Schatz: Trump Is Knowingly Dragging Us Into Another Conflict

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today spoke on the Senate floor against President Trump’s illegal incursion into Venezuela.

“The parallels to Iraq are alarmingly obvious,” said Senator Schatz. “The Justice Department can dress this up in charges of narcoterrorism. Secretary Rubio can talk about the promise of a better life for Venezuelans as a secondary effect. But Trump is being very explicit about the main goal. It’s the oil.”

Senator Schatz continued, “It turns out, Trump is basically George W. Bush, but with the corruption ratcheted up. How else do you explain the administration talking to oil companies before the strikes, but not Congress? We know how this is likely to end, and it will not be good for us.”

A transcript of Senator Schatz’s remarks is below. Video is available here.

No regime change wars. No regime change wars. I heard it from leftists. I heard it from right-wing people. I heard it from Bernie Sanders. I heard it from Donald John Trump. No regime change wars. And yet, here we go again.

Almost 25 years ago, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney cooked up claims of Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction to justify going into Iraq. Last month, just 2 weeks before ordering the capture of Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump designated fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Fentanyl is terrible. It is not a weapon of mass destruction.

It was Donald Rumsfeld all those years ago who falsely claimed that there was “bulletproof” evidence linking Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda. Marco Rubio has spent the past few months accusing Maduro of leading a cartel that even our own DEA doesn’t recognize. And just like the Bush administration insisted early on that oil revenue, not American taxpayers, would cover the cost of reconstruction in Iraq, Trump is hoping people will buy the fantasy that his incursion into Venezuela will be cost-free.

The parallels to Iraq are alarmingly obvious. And in fact, according to Trump himself, here’s the only way the situations are different. ‘The difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn’t keep the oil. We’re going to keep the oil.’ He couldn’t be any clearer. The Justice Department can dress this up in charges of narcoterrorism. Secretary Rubio can talk about the promise of a better life for Venezuelans as a secondary effect. But Trump is being very explicit about the main goal. It’s the oil.

This is the same guy who, for 10 years and over 3 presidential runs, made not getting into wars a central premise of his campaign. And it scrambled the political coalitions – it really did. There were a lot of young veterans who came back from Iraq and Afghanistan and said, ‘What the hell is the Democratic Party even for if not to be the party of peace?’ That doesn't mean that we're opposed to the use of force in all situations. But as Barack Obama used to say, ‘I'm not opposed to all wars. I'm just opposed to dumb wars.’ And we got away from that. And Donald Trump seized that opportunity because he saw those young men and women who came home injured, physical and mental injuries, trying to reintegrate into society and say, ‘What was all that for? We have to stop regime change wars.’ And that's why he beat Hillary Clinton.

But it turns out, Trump is basically George W. Bush, but with the corruption ratcheted up. How else do you explain the administration talking to oil companies before the strikes, but not Congress? Talking to oil companies before the strikes, but not Congress. The Gang of Eight – not all of us. I understand 535 of us can't be briefed on an ongoing, kinetic, risky military operation. I'm an adult here. I don't think we have a right to know – all 535 of us. But there's a thing called the Gang of Eight, and they are supposed to be trusted with the most sensitive national security information. And they were not trusted with the national security information in real-time. But you know who was trusted with that national security information? We think oil executives. This is not an accusation I am making. This is an assertion that the president is making – that they were in on it before the kinetic engagement.

There is no reasonable explanation for this. We know how this is likely to end, and it will not be good for us. We paid a mighty price for our blunder in Iraq – in the thousands of lives lost, the trillions of dollars spent, and the untold new problems in the region and elsewhere. And in response, as a country, we said: no more. No more war, but especially not when our fundamental national interests are not at stake. And yet, Donald Trump is now knowingly, enthusiastically dragging us into another conflict again.

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