Tom Cotton Swipes At Dana Bash Asking If The US Is Repeating The Mistakes in Iraq with Venezuela'

"We saw with Iraq what happens when you remove a dictator Maduro definitely was a dictator, Saddam Hussein was a dictator without a clear understanding of what comes next, Bash said on Sunday's State of the Union. And I don't need to tell you, I mean, you won the Bronze star for your for your military service in Iraq, Bash continued. A number of your fellow combat veterans there Senator [Ruben] Gallego, congressman Jason Crow, congressman Jake Auchincloss they are saying that they're deeply worried about the U.S. repeating the mistakes in Iraq with Venezuela."

"Well, no, it's an ethnically, religiously, culturally homogenous country, Cotton countered. It does have a long history of stability and prosperity and working with America for decades before Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro ruined the country."

"In 1989, George Bush sent more than 40,000 American troops into Panama to arrest Manuel Noriega, who was an indicted U.S. drug trafficker, and bring him back to the United States, Cotton said. Ever since, Panama has had a pro-American government. We've worked with them closely. They've been working with the Trump administration to minimize Chinese influence around the Panama Canal. I think that's a much closer analog. Cotton declared Panama a successful operation, adding, I believe in the long run, this will be, too. This will be it has a chance to be truly revolutionary here in the Western Hemisphere by removing one of the biggest sources of instability and anti-American activism."

Comparing the 2003 Iraq invasion to removing Nicolás Maduro raised concerns about ousting dictators without a clear post-removal plan. Combat veterans expressed worry about repeating Iraq-style mistakes in Venezuela. The Iraq analogy was called flawed on the grounds that Latin America differs from the Middle East and Venezuela is described as more ethnically, religiously, and culturally homogeneous. Panama 1989 was cited as a closer precedent where U.S. intervention removed Manuel Noriega, led to a pro-American government, and enabled cooperation to limit Chinese influence around the Panama Canal. Removal of Maduro was framed as potentially reducing instability and anti-American activism in the hemisphere.

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