It has invaded Venezuela, kidnapped its President, Nicholas Maduro, and his wife; pledged to "run" the county, and to appropriate (steal) Venezuela's extensive oil reserves. Venezuela spent approximately $ ZERO for its defense in 2024.

This is not Pax Americana. It is Pox Americana from War-a-Iago.

As a Member of House of Representatives, I challenged in court and in Congress President Clinton over Serbia, President Bush over Iraq and President Obama over Libya, each time working with members of both political parties to take action to insist on Congress' co-equality, and its constitutional responsibility to decide when America should offer the treasure of our youth and our precious financial resources to be taken from peace to war.

Even a remote possibility of U.S. ground troops being sent to invade and occupy Venezuela ought to shock America's moribund peace movement into action.

The long-term consequences of U.S. actions in Venezuela demolish laws which hold together the United States, and the International legal order.

This is not academic. The U.S. Constitution and the UN Charter must not become confetti showering an authoritarian fantasy victory parade.

What the Administration has done in smashing the US Constitution and international law is to unravel generations of painstaking work to try to limit war. Instead, it has set the stage for a war of all against all.

Our vainglorious leaders' unseemly bravado about the precision operation for Venezuelan regime change, bespeaks a pathological consequence-free mindset: Aggression in its effrontery inviting every manner of retribution upon Americans everywhere.

A government that abandons its ideals, its Constitution, its laws, its freedoms, its commitments, its promises in search of global empire and booty will bring our nation to ruin, leaving America in debt, depression and danger.

We had a glimmer of what we may further expect domestically, notwithstanding court disapproval, with the President's digression from his celebration of the takeover of Venezuela to extolling the glories of federal troops' enforcement of law in American cities, in clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, a nineteenth century law which limits the use of federal troops for domestic purposes.

Our Constitution holds America together with principles of cohesion, coherence, common sense and liberty. It is not to be nullified by self-aggrandizing social media posts.