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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe 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.
RockRaven
(18,729 posts)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)Cirsium
(3,370 posts)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: Were 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. Were going to be taking a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground.
Nothing to do with "dictatorship" or "democracy."
WarGamer
(18,255 posts)I will see if I can retrieve a link.
On edit:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-venezuela-oil-companies-regime-change-b2894027.html
Polybius
(21,514 posts)Maduro succeeded. I'm sure that makes him more of a dictator.
Hitler didn't need to steal an election. Guess he wasn't a dictator.
Polybius
(21,514 posts)After that election, the next administration takes over. So yes, Hitler and Maduro and Castro were all dictators.
OC375
(451 posts)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)This is certainly coming given the precedent our country just set for the world.....
Justice matters.
(9,401 posts)And not by Xi...
The lone star there is Canada... but for how long?
Initech
(107,453 posts)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)I think a few years in the El Salvador prison where he has sent migrants to be tortured sounds good.