What about no new wars?

Ashley WolfTornabane

One of the few stances I was on board with from our current president was “No New Wars.” I am deeply disturbed, and have been for a long time, with the actions of this administration against Venezuela. The extra-judicial bombings of boats, and now the kidnapping of a human leader, and the bombing of innocent civilians along with military targets are all unacceptable. The amount of murder committed by the U.S. since the 2025 inauguration makes me ill. And the picture that was shared to Truth Social of Maduro being transported to the U.S. blindfolded looked exactly like what a terrorist would have posted. This is serious. I cannot overstate the gravity of this. This is a huge moral step backward for our country.

Maduro is bad, no question, but we know that there were no noble intentions to free Venezuela of their dictator, as evidenced by the fact that Trump has said we will run Venezuela, then immediately transitioned to talking about oil. If this was truly solely about freeing Venezuela from their dictator, they would be planning elections in the near future, rather than some vague and undoubtedly distant future.

Additionally, the U.S. has installed the vice president of the authoritarian Maduro regime as president as a puppet for the U.S., under threat of further military action, instead of Edmundo Gonzalez, who is regarded by most of the world’s authorities as the true winner of the 2024 Venezuela election that Maduro stole, or Maria Machado, the leading candidate who was barred by the authoritarian regime from running in 2023. Readers will likely recognize Machado as the Nobel Peace Prize winner who is much envied by Trump. Instead of truly trying to reinstate democracy in Venezuela, Trump is saying the quiet part out loud; this is about oil.

As a sister of a Marine and an advocate for all U.S. service members, I do not appreciate lives being toyed with like this. This reminds me a bit of the toppling of Saddam Hussein, and with that, we were in Iraq for nine years. The actions our service members are ordered to complete stay with them the rest of their lives, and my heart hurts for the havoc this is not only causing in the present, but will cause for years to come for our service members. We do not want this.

And of course, no action we take as a country occurs within a vacuum. On the geopolitical stage, we must always be mindful of all the moving pieces, but this operation shows no regard for any of this. This sets a precedent for other world powers, such as China, to engage in conquest of smaller countries, such as Taiwan, further throwing this planet into chaos. It is hard to imagine this reaching a calm resolution quickly.

The current U.S. presidential administration has a blood lust and greed that is disgusting and blatant. It is clear they do not value human life, and it is time for removal before more damage is done. Please reach out to your Representatives and Senators. It is time for the legislative branch to reclaim its power as a check for the executive branch, otherwise our presidency is no better than the very one that was just seized from Venezuela.

Ashley WolfTornabane is a Democratic candidate for U.S. House IA-04.