Randolph Bourne, a critic of the U.S.'s disastrous entry into WWI, famously said, "War is the health of the state." The state needs external enemies to survive, but also thrives on internal conflict.
The military industrial complex has fabricated three main enemies: Russia, China, and Islam, i.e. anyone who opposes Israel's aggressions in the Middle East (the Orwellian-named "war on terror"). The proxy war with Russia in the Ukraine is exhausted, with support of the right lost. The trade war with China is lost, i.e. China stood up to the bully and Trump was forced to TACO out. Israel's non-stop annihilation of Gaza has turned it into a pariah country. The U.S.-Israel alliance has lost the moral high ground and alienated the left.
Time to come up with a new external enemy. Welcome, Venezuela and its evil dictator, Maduro. (The "good vs. evil" narrative that drives American foreign policy propaganda always requires a bad guy.) Clearly, this has nothing to do with drugs. The solution is simple: end the war on drugs. Prohibition forced alcohol consumers to buy from criminals. Ending the drug war would put the drug cartels out of business overnight.
This is all about finding a new enemy to distract Americans from their growing economic malaise: public debt approaching $39 trillion, interest payments on that debt over $1 trillion and exceeding the entire military budget, the middle class getting squeezed by spiraling costs, and gold going through the roof as foreigners are less willing to hold our dollars and our debt (Biden's sanctions against Russia in 2022 being a major catalyst in "weaponizing the dollar").
To really understand the nature of American foreign policy, I suggest reading Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq.
To understand our policy in the Middle East since 1953 Iranian coup, I suggest watching this epic 3-hour Tucker Carlson interview of Scott Horton. (See here.)
To understand the Israel-Palestine conflict, I suggest my deep dive on its history. (See here.)
Lastly, Venezuela's decline didn't start when socialist Hugo Chavez took over in 1999. It began when a social democrat named Rómulo Betancourt was popularly elected in 1958. (See here.)
~ Kevin Duffy, January 7, 2026
