Drill baby drill

America’s outrage wasn’t about aggression in Venezuela, but about losing the comforting fiction

In the movie Interstellar, there is a character who is actually a robot, called TARS. It is programmed to use 90% honesty in its communications with human beings, because, as it says, absolute honesty is not the most diplomatic nor the safest form of communication with emotional beings.

George Carlin once said that the American people actually want a good amount of doses when it comes to lies in politics. Lies are a key element in some of the most profitable and largest industries in the world, especially in the United States. From cigarette ads to political campaigns, a good whiff of lies keeps the machinery lubricated.

This reality was exhibited more in the case of the abduction of Nicolas Maduro last week than in any major political reality in recent memory. Everyone knows Venezuela is home to the largest known oil reserves in the world. Trump was very straightforward in his announcement that the mega oil corporations would go to Venezuela, tap into their oil reserves, pay for the operation and recover their own investment and earn profit thereafter. I cannot think of a situation in my study of politics where things have been laid out so raw and with sheer honesty.

I watched a journalist ask US Secretary of State Marco Rubio why the US only went after Maduro and not also capture other characters (pirates) inside his country that were doing nefarious things that the emperor (USA) did not approve of. A genuinely journalistic question should have been to ask what right the US had to go into a sovereign state and kidnap its sitting leader. Sadly, such thinking is not allowed inside the American mainstream. But then I really thought about what the journalist asked and how she had said that she was confused as to why only one man was captured and not the rest. What she was really trying to express was a demand from her addictive mind that has been fed large amounts of propaganda through decades, where a fiction is attached to every American foreign entanglement.

The demand was for a story where Americans are the good guys, as usual. Stories such as Bush invading Iraq because there were WMDs, Obama attacking Libya due to Responsibility To Protect (R2P), and so forth. So, capturing a bunch of bad guys in Venezuela would make a good story about America going into that country as a saviour, ridding their people of the bad people and watching the nation in a fatherly way as it grows.

Trump sanitised it all with his bold announcement about his plans to take Venezuela's oil. This time around, there is no story. And the whine really is not about American aggression or violation of international laws, but rather why it wasn't packaged and sold in a slick manner to the American people. Trump could have used Tars while telling the world about his plans for Venezuela. There is a genuine search and thirst for fiction here. Lie is a potent drug, and American minds are addicted to it. The American people do not mind taking their oil as long as Trump doesn't make it sound like it is all about the oil. Some kind of propaganda must be drilled into their heads while drilling for oil. About 23 years ago, Americans were gung-ho about killing Saddam because there were strong stories attached to his existence: that he was in bed with Al Qaeda and that he also possessed WMDs.

The Americans were also shown how the Iraqis were celebrating the arrival of the Americans and the removal of Saddam, which ended up being a celebration that even their next generation will regret. The 10 minutes of happiness are no trade-off for the complete destruction of the country. When America comes for your oil, it will leave your land ruined beyond recognition.

They say in wars, truth is the first casualty. I think in this war, and it really was an act of war by the United States, the real casualty is the lies.