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Alsharq Tribune-M.Essam
Two Democratic-led resolutions seeking to limit Donald Trump administration's military actions against Venezuela, including strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats, were narrowly defeated in the Republican-controlled U.S. House on Wednesday.
One measure would have barred the White House from engaging in hostilities against any presidentially designated terrorist group in the Western Hemisphere without congressional approval. It failed 210-216, with two Republicans voting yes and two Democrats voting no.
The second would have required President Trump to withdraw U.S. armed forces from hostilities in or against Venezuela absent congressional authorization. It failed 211-213, with three Republicans, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, joining all but one Democrat in support.
"I think it's immoral, not just a strategic failure, but a moral failure, that we have a president beating the drums of war with so much as a vote from the House of Representatives," House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern said on the House floor.
"This is not 'America First,'" said the lawmaker.
Similar war powers resolutions brought by Democrats in the Senate were also defeated earlier this year.
Since early September, U.S. forces have sunk at least 25 alleged drug-transporting vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 95 people aboard.
For almost four months, the United States has maintained a significant military presence in the Caribbean, much of it off Venezuela's coast, purportedly to combat drug trafficking -- a claim Venezuela has denounced as a thinly veiled attempt to bring about regime change in Caracas.
On Tuesday, Trump ordered a total blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into or out of Venezuela, stepping up a months-long pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump also said repeatedly in recent weeks that the U.S. military would begin land strikes targeting drug traffickers in the Caribbean "very soon."
Critics, including bipartisan lawmakers in the U.S. Capitol, have questioned for months whether counter-narcotics are the sole U.S. motive and whether the military strikes in the Caribbean are legal.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows 63 percent of U.S. adults oppose the Trump administration's military attacks on Venezuela, compared with 25 percent who support them.
