Pedro Velásquez

Charlene Carroll

@yellowbird999280 · Jan 12, 2026 5:20 am

CMV: Just because Venezuela doesn't have radical Islamists, doesn't mean it's gonna be any less of a mess than Iraq afte

I heard that argument the other day. Quite a few people seem to think that American intervention in Venezuela is gonna go smoothly because unlike Iraq, Venezuela doesn't have radical Islamists. That's very naive though in my opinion.
Actually, Venezuela and Iraq have a lot in common.
Iraq is a Shia-majority country, where Sunnis are the clear minority. However, in 2003 it was ruled by a Sunni dictator, who was very unpopular amongst the Shia majority. Venezuela is a country where communism is rather unpopular among the population, but it's ruled by a communist, despite communist ideologues being the minority in the country.
Iraq had radical Sunni-Islamist militias and Sunni pro-government security forces who were oppressing the Shia majority. Venezuela has radical far-left communist paramilitary forces who are oppressing the non-communist majority on behalf of a communist dictator. And on top of that they have violent drug cartels. The cartels may not be ideologically communist, as in being true believers. But they are equally aligned with the regime and are engaging in violence on behalf of the regime, a sort of power-sharing agreement you could say. "I scratch your back, you scra