Are we going to war with Venezuela?

[Don Alaska]

Marines have been conducting landing exercises in Puerto Rico and those forces are now moving toward Venezuela. When asked, Trump said "We'll see...." It was a similar response to what Trump said when he was asked about attacking Iran. Undersea cables linking India to Europe have been cut, so those "Help Desks" in India cannot keep in contact with Europe. Maduro was taunting Trump like Noriega did Bush, so he might end up in a U.S. prison as Noriega did.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

From what I have been reading, we are not going to war with Venezuela, the country, but we are going to be stopping the drug trafficking from that country, and apparently even the government is involved with the drug trade.
After we took out one of their drug running boats and the whole load of drugs, they sent fighter jets over where we have ships stationed in the Caribbean, and President Trump has told the military to do whatever they need to do if they are threatened at all by the fighter planes.
I do not think that it will come to us having to shoot down a plane, but if they are threatening to attack one of our ships, that could very well end up happening; so hopefully, they won’t try anything so foolish as to attack our ships.

Maduro is a known drug dealer, and the US would not hesitate to arrest him, or to take out drug trafficking boats that are being sent to the US with drugs. The “war” is not against a country, but against the illegal drugs and the drug traffickers, and helping to set the people of Venezuela free from the rule of these terrible people.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Just like 911... That's misuse of our military. You can't declare war on people, only other countries. And as I said in the thread about blowing a suspected drug boat in International waters, it should be done legally. It's un-American to fight crime with crime.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

We're too soft on drug abusers. With the exception of the even more despotic Europeans, the world laughs at us for coddling druggies. It just provides another weapon our enemies and the globalists behind them can use on us.

 

[Don Alaska]

We're too soft on drug abusers. With the exception of the even more despotic Europeans, the world laughs at us for coddling druggies. It just provides another weapon our enemies and the globalists behind them can use on us.

That is apparently what China has been doing to us for many years. Laughing at us while they pump drugs into the U.S. from Latin America. Biden made it so much easier for them, either by design or incompetence, to fill the nation with fentanyl and other drugs to poison our naïve populace. President Trump is now determined to stop the drug trade. We'll see if he will be as successful at that as he has been at stopping the flow of illegals into the country.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Biden made it so much easier for them, either by design or incompetence, to fill the nation with fentanyl and other drugs to poison our naïve populace. President Trump is now determined to stop the drug trade.

President's can't make or enforce laws. Congress makes laws and the Judiciary enforces those laws. Presidents are executives. Their job is to lead. Presidents can have their own agenda, but as some of them have seen, there are times when Congress and the Judiciary can stall them or make them grind to a halt. Or one or the other can help the president.

As an example, to make a long story short, in 1861 President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, the SCOTUS said only Congress had that authority. President Lincoln did it anyway, and in 1863 Congress passed a law authorizing the president to do it.

Other times, the president doesn't get any help from Congress or the Judiciary. Such as when President Trump tried to end Birthright Citizenship with an Executive Order. That got shot down because Birthright Citizenship is plainly outlined in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, unlike many other Amendments which are not very clear to many people. Any legal challenges to it as well as the process to create a new Constitutional Amendment could both be lengthy and could take years.

 

[Don Alaska]

President's can't make or enforce laws. Congress makes laws and the Judiciary enforces those laws. Presidents are executives. Their job is to lead. Presidents can have their own agenda, but as some of them have seen, there are times when Congress and the Judiciary can stall them or make them grind to a halt. Or one or the other can help the president.

As an example, to make a long story short, in 1861 President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, the SCOTUS said only Congress had that authority. President Lincoln did it anyway, and in 1863 Congress passed a law authorizing the president to do it.

Other times, the president doesn't get any help from Congress or the Judiciary. Such as when President Trump tried to end Birthright Citizenship with an Executive Order. That got shot down because Birthright Citizenship is plainly outlined in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, unlike many other Amendments which are not very clear to many people. Any legal challenges to it as well as the process to create a new Constitutional Amendment could both be lengthy and could take years.

The Executive Branch is the law enforcement branch and also contains the prosecutors--the FBI is part of the Executive Branch and is part of the Justice Department which contains the prosecutors. The President is the chief law enforcement officer in the country. The court judge whether things are done to Constitutional standards, but are not law enforcement.
Police are also law enforcement and the courts pass judgement on whether they did their job properly within U.S., state, and local established standards and precedents.

Congress is a legislative branch and has the power to make laws. According to the Constitution, Congress makes all the laws but that has not been true for some time as Congress has delegated much of their power to the Executive Branch; the Executive Branch makes regulations that generally have the force of laws. Some departments within the Executive Branch also have taken on judicial powers that was never intended by the Founders; e.g., the IRS, the EPA, and the ATF who make laws and pass judgement as to who violates those regulations/laws.