Rand Paul Warns Against 'Regime-Change Mission In Venezuela': 'Whose Children Will Fight?'

Republican Sen. Rand Paul against warned against launching a war in Venezuela, asking "who'll foot the bill, whose children will fight, and what if it fails?"

"War is not a first resort. It's the last," Paul said in a social media publication with a link to an op-ed he published in Responsible Statecraft.

There, he criticized the "Washington establishment's long war against reality has led our country into one disastrous foreign intervention after another."

"From Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya to Syria, and now potentially Venezuela, the formula is always the same. They tell us that a country is a threat to America, or more broadly, a threat to American democratic principles. Thus, they say the mission to topple a foreign government is a noble quest to protect security at home while spreading freedom and prosperity to foreign lands," Paul said in a passage of the piece.

He went on to say that "no matter their recent failures, they promise that the next regime change will work, that the next country in the crosshairs will soon be a beacon of human freedom and aspiration."

Paul then added that even though the Trump administration claims that only drug smugglers are the target of operations, the broad military presence in the region is "perhaps akin to killing a housefly with a steamroller."

"Overthrowing Maduro risks creating more instability, not less. The breakdown of state authority may create a power vacuum that even the drug cartels themselves may fill. A generation of purges within the ranks of the Venezuelan military makes them a wild card in the event of an actual war, and we cannot assume they will fold and happily serve a new government preferred by the United States," Paul said.

"Think of the anarchy that followed our wars in the Middle East. Do we really want to risk creating similar conditions in our own backyard?" he concluded.

The administration, however, continues to move forward. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday Operation Southern Spear, which is aimed at targeting "narco-terrorists" and defend "our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people."

"The Western Hemisphere is America's neighborhood - and we will protect it," Hegseth added.

The publication has led to speculation about whether the administration will further escalate its actions in the region or is just putting a name to the operation, which has carried out at least 20 strikes against alleged drug vessels, killing at least 80 people.

Moreover, President Donald Trump was presented with an updated list of targets to strike Venezuela if he were to give the order, according to a new report.

CBS News detailed that senior military officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented Trump with the options, which include strikes on land. No final decision has been made, the outlet noted.