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The ‘America First’ Lie: How the U.S. Loots Nations, Installs Dictators, and Calls it ‘Democracy’

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The ‘America First’ Lie: How the U.S. Loots Nations, Installs Dictators, and Calls it ‘Democracy’

by Matt Agorist

They told us they were “restoring order” in Argentina and “fighting terror” in the Middle East. Instead, they created a blueprint for mass murder, economic theft, and a perpetual state of war.

If you listen closely to the wind blowing in from the Caribbean this week, you can smell it. It’s the distinct, metallic scent of “democracy” being delivered at Mach speeds—a fragrance composed of cordite, burning infrastructure, blood, and, most importantly, crude oil.

It is January 2026. The headlines are screaming about “Operation Southern Spear,” a U.S. naval blockade and subsequent airstrike campaign targeting “narcoterrorist” strongholds in Venezuela. The official narrative, parroted by the talking heads on cable news—who seem to have forgotten their antiwar stances the moment the party in power changed—is that we are there to liberate the Venezuelan people from the clutches of Tren de Aragua and the tyranny of Nicolás Maduro.

But for those of us who have paid attention to history, this script is nauseatingly familiar. The “Uniparty”—that two-headed beast masquerading as a choice between Republicans and Democrats—has once again revealed its true nature.

Donald Trump, the man who campaigned in 2024 on “ending the endless wars” and shattering the status quo, has officially been assimilated. The “America First” doctrine has been unmasked as the same old imperialism, just wearing a red hat instead of a blue tie. As Trump himself candidly admitted regarding Venezuela in 2023, “They have all that oil… we would have kept it.”

Well, it looks like he’s finally going back to get it.

The Precedent: Why “Just Cause” Was a Lie

To sell this war, the State Department is dusting off its favorite pretext: Drugs, which they now claim are ‘weapons of mass destruction’… sound familiar? They claim that decapitating the Maduro regime is the only way to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States. But this was bullshit, and I debunked the fentanyl lie as it unfolded in real time. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t difficult, as the DEA’s own reports never even mention the country of Venezuela at all. Not once.

Now, the same people are using the same lies once more, and the masses are sadly lapping it up and passively reverberating the propaganda, like “It worked in Panama, it will work in Venezuela.” But as you’ll read below, this is more bullshit.

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I. The “Just Cause” Lie: Manufacturing Moral Panic

The State Department claims this invasion is about “narcoterrorism.” They claim that removing Maduro is the only way to stop the flow of drugs into American communities. We have heard this lie before.

The Precedent: Panama (1989) In 1989, the U.S. launched Operation Just Cause to remove Manuel Noriega, a former CIA asset turned “drug lord.”

The Current Reality: If the U.S. government actually cared about stopping the flow of cocaine, they would look at their allies in Colombia, the world’s largest producer of the drug. But Colombia allows U.S. military bases and plays ball with U.S. corporations, so their drug trade is ignored. The “Narco-Terrorist” label is simply a legal loophole to bypass Congress and wage war unilaterally.

II. The “Nation Building” Lie: The Vacuum of Chaos

The neoconservatives advising Trump are promising a “surgical” regime change. They promise stability. They promised the same thing in Iraq and Libya.

The Precedent: Iraq (2003)

The Precedent: Libya (2011)

The Venezuelan Parallel: Venezuela is already awash with armed militias (colectivos) and a fractured military. A U.S. invasion won’t bring peace; it will turn Venezuela into “Libya on the Caribbean”—a fractured state of warlords fighting over oil wells while refugees flood the U.S. border.

III. The “Economic Hitman” Lie: It’s Always About Theft

Why do they really want Venezuela? It isn’t drugs, and it certainly isn’t human rights. It is the same reason the U.S. backed coups in Guatemala, Chile, and Argentina: Corporate Profit.

The Precedent: Guatemala (1954)

The Precedent: Chile (1973)

The Precedent: Argentina (1976)

The plan for Venezuela is the same as all of these. The U.S. does not want to fix Venezuela’s economy for the people; they want to privatize the state oil company (PDVSA) and sell it to U.S. corporations for pennies on the dollar.

The Deconstruction of the “Drug War” Pretext

If you need definitive proof that the “Narco-Terrorist” label is a sham, look at a map.

The vast majority of cocaine entering the United States flows through Colombia, a staunch U.S. ally that hosts American military bases. If this war were truly about stopping drugs, the U.S. fleets would be blockading the Pacific coast of Colombia.

By designating the Venezuelan government as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the executive branch has given itself the power to bypass Congress and wage war unilaterally. It is a death blow to the Constitution, justified by a moral panic that the government itself created.

The Cycle Continues: A Call to Action

The names change—Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden, Trump—but the Military-Industrial Complex remains the true head of state. They require conflict to justify their budgets, and they require enemies to strip away your liberties.

We predict this: If the U.S. occupies Venezuela, a massive wave of refugees will flee the war zone, heading north. The very same politicians bombing their homes will then point to the “border crisis” to demand biometric IDs, checkpoints, and a total surveillance state here at home. It is a self-perpetuating machine of misery.

But there is hope.

A movement is brewing. Just this week, we have seen reports that even mainstream political figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene are openly discussing a “tax revolt” for 2026. The populace is waking up to the reality that we are funding our own enslavement.

We must starve the beast. The State funds these wars through taxation and inflation—by printing the value out of your money to build bombs. This is why financial privacy and independence are not just personal preferences; they are acts of antiwar resistance.

We cannot continue to use the enemy’s tools and expect a different result. Moving your wealth into private, decentralized ecosystems is a vote of no confidence in their war machine. Technologies like Zano, which offer a confidential layer for transactions, allow us to interact voluntarily without the prying eyes of the entities that want to confiscate our wealth to fund their bloodshed.

We must reject the “Humanitarian” lie. We must demand the withdrawal of the fleets. And we must recognize that Empire abroad means Tyranny at home.

Peace is not a partisan issue. It is the only issue.

We must stop viewing these interventions, coups, and ‘errors’ as accidental failures of foreign policy and recognize them for what they truly are: the essential sustenance of a parasitic system that devours liberty and human life to feed its own expansion. It is a grim reality that validates Randolph Bourne’s haunting observation from over a century ago:

“War is the health of the State.”

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The Daily News from the Art of Liberty Foundation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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