOICE came out of Washington, saying:

PEACE on Earth, GOODWILL to all men.

Well, NEARLY all men, anyway…

And the glory of the Lord fell upon the heads of the evil men in Caracas. They were the dealers of drugs and all manner of poisonous substances which showered down on the innocent population of the United States of America.

And they were terrorists, exporting nuclear weapons to the four corners of the Earth. And they were communists, atheists, vegetarians, cannibals, homosexuals, and many other things, too horrible to describe.

And the VOICE was heard. And at once a mighty Armada appeared of warships, armed to the teeth and sailing like a flash of lightning in the direction of the Caribbean Sea, hellbent on the sacred cause of the establishment of Peace on Earth, starting with Venezuela.

Now the Lord, who was mightily offended by those EVIL MEN who had SINNED against his name, obstinately refusing to follow His orders, had at his disposal a great store of weapons and the mightiest army the world has ever seen.

The mighty aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, the destroyers USS Gravely and USS Stockdale, as well as cruisers, amphibious ships and all sorts of other means of maritime destruction.

Such a mighty display of armed force would be sufficient to strike terror into the hearts of even the most stubborn miscreants. It was now brought to bear with all its awful power on a new enemy.

Now there were at that time certain men embarked on a peaceful fishing expedition, unaware of the Great Sin they had committed in the face of the Lord of the White House.

And the blessings of the Peacemaker came showering down upon them. And they were sore afraid. But being unreasonably attached to the pleasures of this world, they clung desperately to the remnants of their shattered craft, while the brave pilots who had meted this well-deserved judgement upon their heads, duly reported back to base:

Mission accomplished!

When he received the good news, the commander of the forces of the godly, Pete Hegseth, was well pleased. But he was filled with anger at the news that there had been some survivors, who, unreasonably attached to life in this sinful world, were obstinately clinging to the shattered remnants of the fishing vessel.

The courageous commander Hegseth immediately issued the order: “Kill them all!”

Without any hesitation, and without showing a morsel of fear, our gallant pilots did not hesitate to carry out the order with admirable alacrity.

By such efficacious means, the superiority of the Lord’s Hosts over his enemies was made clear to the entire world, and made clear to them the meaning of the word Peace.

Certain unreasonable individuals have cast doubt on the legality of such operations. They annoyingly ask by what right the US Navy carries out the sinking of small vessels and the cold-blooded killing of their occupants in international waters.

They also ask irritating questions as to why not a shred of evidence accusing them of being involved in drug dealing has ever been produced.

In the past, the US Coast Guard would have seized the boats in question, boarded them and searched them for evidence of drugs. They would then have allowed the boats either to continue, or else arrested their crews and placed them on trial.

But the ways of the Lord are mysterious and inscrutable and are not to be questioned by mere mortals. These outrageous insinuations do not take into account the fact that the Great Peacemaker in the White House is not required to take into consideration any such legal niceties. He combines in his person the right to act as judge, jury and executioner all in one.

This procedure saves a lot of time and expense for the already overburdened US taxpayer.

The stage was now set for the second act in this Caribbean drama.

Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, was behaving very unreasonably. After months of tiresome discussions, he had acceded to every single one of the demands placed on him by Washington, except one. He was refusing to stand down as president and leave the country by the back door.

Such incomprehensible obstinacy was all too much for the man in the Oval Office to tolerate.

Following dozens of lethal strikes on small boats near the Venezuelan coast, the great Armada now began seizing tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.

Now, seizing vessels of a foreign country engaged in peaceful trade on the high seas, far from being a normal activity of diplomacy, is more akin to a blatant act of piracy. Yet, far from any attempt to justify such methods, Donald J Trump openly boasted about them, stating moreover that he intended to hang onto the confiscated oil for the benefit of the USA.

So in this way, piracy is followed by a blatant act of theft, where one country simply seizes the property of another country for its own benefit.

We note that none of these actions ever met with the slightest complaint, criticism or protest from any one of the so-called civilized, democratic states belonging to what used to be called “the collective West.”

At this point, the great feast of Peace and Humanity could be celebrated in style. The first item on the menu was a pleasant little appetizer.

The appetizer

On December 25, Donald J Trump announces that the Great US Air Force has just accomplished a successful mission in peacemaking in far-off Nigeria.

Trump told Politico he ordered the December 25 strikes as “a Christmas present”—in the form of “powerful and deadly” strikes against militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.

This pleasant little dish was undoubtedly intended to please a large number of religious lunatics who provide Trump with a significant part of his electoral base.

For some time now, the leaders of these loonies have been beating the drum about massacres which have been reported against Christians in the northern region of that country.

This was undoubtedly an attempt to stoke up anti-Islamic feelings and thus indirectly to provide increased support for Israel within the USA.

This version is contradicted by Nigerian officials, who point out that IS indiscriminately slaughters both Muslims and Christians. Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar told the BBC it was a “joint operation” and had “nothing to do with a particular religion.”

But, hey! Why let the facts spoil a good story?

The main dish

The main dish was now ready to be served. In the early hours of January 3, the man in the Oval Office ordered his powerful air force to unleash a series of bomb attacks upon an unsuspecting Caracas in the middle of the night.

The frightened inhabitants were awakened from their slumbers by a series of powerful explosions. Similar raids were reported in other cities. The purpose was twofold: to cause shock and awe, and paralyze all potential resistance.

But the central intention was quite different. It was to draw attention away from the real purpose of this attack—the seizure of President Nicolás Maduro.

This aim was accomplished with amazing speed and little or no resistance. The whole escapade was broadcast live and transmitted to the Trump residence in Florida, the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.

In these comfortable and opulent surroundings, the President of peace and his colleagues were watching along, as if this was some episode in a television soap opera.

They followed intently the inspiring spectacle of an unarmed defenceless man and his wife, dressed in their night clothes, being dragged away by heavily armed special forces.

They reacted to the scene with undisguised glee, as if they were following the results of a ballgame in a crowded stadium, or the moment in a movie when James Bond finally overcomes Ming the Merciless.

All that was missing was the box of popcorn and cup of Coca-Cola to complete the picture. To such dizzying heights has the art of international diplomacy been elevated in the leading circles of the USA.

And the Lord of Hosts saw the victory of his Might, that it was good.

“Amazing” and “brilliant”

The man in the White House praised the US military strikes on Caracas as “amazing” and “brilliant.”

Trump said the strikes were executed with tactical precision and without American casualties. He described the mission as “brilliant tactically” and “an incredible thing,” while again branding Maduro a “violent guy” responsible for “mass killings.”

Trump also criticized opposition lawmakers for refusing to acknowledge what he called a major success.

The apostle of peace in the White House called the operation “an extraordinary military operation” involving the use of assets and weapons across air, land, and sea domains.

He bragged that 152 aircraft and “a lot of boots on the ground” carried it out with “nobody” killed on the US side, while “many, many” Cubans died.

In fact, about 50 members of the President’s bodyguard were killed—32 of whom were Cubans. The total number of civilian casualties is not known, but the Venezuelan government has given a figure of 100 killed in total. This and the bombing caused extensive damage to both military and civilian installations.

Amidst all this fantastic farrago of bombastic bragging, there are certain words that we can say contain the ring of truth. Chief among these words are “amazing” and “extraordinary.”

Unanswered questions

The first question which comes to mind concerns the boastful language about America’s tremendous military power. It is undoubtedly true that the USA possesses such power, and in fact has the biggest Armed Forces in the world at the present time—although, how long for is another matter entirely.

But by what stretch of the imagination was it necessary to employ 20% of America’s very powerful navy in order to sink a few small fishing vessels in the Caribbean and to slaughter the unarmed and defenseless men on board?

In what way does this demonstrate the colossal power of the American fleet and Air Force?

Secondly, why was it necessary to employ 125 fighter-bomber planes, and a large, though unspecified, number of “boots on the ground” made up principally of the elite special forces unit, in order to arrest an unarmed man and his wife dressed in night clothes?

If we disregard all the sound and fury of bombs and explosions, all the considerable military force on display that night, and ask the question: what was the essential content of this entire sordid affair, it can only be summed up in a single word: the kidnap of two individuals.

Although the Americans do not like the word “kidnap,” it is hard to find any other word in the dictionary to describe what actually occurred. Now, any half decent mafia outfit could carry out such an activity quite efficiently without having to resort to the employment of such a colossal amount of military hardware. They would merely have to choose a convenient time and place to carry it out.

But this was a different proposition altogether, one might object. Nicolás Maduro was the head of a powerful state with a formidable defence apparatus to protect him.

The objection seems quite reasonable. But it misses the point entirely. The question is why was this formidable apparatus never activated? The skies above Caracas were full of US helicopters.

These are heavy, slow-moving machines that fly close to the ground and are therefore easy objects for even simple handheld ground-to-air missiles, designed specifically for the purpose.

There are a large number of these weapons in the hands of both the army and civilian militias loyal to the regime. Yet, as far as we can see, none were ever used. The Americans were able to deploy their forces without any opposition whatsoever. No particular heroism was necessary, because they met with no resistance.

An inescapable conclusion

Now these things are certainly both “amazing” and “extraordinary.” And there is only one inescapable conclusion. This whole operation could never have taken place unless it was, to use a police expression, “an inside job.”

This fact was made abundantly clear by declarations from the White House that the CIA was in possession of an “asset inside the regime itself.” In other words, they had one or more informants who gave them all the information required to carry out this raid, and ensured that there would be no resistance. There can be no other explanation for what occurred.

All the bragging and boasting about America’s heroic soldiers and pilots amounts to a hypocritical smokescreen designed to cover up a brazen and cowardly attack against a defenseless enemy, who has been betrayed from within.

How else can you explain the fact that the Cubans who made up a key element of Maduro’s bodyguard were all killed, while not a single one of the American assailants was killed, or even, apparently, wounded?

These men were undoubtedly battle-hardened, tough and well-armed soldiers, who would be more than capable of putting up an effective defense against American special forces. Instead of this, they were clearly slaughtered without being able to put up anything resembling an effective resistance.

Taken completely off guard, any defense would have been highly disorganized and ineffectual against heavily armed assailants who merely cut them down like flies, before proceeding to carry out their dangerous and heroic mission of detaining two unarmed, defenseless and shaken individuals in the middle of the night.

“American justice”?

The man in the White House said Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores would “face the full might of American justice.” But what kind of justice can they expect in an American court? They have already been tried and found guilty by trial in the media, in which no less a person than the president of the United States has said that they are guilty of acts of terrorism and that, in fact, they are at the head of a major drug cartel, masquerading as a government.

But recent news reports indicate that the US Justice Department has significantly revised its allegations against the Venezuelan leader.

In 2020, US prosecutors accused Maduro of leading the “Cartel de los Soles,” portraying it as a powerful drug-trafficking organization.

In July 2025 the US Treasury Department designated the Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization, and again in November, Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated the claim, which was used as the principal reason for the attack on Venezuela.

Now, suddenly, and without the slightest justification, the US Justice Department has quietly dropped the claim. It now emerges that the so-called Cartel de los Soles never existed. It was a pure invention on the part of the CIA or some other shady outfit in the murky world of US intelligence services.

Considering that this claim was the central plank in the excuses for the wholesale assault on Venezuela, it would be logical to assume that the whole case against the Maduros would be dropped, and they would be allowed to go free.

But will this happen? Of course not! What is laughingly referred to as “American justice” demands that they will be found guilty as charged and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. No other result is possible.

Imagine for a moment that they were found “not guilty.”

In that case, Maduro would presumably return to Caracas, where he would be immediately reinstated as president of Venezuela. Thus, the entire reason for the mission would be aborted, and the man in the White House would be the laughing stock of the entire world.

Such an outcome is simply unthinkable. The fate of the arrested pair is settled in advance. In the words of the sheriff in a western movie: “we’ll give you a fair trial, then we’ll hang you.”

A new departure

It is said that the action taken against Venezuela is almost without precedent. But this is not really the case. Over a period of decades, US imperialism has repeatedly taken action to overthrow governments and leaders that it considered to be an obstacle to its aims.

In Central and South America, there are many examples of this, not only the overthrow of Noriega in Panama, which provides an exact parallel, but the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, and the imposition of military dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil in 1964, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, and many other countries.

All these things were achieved by violence of one sort or another. There are many examples in the rest of the world, including Vietnam, Iran in 1953, the Congo in 1961, and more recently Iraq and Libya, to name only a few.

In that sense, it is incorrect to describe what occurred as something entirely new. But in one respect, it is undoubtedly new, and represents a fundamental turning point in international relations.

In the past, the imperialists always attempted to justify their aggressive and predatory actions with all kinds of moral and legalistic arguments. In this respect, it is interesting to compare the recent conduct of the USA with its behavior in the period running up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

At that time, the Americans went to extraordinary lengths to provide a justification for an invasion, the real aim of which was essentially the seizure of Iraqi oil.

To this end, they invented the entirely fictitious story of “weapons of mass destruction,” which were allegedly held by the regime in Baghdad. This was subsequently shown to be a blatant lie and a fraud. But it was a necessary lie in order to justify an aggressive and predatory action.

This is not at all a secondary matter, as one might think. In every war, the aggressor must always find some reason to justify his aggression: self-determination, the defense of democracy, and other entirely spurious reasons. Without this necessary fig leaf, the predatory and aggressive nature of their actions would immediately stand exposed, and they would inevitably lose support internationally.

But in this case, Donald Trump has decided to dispense with such inconvenient niceties, and call a spade a spade. He no longer bothers to repeat the nonsensical claims that Maduro stood at the head of a non-existent drug cartel.

The story, which was always manifestly false, provided the basis for the massive barrage of propaganda, which served to prepare the way for military aggression against a sovereign state.

He now considers it to be an unnecessary encumbrance, and has unceremoniously cast it off, like a useless item of clothing. The real predatory nature of his actions now stands completely exposed.

He openly says that his aim was simply to get hold of Venezuela’s oil. Although, he could have done this without taking military action, since Maduro had already conceded that America could have free access to it. But evidently Trump wanted more—a lot more.

In his latest declarations, he has informed the world that the Americans would take complete possession of Venezuela’s oil—not part, not even the majority—but every single drop of it. All must be handed over to the big American oil companies.

In the meantime, he demands that the Venezuelans hand over all the available stocks of oil to be placed in the fund which he, Donald J Trump, will control and use as he sees fit.

In future, Venezuela will be prevented from trading with any nation other than the United States and will have to purchase any goods that it requires from American companies at prices that will be decided by the Americans.

And just to make sure that this is carried out, the US has imposed a blockade that physically prevents any ship from carrying Venezuelan oil anywhere in the world outside the USA.

This effectively reduces Venezuela to the position of an enslaved colony of the United States. End of story.

That, at least, is what the Americans hope. In reality, however, things may still turn out very badly for the USA—and even worse for the long-suffering people of Venezuela.

For all the bragging and boasting about the vast wealth that will be extracted from Venezuela to benefit the big American monopolies, the facts may turn out to be quite different.

It may or may not be the case that Venezuela is sitting on the biggest reserves of oil in the world. But that overlooks the fact that most of this oil is difficult to extract, and expensive to refine. It also ignores the fact that after decades of underinvestment, the oil industry in Venezuela is in need of urgent repair and modernization.

All of this will not be a great attraction to American oil companies, who do not wish to spend large amounts of money in Venezuela without a clear guarantee of future profits, and without the necessary guarantees from the US Treasury.

This means that, far from being the source of its profits, Venezuela may still turn out to be a constant drain on American resources, at the time when these resources are already subject to severe pressure from all sides.

The plain fact is that the Trump administration has rushed into an adventure in Venezuela, which may yet turn out to be a powerful factor that can drag it down.

Who is next?

All this should make the man in the White House proceed with far greater care than he has done of late. But will he? He gives the impression of a man that is floundering, dashing from one ill-thought-out adventure to another in a desperate attempt to bolster his reputation and electoral base, which is beginning to show alarming signs of slipping away.

Like a man who is drunk with success, he now feels emboldened to embark on new adventures, since there appears to be nobody who can stop him.

Looking around for another target, he sees a number of possibilities in regimes he would prefer to see vanish from the face of the Earth. First on the list is, of course, Cuba.

It is quite clear that the one individual who was pushing hard for the intervention in Venezuela is Marco Rubio, whose Cuban origins have made him an inveterate enemy of Cuba, and therefore also of Venezuela, which is now forbidden to send any more oil to the island nation.

Marco Rubio would love to attack Cuba, but unfortunately past experience does not fill the Pentagon with much enthusiasm for such a move. The Cubans are well armed and prepared for such a possibility. Moreover, their international alliances with countries like Russia and China are far more solid than was the case with Venezuela.

Therefore, with regret, Cuba will probably be placed for the time being in a drawer. Then there is Colombia, which they would also like to deal with. But Colombia is a very problematic country, which is awash with arms and with plenty of groups that will be prepared to put up a ferocious resistance.

That is therefore hardly a tempting target. But there is another, far more appetizing possibility—the island of Greenland.

Greenland

Until quite recently, there was hardly any discussion of Greenland. It was an unknown little country, lying somewhere out there on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, where a handful of inhabitants were peacefully engaged, primarily in fishing and hunting seals.

Then along comes Donald J Trump, who announces to the world that he intends to make Greenland part of the United States. “I want Greenland,” he declared. “It is ours. It rightly belongs to the United States. It is essential for national security.”

The leaders of Europe listened to these declarations in a state of absolute disbelief. “Surely the man cannot be serious. He cannot mean what he says. Greenland belongs to Denmark, and Denmark is a member of NATO!”

However, if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Donald Trump, it is this: he means what he says, and he does what he says he’s going to do. This is now creating a state of panic all over Europe.

They are trying desperately to persuade the man in the White House to change course. All these attempts fall on deaf ears. Donald Trump has no intention of changing course. He intends to have Greenland, one way or the other.

In vain the European leaders shout that such a step would be the end of NATO. But Donald Trump has never been much of a friend of NATO anyway, and would not be particularly concerned if it were to disappear tomorrow.

It is a new age—the age of unbridled imperialism, in which might is right, and the entire world will be divided into spheres of influence between the great powers.

Unfortunately for the Europeans, their continent has been reduced to such a lamentable level, that it cannot be included in that category.

Donald Trump’s attention now moves from Latin America to another area of the globe, where US interests are heavily involved, and he is following his declared aim of Peace.

I refer, of course, to the Middle East.

New year, new wars

And the Lord of Hosts rejoiced in the triumph of the people of Israel and exalted in the slaughter of the godless Midianites.^[1]

And the Man in the White House welcomed his brother in arms and fellow upholder of the sacred cause of Peace and Harmony, Benjamin Netanyahu.

And they feasted together and rejoiced in the glorious victories of the people of Israel, this chosen people of the Almighty and the grateful recipient of large sums of money and arms from the United States of America.

And the man in the White House asked Netanyahu how the second phase of his Peace initiative in Gaza was doing.

At this, the leader of the Israelites became serious. And he replied: “Dread monarch, I regret to inform you that we cannot advance to the second phase, because the sons of Gaza are the stiffnecked people and are refusing to disarm, as you instructed.”

And the man in the White House grew exceeding wroth, and he said: “let them know the anger of the Lord. Let them be punished with sword and fire, until they learn to respect us and do as they are told.”

And the leader of the Israelites replied this: “Great Lord, there is another little problem. The evil Persian Empire is again threatening the Peace, rebuilding its nuclear stocks and building new missiles.”

“But that is impossible! Have I not destroyed their nuclear program with high explosives?”

“Dread Lord, these Persians are as subtle as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and exceeding cunning. They have found ways around this.”

“Then we will fall upon them with sword and fire. We will smite them, hip and thigh and cast them into the outer darkness, where all is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

“So be it, Great Lord. Thy will be done!”

And back he goes to Jerusalem, grinning from ear to ear, with the new contract for weapons tucked under his arm.

And so the world awaits further wars, explosions, deaths and distraction.

Blessed be the Peacemakers, for they shall inherit the Nobel Prize for Peace—sooner or later.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Happy New Year!

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^[1] In case you are not acquainted with this charming little episode from the Bible, you can find it explained in great detail in the Book of Numbers 31. Worth reading!