LARRY KUDLOW: Trump’s freedom corollary to the Monroe doctrine
Just in case you missed it, President Trump just updated the Monroe Doctrine, with a clear-headed legal case, and an incredibly well-executed military action to take out Venezuela’s communist strongman and his wife. I believe that Mr. Trump is exactly right to bend the arc of history back toward freedom. It’s a great and noble mission. And here is Mr. Trump’s definition of it.
Asked by a reporter "If you had to sum up Operation Absolute Resolve, would you say that it was about oil or it was about regime change?" The president replied: "It’s about peace on Earth." The reporter followed up: "How is it peace on Earth?" Mr. Trump’s response was: "Peace on Earth. You’ve got to have peace. It’s our hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine was very important when it was done. And other presidents, a lot of them, they lost sight of it. I didn’t lose sight. But it really is. It’s peace on earth." Peace on Earth, I think that’s the perfect way to put it.
Personally, I think this was a historic action by Mr. Trump. And I think it’s going to change the course of history, not only in the Western hemisphere, but in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Mr. Trump is showing the remarkable strength of America. He is a plain spoken, common sense president who says what he believes, and then takes action. There’s no room for communism, war or narco-terrorism in this hemisphere. Maduro was warned, didn’t listen, and paid the price.
Just as in the bombing of the Iranian nuclear facilities, taking out Al- Baghdadi or Soleimani. Mr. Trump warned, then took action, and changed history. And he’s doing it again. And it is a truly great thing. And it makes America strong again. And it helps wipe the Biden stain from Afghanistan. And other failures.
By the way, for those who may not have met him, President Monroe in his seventh annual message to Congress, on December 2, 1823, issued a clear warning to the European powers that the United States would not tolerate further colonization, or puppet monarchs. Monroe’s Doctrine has stood the test of time and has been invoked by a number of American presidents through the years.
Most notably, Theodore Roosevelt in the Dominican Republic in 1904, Nicaragua in 1911, and Haiti in 1915. John F. Kennedy used the Monroe Doctrine in the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. President George H.W. Bush used it in 1990 in Panama to remove Manuel Noriega. But since then, presidents have gone soft in the face of infiltration, and even colonization from China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, Hezbollah, and other enemies.
Lately, they’ve all congregated in an anti-American rats’ nest in Venezuela, where the Cuban military and secret police have essentially taken control of the government and, to a large extent, the entire country. Venezuela has lost three-quarters of its entire economy and most of its oil production. Yet Hugo Chavez, and his successor Mr. Maduro, have never cared about their ruination of the people of their country.
The narco-terrorism and the exporting of cocaine was the tipping point for Mr. Trump. And so he launched a legal action backed by unbelievable military force to stop the rot in Venezuela. Now stopping the rot in Venezuela, will have a big influence in Colombia, and Brazil, and probably Cuba, and probably around the world. The going may be difficult, as far as democratizing Venezuela over time. And Mr. Trump has even threatened a second wave. Yet I believe he will do whatever it takes to clean out the drug-infested communist precincts in our backyard, to ensure that the arc of history endures with the American values of freedom and prosperity that will help all peoples.