The Castro comparison is apt. Dictators die in bed more than they end strung up by a crowd. There is reason to engage in South America, but the way we're doing it (militarily vs. economic and trade) is going to drive nations like Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and even Peru and Argentina further into China's orbit and out of ours.
Fair trade would definitely be a plus, but it just will not happen when the populace of a country is at war with its government. Communist agitators in South America must be good at their job. Fifty-five years ago, one of our employees was an engineer from Colombia who was finishing up his advanced Civil Engineering degrees at Georgia Tech. I assume he had a work permit if our HR department put him on the payroll. His dad was chief executive of the largest construction company in Colombia, and they were free trade capitalists. Several years after he returned to Colombia he invited several of us to be his guests down there. I could not go but one of our managers did and said the hospitality was great.
“I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be like, dead.”
This is called extrajudicial killing - aka murder.
I suppose it would be just as easy to justify a war with Mexico as with Argentina. Trump should stick to killing the drug cartels - Mexican or Venezuelan. What the cartels are doing is conducting a form of guerilla warfare against the USA.
The Castro comparison is apt. Dictators die in bed more than they end strung up by a crowd. There is reason to engage in South America, but the way we're doing it (militarily vs. economic and trade) is going to drive nations like Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and even Peru and Argentina further into China's orbit and out of ours.
Fair trade would definitely be a plus, but it just will not happen when the populace of a country is at war with its government. Communist agitators in South America must be good at their job. Fifty-five years ago, one of our employees was an engineer from Colombia who was finishing up his advanced Civil Engineering degrees at Georgia Tech. I assume he had a work permit if our HR department put him on the payroll. His dad was chief executive of the largest construction company in Colombia, and they were free trade capitalists. Several years after he returned to Colombia he invited several of us to be his guests down there. I could not go but one of our managers did and said the hospitality was great.
"... is it really covert if you publicly announce it?"
If you don't announce it, how are you going to get credit for "doing something"?
“I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be like, dead.”
This is called extrajudicial killing - aka murder.
I suppose it would be just as easy to justify a war with Mexico as with Argentina. Trump should stick to killing the drug cartels - Mexican or Venezuelan. What the cartels are doing is conducting a form of guerilla warfare against the USA.