Media Release

Deeper into the Orbit of the US: the Visit by the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff

Today Trinidad and Tobago was taken deeper into the orbit of Washington’s imperial and colonial agenda with the visit of the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine. He met with the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago who is also the Chair of this country’s National Security Council. This is not an accidental occurrence. Nor is it normal. One will be hard pressed to find that any previous sitting Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visited this country.

General Caine is on a swing through the Caribbean. On this visit he is to visit US troops on some of the US naval ships located in the Caribbean and is to visit Puerto Rico where the US has recently stationed many fighter jets and bombers. He is not on a tourist trip. The Chair of the Joint Chiefs has as one of his responsibilities to advise the US President, Secretary of Defence and the National Security Council. He assesses the preparation of US troops for missions and combat; he does strategic planning which includes scenario planning for military actions and in the process conducts risk assessments.

So, in keeping with his duties and responsibilities he is in this region to assess the state of the US assets and the position of any US allies so as to properly advise the President of what to do with respect to Venezuela. Remember Trump believes that the recent designation of the (fictitious) Cartel of the Suns as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation gives him the authority to attack Venezuela. He said as much last week. In the words of Trump himself “it allows us to do that…”

The people of Trinidad and Tobago are due a proper explanation by the Prime Minister on this visit. We do not want to hear some rehashed story about mutual collaboration in the fight against narco-traffickers. That is not what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deals with. He deals with war and preparations for war. He deals with militarily securing the US from attack by a foreign state. We must be told what commitments were made by the Prime Minister to General Caine and what was promised in return?

And we are being treated like fools by this government by being told that all this US military activity in Trinidad and Tobago is normal, when there is an unprecedented 10% of the US Navy in the Caribbean and the US leadership tells the world that they have sent in CIA operatives to Venezuela and are considering a military strike against that country and even the mainstream media in the US are clear that this is about regime change in Venezuela.

With every passing day we are positioning ourselves as the willing partner for the imperialist agenda of a hegemonic power – the USA. If the US attacks Venezuela and/or engages in actions that result in regime change or internal conflict and a possible civil war, then Trinidad and Tobago’s government will be a complicit partner. It will stain our international standing as we will cease to be nonaligned or respected for taking an independent position. Instead we will be viewed as a lackey of Washington at a time when the majority of American citizens – according to recent polls – do not wish the US to go to war with Venezuela and do not have a favourable view of President Trump.

That is a bad place indeed for this country to find itself in.

Movement for Social Justice

David Abdulah

Political Leader

Image: DoD Photo by Benjamin Applebaum