Wow! What can I say but wow! Last week I left off writing about Venezuela, that country’s ties to China, Russia, Iran and other U.S. adversaries; the narco-states, drug/terrorist cartels, and our Navy’s role in that fight (and threw in a bonus Monroe Doctrine tutorial). I ended teasing I’d continue this weekend about tanker seizures, oil and why those matter.
Buck Torske
Now I’m feeling as if I’m damn near the “Amazing Kresken” the way things unfolded last Saturday. But even my eighth-grade dropout’s hunger for understanding history, and my daily struggle to stay on top of events caught me napping when we dropped the anvil on Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. I thought I had a good idea what was happening up to then, and knew it was designed to bring an end to that narco-state… eventually. But I’d never thought our president’s moves to stop Maduro would be so sudden, so bold, and so decisive.
I can only say this man we elected just 12 short months ago understood James Monroe’s intent, found it sound and knew it ought to be employed, and then acted. Just as he’s acted to return law and order to our country, enforce immigration laws, secure our borders and round up and deport criminal aliens. He’s saved this nation’s sovereignty and is ridding us of illegals who jeopardize our society’s safety, security and resources. Those and a hundred other positives.
By last Sunday morning, Maduro and his wife had no doubt the most dramatic serving of a warrant anyone can imagine. They got a free Army helicopter ride to a Navy warship, then on to new digs in a New York federal prison. And they’ve already had their first day in court.
You TDS sufferers sitting in your basements wondering how this catastrophe happened to one of your commie heroes, don’t. This is why I, and tens of millions of us, voted for Donald Trump. And he’s exceeded expectations. As an American veteran, the way this operation was carried out swells my heart with pride in my country, our president and our military; and buoys my hopes for a better, safer future. Believe me, it’s elevated my regard for our commander-in-chief, and his picks for SecWar, SecState and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
I bet I’m not alone. My opinion is that what’s occurred is a monumental geopolitical event that’ll go down in history because it’s changed the course our foreign enemies were taking to usurp the USA’s hegemony in the “New World.” In a single stroke, Trump cut the legs out from under China’s aspirations to make the Western hemisphere fall under its influence by bringing its military threat to our doorstep and destabilizing our social order in its alliance with the drug cartels feeding death into our streets.
It’s defanged China’s bedfellow, Iran, which has dispatched Hezbollah’s operatives into our region, set in place drone manufacturing facilities and terror training camps; and as we’re watching, I’m certain this action, in no small way, is inspiring the people of Iran to rise up against the despotic theocracy that’s holding them under its thumbs.
When our forces took Maduro, they found he wasn’t protected by his own security, but by Cubans, obviously a trade for illicit oil (yep, that thing again) and money to keep that crumbling “Socialist Workers’ Paradise” afloat. Well, now at least 32 “Fidelistas” are dead, their Russian and Chinese-supplied anti-aircraft weapons a proven failure, and my educated guess is the stage is set for the collapse of the Castro regime in Cuba… and I say “Viva Libre!”
For Colombia’s cocaine-based and Mexico’s drug-smuggling-corrupted governments? You can bet the ranch those two countries are rethinking things. You’ll notice that for being accused by the Dems for “invading” Venezuela, we only had boots on the ground for about 2 ½ hours, took the head of the snake, and left the rest of the government in place, leaving the country with reasonable stability. Oh, we want it changed, but as you’ll see, that’ll happen at the hands of the Venezuelans. We’ll just make it easier for them.
So what about the oil? Well, since everybody’s sweating bullets about Trump and “going to war,” and illegality and, of course — since it’s Trump, the evil “Orange Man” – greed, and his “billionaire buddies,” and on and on. Here’s the dope: our country’s had legal, meaning congressionally authorized economic restrictions to deal with Iran since 1979, after the Ayatollah’s revolution tossed the Shah, seized our embassy in Tehran and took American hostages.
By the way, Lefties, that humiliation happened under the peanut farmer President Jimmy Carter. The same idiot-Democrat who authorized a completely lashed-up, FUBAR and deadly-for-our-troops attempt to rescue those hostages. Since Democrats are so bowed up about niceties, that failed operation’s an example of the U.S. violating another country’s borders with military force, and with no “Declaration of War,” too.
The only good thing that came out of it was Ronald Reagan got elected (I voted for him also). Since then, we’ve had a Department of State Office of Economic Sanctions Policy and Implementation. It’s responsible for enforcing this, and other lawful sanction programs restricting access to markets for companies doing certain commercial activities in Iran, including the sale of oil. Our intelligence and military are the tools to do this.
These ships we’re all watching being seized by our Navy/Coast Guard teams? That’s the “ghost fleet” of tankers used by oil-rich Venezuela, provided to them by their partner in crime Russia, to get around Iran’s little problem. They fly false flags, change markings and paint over names, have false national registry, sail outside normal sea lanes and don’t “squawk” their position, avoiding satellite tracking.
Guess what, readers? Yep, ta dah!… your humble columnist, the once Naval aviation guy, actually spent a few — actually more than a few — long hours boring holes in the sky when I was with a patrol squadron; low and slow, scanning with radar; and guys like me with binoculars glued to our eyes, staring at a lot of ocean out of observer windows, looking for, finding and identifying these vessels.
The illicit drug trade is “greased” by the cash from oil the bad guys get selling it. How do you think Venezuela pays China for the precursors, and funds the labs that make fentanyl? How does Iran fund terror and build drones and missiles? Magic? Nope. It ain’t free. And I’ll remind readers that when Venezuela went rogue, the commies nationalized their industries, kicked out U.S. oil companies that had done the exploration, legally leased land, built facilities, owned the equipment and pumped the crude out of the ground. So when Trump says, “It’s our oil.” He’s right… again.
I’ll shift gears ending this today: Last Saturday’s LLC ran a column by a man I respect a lot, like many of you, Sen. Chris McDaniel, titled, “Drain the Swamp? Yeah, Right.” He addressed the frustration and disappointment so many have for the lack of consequences for those who’ve corrupted and nearly destroyed this republic. I share that. He wrote, “Nothing has happened. And if we’re honest, nothing like that was ever going to happen. Because the establishment was never going to turn on itself.”
But I say, “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember your original intention was to drain the swamp” applies in this, and I give credit to Trump and don’t believe he’s forgotten his intention, or that nothing’s happened. He’s doing as much as one president, one man constrained by the authority and limits given by the Constitution, and with a new plate full of global and domestic crap each day to handle. Our demand for justice we want is only one.
How much can he and his cabinet juggle at one time? He’s cut more than a quarter-million federal bureaucrats, eliminated or working to get rid of entire entrenched ineffectual agencies, and met every activist judicial ruling challenging his efforts, and has won almost every one. He’s the right man with the vision, but he can’t drain the swamp alone, or keep it drained without a Congress filled with fighters like him.
I agree with McDaniel in this, we’ve all got to help by voting the establishment out ourselves. The year 2026 needs to be open season on gators.
Robin “Buck” Torske of Jones County is a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer and conservative activist, currently pursued by the Thought Police. Email him at