Mark Twain offers insight on latest web of lies | Whale’s Tales

Published 1:30 am Friday, January 23, 2026

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” said American writer and humorist Mark Twain.

I have been thinking about Mr. Twain’s words ever since the United States invasion and takeover of the South American nation of Venezuela on Jan. 3, and the declaration by the 47th president the United States that he would run that nation until new elections could be held.

It has an old, familiar ring to it. Because it’s not the first time the United States has acted with arrogant lawlessness and disregard for international norms and laws. Indeed, it hearkens to back to the way this country once behaved.

The Trump Administration and its defenders have been everywhere arguing their case for this act, saying it was necessary to stanch the flow of narcotics to the United States, or this one from presidential advisor Stephen Miller: “We’re a superpower, it’s time we started acting like one.”

Well, having listened to the clumsily woven web of lies the administration keeps weaving, I have a name for this incursion: Operation Steaming Pile.

The president gave away the game when he revealed that before he informed Congress about the pending invasion, he’d already alerted Big American Oil. When did Big American Oil take Congress’ place? Gee, I must have missed the memo.

He has likewise talked openly and brazenly about all the oil money that will flow into the U.S. with the capture of Venezuelan oil tankers. And late last week, he declared that he himself, the president, “will control” the billions these seizures will accrue.

Big hearted of you, Mr. President.

I suggest y’all consider what United States Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, winner of two Congressional Medals of Honor, had to say about his war service in his 1935 book, “War is a Racket,” and his subsequent testimony before Congress.

“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914,” Butler wrote. “I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street.

“The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909–1912 … I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

“Looking back on it,” Butler said, “I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

Like Mark Twain, I object to the American eagle sinking its talons into any other country.

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Robert Whale can be reached at robert.whale@soundpublishing.com.