On January 3^rd I woke up—as you all did—to the news that our government had kidnapped Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela and, as Trump announced, that the United States is going to “run” that country in the future.

The right-wing media are celebrating this. For months they’ve continued to flog the lies that the people on a few small boats off the Venezuelan coast, in international waters, are “narco-terrorists” carrying fentanyl to the United States. The New York Post, a Murdoch-owned rag, has called Trump’s actions in Venezuela a “smashing success,”  and labeled his policy toward the Western hemisphere the “Donroe” doctrine. Trump is delighted with the new term.

The liberal media, on the other hand, has been expressing horror. The Trump administration, they say, has abandoned the “rules-based order” established after World War II. Since the 1950s, we’ve been taught that the U.S. and the rest of what we call the West (which includes Japan and Australia) constitute the “free world,” with Trump is the “leader of the free world.” We’re the good guys, supposedly spreading democracy.

I see it somewhat differently. The order established after WWII was essentially a pact between the economically developed capitalist nations. They would not attack each other but were free to exploit the poorer nations, supporting puppet governments and, when necessary, suppressing popular uprisings by force of arms while pretending to be helping the poorer nations develop and teaching them Western values.

What I think really gets the liberal press upset is that Trump doesn’t even pretend to be following the post-WWII rules. He’s not only breaking alliances, he’s even going after the resources of (gasp!) first world countries.

Tearing the Mask Off

One of the topics in my 7^th grade social studies class was “Communism vs. Democracy.” We were supposed to compare two systems and decide which was better. Even then I knew we were being propagandized—the discussion should have been about “Capitalism vs. Communism” or “Democracy vs. Dictatorship.”

Aside from the illegal, unconstitutional aspects of Trump’s war on Venezuela, what seems to have the liberal press in knots is that he’s tearing the mask off. No more pretense of being a democracy—the United States is an empire.

It always has been. And it does what empires have always done: invade a territory, slaughter many of its inhabitants, enslave the survivors or, nowadays, put them to work for slave wages, and extract resources from the land they’ve just conquered.

Here’s a brief look at some U.S. history that they didn’t teach you school:

Indian Wars

European settlers began enslaving or killing Native Americans and taking their land as early as 1492, with Columbus’ first voyage. He visited several Caribbean islands, established a colony in what is now Haiti, and returned to Spain with captured Natives. His expeditions were followed by explorers, conquistadores, traders, and settlers from many European nations: Spain, Holland, France, and England.

In what later became the United States, wars with Natives occurred from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century (1609) until the end of the 19th century. The most common reason was the desire of settlers and governments for Indian tribes’ lands.

The Monroe Doctrine

In his 1823 speech, President James Monroe asserted unilateral U.S. “protection” over the entire Western Hemisphere. He recognized existing European colonies, since our young nation wasn’t strong enough to take them over. Subsequent presidents expanded on this doctrine even further. In 1845 James K. Polk told European nations not to interfere “with projected territorial expansion by the United States.” In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt added that in cases of wrongdoing by a Latin American country, the U.S. had the right to interfere in that country’s internal affairs.

Manifest Destiny

The term was coined by journalist John L. O’Sullivan in 1845, and signified a belief that white American settlers were divinely ordained to expand westward across the continent. This belief was used to justify the 1845 annexation of Texas in order to expand slave states, the 1846 annexation of Oregon, and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), in which the United States took California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado.

O’Sullivan initially opposed the expansion of slavery to new states but later did a 180 and defended it, arguing that Blacks and whites could not live together in harmony. Of course he didn’t suggest that harmony could be obtained by enslaving whites.

Beyond the Hemisphere

Our territorial ambitions did not stop in the Western Hemisphere. In 1895 the people of Cuba revolted against Spanish domination. Popular support for the rebels grew here, partly stoked by yellow journalism in the Hearst newspapers, until eventually our government intervened. Spain was outclassed militarily. The Cubans were freed—only to have the U.S. take over 45 square miles of the island as a permanent naval base (Guantanamo Bay) and annex some of their possessions: the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and an island in the Marianas. As Mark Twain wrote, we did not go to the Philippines to “to free, but to subjugate the people…conquer, not to redeem…”

More Recent Events

Many readers will remember some of our more recent efforts, including overthrowing democratically-elected governments in Iran, Chile, and Guatemala. But whether the nations we targeted were democracies or dictatorships, whether we used the blunt instrument of military force or subtler twists of the CIA dagger, the purpose was always the same: as General Smedley Butler put it 1933, the economic benefit of “the very few at the expense of the masses.”

The beneficiaries have been the same throughout modern history: big agricultural interests. The banks. Oil and gas corporations. And now we can add the manufacturers of computers and electric cars.

Targets on Their Backs

Below are some nations whose resources Trump and his cronies covet:

Venezuela—world’s largest oil reserves, also bauxite, iron ore, gold, coal, natural gas, and critical minerals like coltan (tantalum) and nickel.

Canada—third largest oil reserves in the world, also potash and a major producer of natural gas, timber, gold, diamonds, uranium, and freshwater.

Greenland—some of the world’s largest deposits of rare earth elements and uranium, also zinc, lead, gold, iron ore, copper, graphite, and offshore oil/gas.

Colombia—South America’s largest producer of coal, major producer of petroleum, world-renowned emeralds, gold, silver, and platinum.

Cuba—major global producer of cobalt and nickel, also rich in iron ore, chromium, copper, manganese, and other base metals; significant domestic crude oil and natural gas production, with large estimated reserves offshore, leased for exploration.

Nigeria—second largest oil reserves in Africa, also deposits of coal, tin, columbite, iron ore, limestone, gypsum, kaolin, marble, gold, lithium, copper, lead, zinc, and bitumen.

Gaza—The Gaza Marine field holds an estimated 1.6 trillion cubic feet in recoverable natural gas resources. I guess those would have to be shared with Israel. And let’s not forgot Trump’s plan to build hotels on the strip, with his name in big gold letters.