US leaders are reluctant to admit that their policy has failed in Venezuela, with excuse-making machinery working overtime, said Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow in defense and foreign policy studies at the CATO Institute.
“THEY SHOULD ACCEPT FAILURE”
In his article for news website Real Clear World “Is It Time to Cut US Losses in Venezuela?”, Carpenter urged the US administration to admit its policy failure in Venezuela and start acknowledging that it “made a miscalculation and terminate a failing venture.”
“Any government facing a probable, high-profile policy failure is always tempted to escalate rather than cut losses. The Trump administration appears to be considering that course,” said Carpenter, citing as examples the wars of Vietnam and Afghanistan, where the US insisted on expanding the operations despite no tangible success.
Emphasizing that escalation “typically turns small losses into big ones”, Carpenter voiced criticism for investing lives and funds to chase a “fundamentally flawed policy.”
Carpenter said the Trump administration could still avoid a debacle in Venezuela by ruling out a military intervention and loosening economic sanctions “since it would needlessly victimize ordinary Venezuelans who already suffer horribly from the Maduro government’s incompetence.”
Carpenter argued that even Latin American allies that supported the US campaign to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, were “hedging their bets.”
“When Guaido’s diplomatic envoy to Brazil arrived in that country, the Brazilian government ostentatiously snubbed her,” said Carpenter, referring to a diminishing interest in following the US policy to recognize Juan Guaido, the leader of the opposition movement in Venezuela, as the legitimate president of the country.
The CATO expert stressed that “for all of his flaws” Maduro enjoys the military’s continued support, and also has left-wing militias to back his rule.