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Seven years ago, Jose's home nation of Venezuela, a wealthy and developed nation, fell apart suddenly. It failed economically, politically, militarily, agriculturally, socially and culturally. Jose had to move into the mountains just outside the border to survive.
He's writing about the experience because most of us in functioning societies don't know how quickly it can happen, and what a collapse is like.
He says: "Today, where the only law is the fear imposed by AK-toting guys, in unidentified vehicles, crime has increased in the countryside and in the cities. Restrictions on importation were lifted and those using foreign currency made huge fortunes importing from abroad."
"It saddened and alarmed me to learn from a farmer in the Los Andes Mountains that people would come from the town, walking kilometers uphill during the night, even when raining, to steal potatoes. Crops that have not yet matured are being dug out of the ground. Farmers have to sleep in their potato fields to avoid being stolen from. Unarmed, roving bands of four or more thieves have caused the farmers to arm themselves with machetes and pikes."
1. The country is only a minor contributor to America’s drug problem; the necessary violence of war cannot be Biblically justified to protect American citizens
2. Both rural and urban terrain would be a nightmare for modern warfare
3. Venezuela’s forces are built for decades-long guerrilla war, not conventional defense
4. Logistics would be slow, vulnerable, and expensive
5. The out-of-order oil fields are unwinnable battlefields: sinkholes of corruption, sabotage, and ecological collapse.
6. Occupation would lead to political and economic chaos, not stability
7. The loss of young American infantry could easily surpass that of Vietnam
An invasion of Venezuela would be quick to start but impossible to finish. The terrain, the logistics, and the complexity of the country’s politics make it a trap for any foreign army. And far from securing oil or influence, it would likely unleash environmental and humanitarian chaos that no one could control. Venezuela is a fragile state sitting on a volatile resource, not a battlefield the U.S. could ever truly win.
They don't unite truth with faith.
"Christians have been duped into being fearful, timid, and neurotic. We walk around as if we are the most ignorant of all people, unable to cope with basic social stigma, even though we’re the only ones who have the Truth, and the Lord Almighty has our backs against anything that would threaten us. Somehow, we can’t seem to bridge the gap between believing the miracles and promises we read in the Bible and applying it real life; thus making it an empty “religion” rather than an explosive, reality-shattering revelation about how everything truly works."
-- Terry Wolfe
