{"id":56646,"date":"2025-12-12T13:07:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=56646"},"modified":"2025-12-12T13:07:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:07:37","slug":"regime-change-rep-adam-smith-talks-one-game-and-spends-on-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/12\/regime-change-rep-adam-smith-talks-one-game-and-spends-on-another\/","title":{"rendered":"Regime Change: Rep. Adam Smith Talks One Game and Spends on Another"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c[T]here is no way on earth we should be going to war or trying to do regime change in Venezuela,\u201d US Representative Adam Smith (D-WA) told\u00a0The Hill<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on December 4. The US, says Smith, \u201cshould be out of the regime-change business.\u201d<\/p>\n

So,\u00a0 did Smith still think that on December 9, when US military aircraft overflew the Gulf of Venezuela, and on December 10, when US troops \u2014 in a blatant act of piracy on the high seas \u2014 hijacked a Venezuelan oil tanker in the Caribbean?<\/p>\n

On December 10, Smith, the ranking Democrat on the\u00a0 House Armed Services Committee, came out in support of forking over nearly $1 trillion to the US regime-change machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do support this bill. This does not mean that I do not have concerns. I do,\u201d Smith said<\/a> as he speechified for, then voted in favor of,\u00a0 the latest \u201cNational Defense Authorization Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

That money constitutes the entire revenue stream for the \u201cregime-change business\u201d Smith claims he wants to shut down.<\/p>\n

It pays for the troops. It pays for the guns. It pays for the planes. It pays for the boats. It pays for the bombs.<\/p>\n

In what universe do you shut down a business by shoveling money at it?<\/p>\n

The most Congress could bring itself to do in terms of funding reductions over this matter was to insert a provision cutting US secretary of defense Pete Hegseth\u2019s travel budget by 25% unless he turns over video of recent US military murders (of supposed narcotics traffickers) in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

Not that a 25% reduction would cut Hegseth\u2019s actual travel \u2014 he\u2019d just hitch a ride on Air Force One or with some general or admirable whose travel budget HASN\u2019T been cut \u2014 but even if it would, that\u2019s some pretty weak tea right there.<\/p>\n

Spare me any pretend shock that the executive branch is \u201cout of control\u201d on foreign and military policy \u2026 when\u2019s the last time it was UNDER control?<\/p>\n

Congress hasn\u2019t declared war since the early 1940s, but that hasn\u2019t prevented presidents from waging wars large and small around the globe, at their sole discretion and without meaningful pushback from Congress or the courts.<\/p>\n

Oh, there\u2019s frequent performative chest-beating over war powers, and occasionally an instantly dismissed lawsuit from politicians in the current congressional minority, but never anything as convincing as a credible impeachment attempt \u2026 and never, ever, EVER an actual use of Congress\u2019s most effectual power \u2014 the power of the purse \u2014 to put a stop to the nonsense.<\/p>\n

Money talks, and Smith\u2019s support for throwing outlandish amounts of money at the \u201cregime-change business\u201d loudly contradicts the words coming out of his mouth.<\/p>\n

So long as Congress keeps paying presidents to wage wars, presidents will happily take that money, and enthusiastically deliver the goods.<\/p>\n

Thomas L. Knapp (X:\u00a0@thomaslknapp<\/a>\u00a0| Bluesky:\u00a0@knappster.bsky.social\u00a0<\/a>| Mastodon:\u00a0@knappster<\/a>) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c[T]here is no way on earth we should be going to war or trying to do regime change in Venezuela,\u201d US Representative Adam Smith (D-WA) told\u00a0The Hill\u00a0on December 4. The US, says Smith, \u201cshould be out of the regime-change business.\u201d So,\u00a0 did Smith still think that on December 9, when US military aircraft overflew the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[816],"class_list":["post-56646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"0","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56649,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56646\/revisions\/56649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56646"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=56646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}