The official story is bunk.

Here's what I think is going on. You're welcome to disagree. I don't claim to have a monopoly on the truth.

Not about drugs

The US bombing of Venezuela wasn't about drugs — it was a grab for the country's massive oil reserves, the biggest in the world. Trump basically admitted it, saying US oil companies would spend 'billions' to fix things up and start making money, even suggesting the profits could reimburse the US government and the corporations themselves.

Most illegal drugs come through Mexico anyway. If it were about drugs, Mexico would have been bombed.

This was months in the planning; the CIA and military had been tracking Maduro and getting troops ready. Venezuela had been warning for ages that the US was plotting false flag attacks to justify an invasion.

The real story, I believe, is about energy, control, and money.

More specifically, the petrodollar and China (and Russia).

The US has drained its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to its lowest point in decades, and its refineries need heavy, sour crude — the kind Venezuela has lots of. With Saudi ties shifting, Venezuela's oil has became a top prize.

But there's a bigger threat: the petrodollar.

Same classic playbook

The whole system that keeps global demand for the US dollar strong is falling apart and America's central bankers know this. Venezuela was close to selling its oil in a few BRICS currencies, led by the Chinese yuan, and that would have been a blow to Uncle Sam.

So the US used the drug war as a cover for a classic regime change psyop:

• create a crisis
• claim a security threat
• then install a Western puppet who'll sell off the state assets

Opposition leader María Machado has already promised to privatise the state oil company PDVSA and hand it to US interests.

The timing, with a Chinese delegation still in Venezuela, was a clear message to Beijing and Moscow:

America is ready to fight to keep control.

But it all looks so desperate.

It's not a good look for the US

By acting like a debt collector with bombs, the US has shown its hand. This kind of 'hostage diplomacy' won't save the dollar — it'll scare other countries into ditching more US assets, moving their wealth to yuan or gold to stay out of Uncle Sam's reach.

In the short term, the US might get some oil, but in the long term, this only speeds up the end of the petrodollar and pushes the world more into multipolarity.

The sleeping dragon is quietly waking up, while Uncle Sam is coming out swinging and shouting from the rooftops.