US : Senator Mark Warner highlights the dangers in Greenland and warns of Venezuela’s example
US: A leading Democratic senator expressed grave worries about the Donald Trump administration’s activities in Venezuela on Thursday, saying that the recent rhetoric regarding Greenland now has more severe ramifications in light of those actions and that it sets a dangerous international precedent.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman, US Senator Mark Warner, said reporters here Thursday that he has been briefed on Venezuela. He said that the area was “better for him being gone” and that President Nicolás Maduro was “a bad guy.”
He emphasized, however, that the removal of Maduro was “a military action” and not a legitimate one, needing legislative authorization and activating the War Powers Act.
Co-chair of the Senate India Caucus and Senator Tim Kaine’s War Powers Resolution, which would force the President to obtain legislative permission before acting further in Venezuela, is something Warner stated he would support.
He questioned if the US should let the President “run the country” for a long time without any financial or legal restrictions, cautioning that doing so would diminish Congress’s constitutional responsibility.
Warner said that the Venezuela operation runs the danger of undermining international standards in addition to being illegal. According to him, taking a foreign leader by force because the US feels the leader broke US law sets a precedent that erodes international security.
He compared hypothetical acts by China or Russia, saying, “There is clearly a precedent-setting here that removes America’s ability to make a moral standing argument.”
Warner also questioned the strategy and long-term consequences of US participation in Venezuela. He said that while the administration has proposed that Venezuelan oil would cover the cost of the operation, the US does not often operate as a nation-state to take and sell another nation’s resources. He questioned how long the US would have a sizable naval presence off the coast of Venezuela and how much it would cost US taxpayers every day.
He raised concerns about whether the US would be enticed to help restore order after warning that if government employees stop being paid, Venezuela’s already precarious economy might collapse. Warner said that he was still attempting to determine specific facts, including these unsolved difficulties.
According to Warner, President Donald Trump’s previous remarks of purchasing Greenland were formerly dismissed as jests, but in light of his recent foreign policy moves, they now seem more serious. According to him, a pact between the US and Denmark already permits the US to have a large military presence and access, including a base in Greenland.
Warner questioned why, with those agreements already in place, the administration would take what he described as a threatening stance. He said that if the United States attacked a smaller partner “just because it wants a piece of its territory,” it would weaken NATO as a whole. He cautioned that any aggressive move against Greenland would strike at the core of the alliance.
He said that a US military move against Greenland would “destroy NATO,” referring to it as the most effective alliance since World War II, and that this would be advantageous for enemies like China, Iran, and Russia. “I think most lawmakers, including Republicans, would not be in favor of a military adventure against a NATO ally,” Warner said.