I'm being dense, but what grifting is there to be had by menacing/attacking Venezuela? I know they want to remove Maduro. Is Trump trying to mimic his erstwhile hero, Vlad?
(Not read much about it, what with everything else that's going on.)
From NYT - warships on their way.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the deployment of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford as well as its accompanying warships and attack planes to waters off Latin America, the Pentagon said on Friday, in a dramatic escalation of military might in the region.
The enhanced American presence “will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said on social media.
Mr. Parnell did not say when the Ford, the Navy’s most modern and technologically advanced carrier, would be moving to the region or where it would be positioned. Navy officials said on Friday that the Ford is currently steaming off the coast of Croatia on a monthslong European deployment and would take seven to 10 days, depending on speed and weather conditions, to reach its new assigned mission with U.S. Southern Command.
Since late August, the U.S. military has deployed about 10,000 troops to the Caribbean, about half of them on eight warships and half in Puerto Rico, for what the administration says is a counterterrorism and counternarcotics mission. The Ford carries about 5,000 sailors and has more than 75 attack, surveillance and support aircraft, including F/A-18 fighters.