Cornell University student Marielle Newsome, of College Libertarians, holds in a demonstration a banner that reads “Two parties=No choice, Choice=Freedom, on Sept. 26, 2006, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Photo: David Duprey/AP.
By Roger D. Harris – Jan 14, 2026
I am told that if I don’t like what “my government” is doing, I should write “my representative.” So I dropped Senator Adam Schiff a note about the US war on Venezuela.Â
The senator’s reply, with my translations of his Washington-speak (in italics) provided in brackets, is as follows:
“I have been opposing the administration’s unlawful use of force against targets [a sovereign country] in the region…the U.S…conducted an operation [act of war] on January 2-3, 2026, to capture [kidnap] the illegitimate [lawful] leader [president] of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. Maduro is a thug [not Trump] who has terrorized and oppressed [defended] the Venezuelan people for far too long [Trump should have done it sooner], and he will now face trial in a New York [foreign jurisdiction] court.”
The senator then criticized Trump’s “military action” – aggression, by any other name – for lacking congressional approval, noting that it was problematic because it “risks embroiling us in another war.” This concern, however, does not extend to US war actions in Palestine and Ukraine, which Schiff finds especially wonderful – along with Iran, Nigeria, Iraq, Somalia, etc.
Last year, Schiff sponsored a War Powers resolution to block US “boat strikes” without explicit congressional authorization. It failed. More recently, he joined Senators Tim Kaine and Rand Paul in advancing yet another War Powers resolution requiring congressional approval for future actions.
The resolution is purely symbolic. It must pass the Senate, the House, and then receive Trump’s signature. This theater allows Democrats to strike a pose of disapproval toward Trump while continuing to support bipartisan regime-change aggression against Venezuela.Â
Schiff and company are not genuinely interested in international law. They fully support unilateral coercive measures designed to strangle (“pressure” in Washington-speak) the Venezuelan economy. This illegal form of collective punishment, euphemistically called “sanctions,” has resulted in more than 100,000 excess deaths in Venezuela, according to a UN special rapporteur.Â
But Venezuelan deaths, like Palestinian ones, remain invisible to respectable lawmakers.Â
Schiff’s letter lauds “US service members [who] conducted the operation with great skill and courage.” Yet the senator does not acknowledge the bravery – let alone the supreme sacrifice – of the roughly 100 killed in Venezuela defending against a military force orders of magnitude greater than their own.Â
The “targeted” bombing killed civilians along with Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel. According to reports from Venezuela, the sites targeted included dialysis medication warehouses of the Venezuelan Social Security Institute, scientific facilities at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, key power plants supplying Caracas, and residential neighborhoods.
What Schiff and his colleagues are really upset about is that Trump committed a splendid act of war and didn’t let them share in the glory. Both parties demonize Nicolás Maduro with moral fervor, justifying his kidnapping. Never mind that, under international law, a sitting head of state enjoys immunity regardless of how unpleasant Washington finds him.
The partisan charade boils down to a question of appearances. For Democrats, Trump is not guilty of war crimes so much as bad manners, crassly admitting that he is after the oil. Better to put lipstick on the pig and claim the empire is “promoting democracy.”
All the whining is about Congress being left out of the action. Democrats are apoplectic about not getting to see the unedited snuff videos of the US blowing up small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.Â
Adding insult to injury, Trump boasted that he notified oil company executives but not the people’s so-called representatives in Congress before attacking Venezuela. And that makes perfect sense in a system dedicated to serving corporate interests rather than voters.Â
Once upon a time, there existed a species in Congress known as a “liberal,” who favored peace over endless wars of imperial domination. Dennis Kucinich was one of the last of that breed. Before losing his seat in 2013 for insufficient bloodlust, he challenged presidents Clinton over Serbia, Bush over Iraq, and Obama over Libya.Â
Kucinich deserves recognition though not commendation. He simply reflected public opinion, which opposed these imperial adventures. Today, roughly 70% oppose the US war on Venezuela. Congress does not.Â
Now relegated to posting on Substack, Kucinich warns: “The long-term consequences of US actions in Venezuela demolish laws which hold together the United States, and the International legal order. This is not academic. The US Constitution and the UN Charter must not become confetti showering an authoritarian fantasy victory parade.”
His remedy is simple: cut funding for unauthorized wars and enforce the law in court. If we had an actual two-party system, this might happen. Instead, as Kucinich puts it, the US empire has “set the stage for a war of all against all.”
RDH/OT
Roger D. Harris
Roger D. Harris lives in California and is with the anti-imperialist human rights organization Task Force on the Americas, the Venezuela Solidarity Network, the US Peace Council, and the Marxist Forum. He writes regularly on Latin American and the Caribbean with a special emphasis on Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
