Former U.S. House Speaker Pelosi said today (January 4): "Venezuela is ruled by an illegal regime, but the Trump administration has not proven an imminent threat to U.S. national security, so there is no reason to use American military force."

President Trump has made no secret of his intention to abolish Congress, and he continues to openly disregard the war powers granted to Congress under Article I of the Constitution, a trend that has been ongoing. The war powers granted to Congress under Article I are crucial to the constitutional system of checks and balances.

If the president takes action on drug trafficking charges, then his move is entirely hypocritical, considering that he recently pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who smuggled over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, with the aim of "putting drugs in Americans' noses."

The U.S. government stated that Maduro will be tried in a U.S. court for drug trafficking — but Hernandez was previously found guilty of the same crime by a U.S. jury, and Trump pardoned him.

It is imperative to immediately provide a full briefing to Congress on the attack and regime change in Venezuela, the objectives and scale of this operation, as well as how the government plans to prevent further regional consequences."

Comment: Pelosi's remarks essentially represent another open confrontation between the two parties in U.S. foreign policy and power balance. She seized on Trump's "disregard for Congress's war powers," accurately highlighting the long-eroded pain point in the U.S. constitutional system of checks and balances — after the war, successive presidents often bypass Congress to take military action under the pretext of "national security," and Trump's unilateral actions are merely a continuation of this entrenched problem. Pelosi's statement is neither a complete defense of constitutional principles nor does it contain a critique of the Republican Party's unilateral diplomatic approach, representing a typical case where "partisan logic" overrides foreign affairs.

More intriguingly, Pelosi directly pointed out Trump's double standards on "drug trafficking charges," exposing the hypocrisy behind U.S. foreign interventions. For the same foreign former leaders involved in drug-related issues, Maduro is held accountable by the U.S. on the grounds of "drug trafficking," while the former president of Honduras, Hernandez, was pardoned. The core of this differential treatment has never been about "combating drug crimes," but rather whether the target regime aligns with U.S. geopolitical interests. The Trump administration's actions essentially transformed "judicial accountability" into a geopolitical tool, and Pelosi's criticism precisely reveals the dual nature of America's so-called "rule-based justice."

U.S. forces capture Venezuelan president

Original: toutiao.com/article/1853340530259975/

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