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MaineBlueBear

(411 posts)
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 05:27 PM Sunday

The problem isn't Maduro, it's the precedent

Overthrowing a dictator sounds morally just. No one mourns a tyrant. But international law wasn't built to protect the good, but to restrain the powerful. That's why it prohibits force almost without exception: not because it ignores injustice, but because it knows that if each country decides whom to "liberate" by force, the world reverts to the law of the strongest.

The problem isn't Maduro. The problem is the precedent. When military force is used to change governments without clear rules, sovereignty ceases to be a limit and becomes an obstacle. Today it's "overthrowing a dictator"; tomorrow it will be "correcting an election," "protecting interests," "restoring order." The law doesn't absolve dictatorships, but neither does it legitimize unilateral crusades.

The uncomfortable question isn't whether a tyrant deserves to fall, but who decides when and how. Because history teaches something brutal: removing a dictator is easy; building justice afterward is not. And when legality is broken in the name of good, what almost always follows is not freedom, but chaos, violence, and new victims. The law exists to remind us of this, even when it's inconvenient.

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RockRaven

(18,729 posts)
1. Also sets the precedent that any country who wants to arrest The Dotard can
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 05:42 PM
Sunday

kill about a hundred Americans in the course of doing so, and by his own standard as long as they are able to do so then they are justified in doing so.

EX500rider

(12,180 posts)
2. The precedent was set way back in 1989 with the invasion of Panama & the arrest of it's President Manuel Noriega nt
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 06:37 PM
Sunday

Cirsium

(3,370 posts)
3. It is all nonsense
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 06:44 PM
Sunday

Madura is no more a dictator than Trump is. The far right opposition leader in Venezuela has held rallies calling for the overthrow of the government and for foreign military intervention. Some dictatorship.

Trump: “We’re going to have our very large US oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions to fix the badly broken oil infrastructure, and start making money. We’re going to be taking a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground.”

Nothing to do with "dictatorship" or "democracy."

Polybius

(21,514 posts)
7. Well, Trump tried to steal an election
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 07:52 PM
Sunday

Maduro succeeded. I'm sure that makes him more of a dictator.

Polybius

(21,514 posts)
13. A dictator can lose an election
Mon Jan 5, 2026, 05:23 AM
Monday

After that election, the next administration takes over. So yes, Hitler and Maduro and Castro were all dictators.

OC375

(451 posts)
5. Soft Men Make for Hard Times
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 07:01 PM
Sunday

Hard Times Make for Hard Men
Hard Men Make for Soft Times
Soft Times Make for Soft Men
Soft Men Make for Hard Times...

Barometer says, we're screwed and hard times are coming.

RT Atlanta

(2,686 posts)
8. When does China remove the president of Taiwan?
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 07:54 PM
Sunday

This is certainly coming given the precedent our country just set for the world.....

Justice matters.

(9,401 posts)
12. Well, the leaders of Mexico, Cuba, Columbia and Greenland (for resources) are next.
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 08:16 PM
Sunday

And not by Xi...

The lone star there is Canada... but for how long?

Initech

(107,453 posts)
10. The problem is also the jackass currently and illegally occupying the Oval Office.
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 08:03 PM
Sunday

He thinks he has "god's will" to say and do whatever he wants. He thinks the White House is his personal residence. He thinks that Congress, the Senate and SCOTUS are his employees who will do his every evil bidding. He has multiple propaganda outlets brainwashing the masses into thinking that his worst behavior is acceptable.

No one will touch him. No one will stop him. No one will say "Hey! This is *NOT* OK". This entire presidency is a crime. And it will get worse if we don't stop him.

Lonestarblue

(13,232 posts)
11. How can we convince another country to come here and snatch Trump?
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 08:15 PM
Sunday

I think a few years in the El Salvador prison where he has sent migrants to be tortured sounds good.

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