David Rohde: Trump’s Goal in Venezuela Is Clearly Regime Change

EXCERPT:

RHODE: "So, the goal is clearly regime change. And this new drone strike, I reached out to the CIA as well and no confirmation from them, but is to pressure Maduro to leave. It’s part of, you know, a psyops campaign, if you will, to get him to step down. You know, experts in the region say that he’s unlikely to do that. This is a step forward. But I think this strike is going to result in more pressure from Congress, obviously Democrats, but some Republicans about what is happening here. More than 100 people have been killed in drone strikes. You’ve now got a strike on Venezuela itself. There were congressional authorizations for the war on terror, for the drone strikes that were carried out very widely in Afghanistan and Yemen and many other countries, and in Pakistan. That doesn’t exist for this. So it's an incredibly broad Trump foreign policy, speaking about what’s happening in so many countries. You had drone strikes as well in Somalia and Nigeria just days ago as well. So it’s an amazing broad effort. And the real breakthrough, whether we’re talking about Gaza, Ukraine, is sort of focus on attention, long determined efforts at diplomacy, pressuring people with sanctions and things like that. Just the breadth of what President Trump is doing right now, overtly and covertly, is extraordinary."