EDITORIAL
IT’S NO secret that the White House has been backing regime change projects in scores of foreign nations who dare to differ from neoliberalism.
In academic and political circles, it is – or at least, was – an open secret.
But now senior US officials appear to be openly admitting their anti-democratic deeds.
Earlier this week John Bolton – Donald Trump’s hawkish National Security Adviser – told CNN his former boss was not competent enough to pull off a coup of his own.
He said: “As somebody who has helped plan coups d’etat – not here but you know (in) other places – it takes a lot of work.
“And that’s not what he (Trump) did.”
“I’m not going to get into the specifics,” Bolton added, before explicitly mentioning Venezuela.
“It turned out not to be successful.
“Not that we had all that much to do with it but I saw what it took for an opposition to try and overturn an illegally elected president and they failed.”
But anchor Jake Tapper did not probe. He just nodded along like Bolton admitted he had Weetabix for breakfast, before timidly asking if there was “other stuff” Bolton was not saying. But the conversation moved on without much back-and-forth.
Rather than an indication of Tapper’s journalistic ability, the episode reflected how worryingly casual the conversation is around US intervention. Whereas officials would go to lengths to hide their previous involvement, an open admission indicates, from a hawk’s perspective, that they have won the ideological battle.
And for the most part, it’s true. John Bolton admitted the US intervened to try and bring down Nicolas Maduro. Leftist outlets, including this one, raised the issue. And the conversation has, by now, moved on.
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Featured Image: White House
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