This is not just an aircraft carrier. For starters, this is the USS Gerald Ford, a Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, the latest shit. A US aircraft carrier is a monstrous group of war machines, not a single boat (though it’s the size and population of a small town). We got 11 aircraft carriers in total, to cover planet Earth.
For context, US aircraft carriers are sent to regions to project force. “We can ruin you if you fuck around and we don’t have to be in sight of land to do so. Also, good luck fending us off, because you can’t.” Short of a boomer (nuclear sub which you’ll never hear about) an aircraft carrier group is the deadliest thing mankind has ever deployed.
So, we’re sending nearly 1/10th of our global naval warfighting machine, the very tip of the spear, to <checks notes> Venezuela?!
I have no snarky comment or bullshit prediction here. I cannot imagine WTF is going on except to guess… what? A major escalation against… who? And why? There’s something going on here that’s not going to be obvious until it kicks off.
The US is effectively a petro-state, just like Venezuela or Saudi Arabia, but is rarely seen as one, more like Norway. The US produces more oil products than anyone else in the world, and this administration wants to lean on that as a large part of our economic future. The only other major player in the region exporting oil is Venezuela, so fucking them up makes our oil more valuable. I doubt taking over Venezuela to steal their oil exports is even a goal, as they produce far less than the US does.
The second reason this benefits the current government is that it provides a great excuse to further their domestic agenda by claiming they are going after Venezuelan gangs on US soil. Creating a shadow enemy that doesnt even really exist as they have already been doing to excuse intensive ICE raids and national guard deployments. By starting a war they will even be able to “justify”locking up or deporting citizens with Venezuelan or other Latin American heritage, using the same rationale that was used to intern Japanese Americans in WWII. “They’re sympathetic to the enemy” is a refrain that will play to their base just fine, since most of them are racist assholes anyways.
Shit could, and probably will, get ugly very quickly considering the military is not refusing to participate in this baseless war. They claim its about fentanyl even though fentanyl pretty much exclusively comes to the US from China by way of Mexico. None of their arguments for doing this shit makes any sense. But the two fold rationale of psycho white supremacist government turned petro terrorist state makes perfect sense
Good points. There’s also the Amazon angle, where USA takes over Venezuela, and from there they can start stealing rare earth minerals from Brasil’s part of the Amazon rainforest.
Yeah I don’t see how giant aircraft carriers will exist in 20+ years. When it costs billions to make, shit tons of man hours, training and take forever to move around, and someone can put a giant hole in the side of it and sink every $100 million dollar plane that’s on it along with all the people for under $20 million, it’s just seems dumb.
Like for scale, someone could sink every Aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet for cheaper than the cost of 1 ballroom.
This is not just an aircraft carrier. For starters, this is the USS Gerald Ford, a Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, the latest shit. A US aircraft carrier is a monstrous group of war machines, not a single boat (though it’s the size and population of a small town). We got 11 aircraft carriers in total, to cover planet Earth.
For context, US aircraft carriers are sent to regions to project force. “We can ruin you if you fuck around and we don’t have to be in sight of land to do so. Also, good luck fending us off, because you can’t.” Short of a boomer (nuclear sub which you’ll never hear about) an aircraft carrier group is the deadliest thing mankind has ever deployed.
So, we’re sending nearly 1/10th of our global naval warfighting machine, the very tip of the spear, to <checks notes> Venezuela?!
I have no snarky comment or bullshit prediction here. I cannot imagine WTF is going on except to guess… what? A major escalation against… who? And why? There’s something going on here that’s not going to be obvious until it kicks off.
Oil. It’s always oil.
I see a two fold rationale:
The US is effectively a petro-state, just like Venezuela or Saudi Arabia, but is rarely seen as one, more like Norway. The US produces more oil products than anyone else in the world, and this administration wants to lean on that as a large part of our economic future. The only other major player in the region exporting oil is Venezuela, so fucking them up makes our oil more valuable. I doubt taking over Venezuela to steal their oil exports is even a goal, as they produce far less than the US does.
The second reason this benefits the current government is that it provides a great excuse to further their domestic agenda by claiming they are going after Venezuelan gangs on US soil. Creating a shadow enemy that doesnt even really exist as they have already been doing to excuse intensive ICE raids and national guard deployments. By starting a war they will even be able to “justify”locking up or deporting citizens with Venezuelan or other Latin American heritage, using the same rationale that was used to intern Japanese Americans in WWII. “They’re sympathetic to the enemy” is a refrain that will play to their base just fine, since most of them are racist assholes anyways.
Shit could, and probably will, get ugly very quickly considering the military is not refusing to participate in this baseless war. They claim its about fentanyl even though fentanyl pretty much exclusively comes to the US from China by way of Mexico. None of their arguments for doing this shit makes any sense. But the two fold rationale of psycho white supremacist government turned petro terrorist state makes perfect sense
Good points. There’s also the Amazon angle, where USA takes over Venezuela, and from there they can start stealing rare earth minerals from Brasil’s part of the Amazon rainforest.
The oil is the key. It’s running out and whoever controls the last drops wins.
If it’s the last drop, you just lost last. Whomever breaks dependence on oil first wins.
Fuck.
This, and Venezuela is aligning with China in the US’s back garden .
This podcast will shed light on some of your questions.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/podcasts/the-daily/us-venezuela-maduro-boat-attacks.html
Wartime powers to lock things down domestically more than he already has been? That’s my BS guess.
Carriers have been the be all and end all for 80 + years now.
It’s only a matter of time before land based defences are just too good.
The Chinese hypersonic missile seems to be the beginning of that.
Once they have enough of those and have them perfected, they will move on Taiwan.
Just my armchair opinion.
Yeah I don’t see how giant aircraft carriers will exist in 20+ years. When it costs billions to make, shit tons of man hours, training and take forever to move around, and someone can put a giant hole in the side of it and sink every $100 million dollar plane that’s on it along with all the people for under $20 million, it’s just seems dumb.
Like for scale, someone could sink every Aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet for cheaper than the cost of 1 ballroom.