In a March 7 letter to the editor, I presented a proposed updating of the declaration of war powers in the U.S. Constitution to further clarify and rein in those powers by providing a list of criteria for declaring a war, who has authority to issue such a declaration, the criteria for ending a war and an added ability for Congress and the states to end such conflicts and recall the armed forces from such a conflict. A good test case for these would be the escalating humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and the conflict between the socialist regime of President Nicholas Madura and its political opposition led by Juan Guaido, president of Venezuela National Assembly.
The Madura regime is backed by Russia, China, Turkey, Cuba, Syria, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Iran, while the opposition is backed by U.S and Canada, most of Europe and South America, and Australia. The U.S. has responded with economic sanctions, while Russia is responding with military personnel being deployed to Venezuela.
Here are several questions from the proposed constitutional amendment that can be used as criteria for judging on whether or not declaring war, major acts of war or other types of intervention against the socialist regime of Venezuela is warranted.
1. Did the current regime of Venezuela attack the United States or its territories or military bases?
2. Does current regime of Venezuela pose a credible catastrophic threat to the continued independence of the United States and its American way of life?
3. Did the current regime of Venezuela infringe upon the lives, liberties and property of the American citizens?
4. Did the current regime of Venezuela attack an ally of the United States who we have a mutual defense treaty with?
5. Does the current regime of Venezuela have the will, means, or is in the process of embarking on world conquest or enslaving whole continents under the rule of authoritarian or totalitarian dictatorship?
6. Is the current regime of Venezuela pursuing, in the possession of or engaged in the proliferation of or use of weapons of mass destruction?
7. Has the current regime of Venezuela committed act(s) of democide against its own population and/or a foreign population and other assorted human rights violations?
8. Is the current regime of Venezuela and its support by unfriendly foreign powers an affront to Monroe-Reagan Doctrine of maintaining pro-American democratic republics in the Western Hemisphere and keeping hostile foreign powers out of the Western Hemisphere?
So before we take any further action or no action on Venezuela and possibly against Russia, let's make sure that we are doing the right thing and are committed to it until a successful conclusion.
