Category: War and Peace

By Pam Kragen / San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 14 -15, 2026

Stan Levin, a Korean War veteran who spent the later years of his life as a passionate anti-war activist and helping San Diego’s homeless population, passed away Jan. 8 at a local hospital. He was 96.

The longtime San Diegan worked as an acrobat, in airplane manufacturing, as a schoolteacher and in the real estate industry. But he became best known for his volunteer work with San Diego Veterans for Peace, a vocation that began around his 80th birthday in 2010. He participated in demonstrations, protested at the Miramar air shows, spoke at public events and wrote many essays and letters to the editor that were published in this and other local newspapers and on news sites.

Levin’s daughter Annie Revel said her father loved talking to people on virtually any topic, but over the past 20 years he increasingly became an outspoken anti-war activist.

“He was opinionated and very engaged in life,” Revel said. “He always had a twinkle in his eye and he had a great sense of fun. He was very curious and inquisitive and always learning.”

by Ernie McCray

As the year 2025 closed
American citizens held out hope
that 2026
would be a better year,
considering that 2025
had us shaking in our boots,
in fear,
crying in our beer,
shedding tears,
but now, just a few days
after the new year arrived,
before we could

By Farnoush Amiri and Jennifer Peltz / Los Angeles Times / January 6, 2026

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Monday after an audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela over the weekend to capture leader Nicolás Maduro, with the United Nations’ top official warning that America may have violated international law.

Before the U.N.’s most powerful body, both allies and adversaries blasted President Trump’s intervention and him signaling the possibility of expanding military action to countries like Colombia and Mexico over drug trafficking accusations. He also reupped his threat to take over the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests.

In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is “deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected with regard to the 3 January military action.”

He added that the “grave” action by the U.S. could set a precedent for how future relations between nations. Denmark, a fellow member of NATO with jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland, echoed Guterres’ concerns, saying the “inviolability of borders is not up for negotiation.”

Compare Editorials from Washington Post with New York Times

Below the masthead at the Washington Post sits this small phrase: “Democracy Dies in Darkness”.

But with the almost giddy editorial by the Post on Saturday, Jan. 3, in total full-throated support for Trump’s illegal strike in Venezuela, the Post editorial board have now proven that they’re willing to help snuff out whatever light is left in American democracy. They need to remove that phrase from the masthead for the American people can no longer rely on the Washington Post for truth and any light in the darkness.

If Jeff Bezos had owned the Post back in the early 1970s, we would never have known about the Watergate scandal — that eventually forced President Nixon to resign.

With Bezos’ manly bear hug of Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, America not only lost one of the country’s great pillars of truthful journalism, it’s just one more incredible sign that US corporate media are bending their knee to our tinpot dictator wannabe. One more institution has fallen.

Here are a few key segments of the Post’s editorial:

By Angelo Haynes

At 3pm Saturday, January 3rd, several hundred San Diegans representing a diverse coalition of local San Diego activist groups gathered in front of the San Diego County Administration Building to protest the recent US military intervention in Venezuela. Groups ranging from feminist activist groups such as Code Pink, to Veteran organizations such as Veterans for Peace came together on short notice to speak and contribute to the march.

The Trump administration’s recent military intervention is an escalation from the recent aggressive naval attacks in the region, resulting in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores.

Organizers began planning the march Friday night after news broke of US forces beginning their bombing operation of the capital city of Caracas. Planning and mobilization efforts were then accelerated when it was discovered that president Maduro was kidnapped to be brought onto American soil to be prosecuted on narco-terrorism charges.

What is the War Powers Resolution? – History and Major Facts

The War Powers Resolution, also known as the War Powers Act of 1973, is a pivotal piece of U.S. federal legislation designed to reassert Congress’s authority in decisions concerning military engagements and to limit the U.S. president’s authority to commit American forces to armed conflict without congressional approval. .

It was passed in the wake of escalating concerns over the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and executive overreach in wartime decisions.

Although it became law over President Richard Nixon‘s veto, the resolution has sparked significant legal, political, and constitutional debates since its enactment

Understanding the War Powers Resolution requires exploring its historical context, its legislative framework, and how it has been applied and interpreted in the decades since its passage.

Historical Background

The roots of the War Powers Resolution can be traced back to growing frustration among members of Congress over the U.S. executive branch’s increasing control of military decisions, particularly during the Cold War.

The Vietnam War, which began as a limited U.S. advisory role, escalated into one of the most controversial and protracted military engagements in American history, despite the absence of a formal congressional declaration of war. This set the stage for Congress to take action to reassert its constitutional authority over war powers.

From Washington Post / Jan. 3, 2025

President Donald Trump said Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago Club that the United States will control Venezuela for an unspecified period after a U.S. operation captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

“We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally. We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world go in and invest billions,” he said, while declining to rule out U.S. military deployments. “We’re not afraid of boots on the ground.”

The operation involved more than 150 aircraft, including strike and intelligence assets, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said after Trump’s remarks. “On arrival into the target area, the helicopters came under fire and they replied with that fire with overwhelming force,” Caine added. “One of our aircraft was hit but remained flyable.”

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, “gave up and were taken into custody” by U.S. forces, Caine said. The couple was removed from the country by helicopter, taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima and will be brought to New York, where both are facing federal charges.

Trump said the U.S. had prepared to mount a second-wave attack in Venezuela but that he doubted it would be needed.

Trump: US Oil Companies Will Take Over Venezuela’s Oil Fields

U.S. oil companies are going to take over Venezuela’s oil fields and industry, President Donald Trump said Saturday, declaring that U.S. oil interests will revive oil production in a country with one of the world’s largest reserves.

Several “No War on Venezuela” protests are being planned across the country today, after the US conducted a large-scale strike on the city of Caracas and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“We need to take to the streets and say no to another endless war! The people of this country do not want another war! A U.S. war would cause death and destruction for the people of Venezuela,” the Answer Coalition, one group organizing the protests, wrote in a news release.

Demonstrations are planned for Chicago, New York’s Times Square, outside the White House in Washington, DC, along with city halls and statehouses across the country this afternoon.

Meanwhile, In Congress 

Members of the US Congress on Saturday, Jan. 3, demanded emergency legislative action to prevent the Trump administration from taking further military action in Venezuela after the president threatened a “second wave” of attacks and said the US will control the South American country’s government indefinitely.

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), said that “Congress should vote immediately on a War Powers Resolution to stop” President Donald Trump, whose administration has for months unlawfully bombed boats in international waters and threatened a direct military assault on Venezuela without lawmakers’ approval.

“Trump has no right to take us to war with Venezuela. This is reckless and illegal,” said Casar. “My entire life, politicians have been sending other people’s kids to die in reckless regime change wars. Enough. No new wars.”

A day after the strikes on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president by elements of the U.S. military, I guess we can now relax over any concerns that our military men and women wouldn’t follow illegal orders. For, the invasion of a sovereign country and the illegal abduction of its leader without Congressional approval (or even notice) by our army and navy are clearly illegal and against the Constitution.

Apparently, our boys and girls wearing US uniforms didn’t stop their actions in this attack against US and international law.

What a sigh of relief.

It was not even two months ago that a squad of Democratic congresspeople produced a video distributed widely telling military and intelligence officers to “refuse illegal orders.” Which is the law. Here’s that video they made:  a video .

By Annie Karni / New York Times / Jan. 3, 2026, 10:46 a.m. ET

While President Trump crowed on Saturday about the dramatic capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela by U.S. authorities, Democrats in Congress sounded alarms about the legality of the action and raised questions about recent briefings in which administration officials assured them that they were not seeking regime change in the nation.

Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of having “blatantly” lied to Congress when they said the administration’s objective in Venezuela was not about toppling Mr. Maduro. He called the move to oust the Venezuelan leader “disastrous,” arguing that it would further isolate the United States on the global stage.

“Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war,” Mr. Kim, a former national security official in the Obama administration, wrote on social media.

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat who represents a district in which Venezuelan immigrants cheered for the news, said that Mr. Maduro’s capture was “welcome” but that the way it was done raised serious questions.

Early Saturday, January 3rd, the Trump regime conducted a blatant and illegal act of war against Venezuela by bombing civilian and military sites and illegally kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

This act of aggression is a imperialistic continuation of U.S. policies against the sovereign South American country with attempts to seize and plunder Venezuela’s natural resources and threatens the sovereignty of other countries in Latin America.

The aggression goes against the will of the American people and against our Constitution. Nearly 70% of Americans oppose another war and reject the endless cycle of military interventions carried out in their name.

Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to military action in Venezuela, according to a Quinnipiac poll published in mid-December amid an escalation of U.S. pressure on President Nicolás Maduro.

Sixty-three percent of respondents told Quinnipiac they are against military action against Caracas, which President Donald Trump has repeatedly declined to rule out, with just 25 percent expressing support. And 53 percent of respondents said they opposed the administration’s use of military strikes to kill alleged drug smugglers in international waters.

As domestic and international condemnations of the attack and kidnapping mount up, there are typical sycophantic expressions of support from Trumpian Republicans.

By Alyssa Ray / Yahoo News / December 8, 2025

Jon Stewart accused the Trump administration of giving him Iraq War déjà vu over their reasoning for the looming conflict with Venezuela.

The comedian addressed the “eerie” similarities between the two separate conflicts during Monday’s monologue for “The Daily Show,” where he slammed the president and his administration for recycling old Iraq War-era justifications amid the growing conflict in South America.

“So the two dictators [Nicolás Maduro and Saddam Hussein] share a remarkably similar taste in facial hair, body shape, ceremonial sabers and headgear. It doesn’t mean that the pretext for the wars will be the same,” Stewart joked before airing news footage of MAGA supporters accusing narco-terrorists of being in possession of fentanyl, which they called “weapons of mass destruction.”

“Are you f–king kidding me right now?” Stewart sounded off. “You guys have the balls to tell us that the pretext for Iraq was bulls–t, and that war was a mistake, and we’re not like that, and also, Venezuela has weapons of mass destruction, and we have to stop them. Or is WMD just the new slang, like, ‘Yo, bro.Venezuela’s total WMD, 6-7.’”

He also fact checked the fentanyl claim, sharing “almost none of it [in the U.S.]” comes from Venezuela.