On Wednesday night, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox Business’ Trish Regan, with a straight face, that Hezbollah—yes, the Lebanese militia—has active cells in Venezuela.
“People don’t recognize that Hezbollah has active cells,” Pompeo said. “The Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America. We have an obligation to take down that risk for America.” Regan, incredulously, tweeted out that Pompeo had “confirmed” to her that Hezbollah is operating in Venezuela.
If Fox News guest said this, it would be too stupid to even acknowledge. But this is coming from the top diplomat of the United States of America. The total sum of evidence given to the public for Hezbollah being active in Venezuela is rooted in the fever dreams of neocons, a Treasury action taken during the Bush administration, and a decade-old allegation by an Israeli diplomat. Given the specious evidence and what we know about the Trump administration, absolutely no one should take Pompeo’s word for it.
The math for the Trump administration is simple: They want regime change in both Venezuela and Iran (and Nicaragua and Cuba), and splitting the difference to imply both are working together to destroy the Great Satan is a page directly out of the Bush administration’s book. Let’s just hope that this time, no one falls for it.