Tied to the Titanic: Australia’s US Delusion Is Sinking Fast

The world just watched the most powerful nation on Earth launch a full-scale military attack - without UN Security Council approval, without any domestic legal justification, and with no plausible self-defense claim. Simply because it can. That’s exactly what happened when the United States struck Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro in a military operation that has drawn condemnation worldwide.

It wasn’t a limited strike. It was a major military assault involving aircraft and bombings across Caracas. It was the most direct US military intervention in Latin America since Panama was invaded in 1989.  The UN Secretary-General warned it sets a dangerous precedent of undermining international law.

None of this is a defence of Maduro or his regime which has been brutal, corrupt, and repressive. The point is that the world has rules for dealing with ‘baddies’, and those rules don’t include bombing and taking over a country, abducting a head of state, and helping yourself to another country’s resources - especially when plenty of other repressive regimes somehow never face that treatment.

And here’s another sickening truth: US bombs targeted the mausoleum where former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was laid to rest - obliterating his remains and a site of national significance. That’s not collateral damage; that’s a symbol of disrespect for sovereignty and international norms.

What Was the Real Motive?

The Trump White House didn’t even deny it. In public statements and interviews, Trump said that after the military capture of Maduro the US would “run” Venezuela and rebuild its vast oil industry.  According to multiple reports, major US oil companies are already preparing to invest billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil infrastructure, which has some of the largest proven crude reserves in the world.

That’s not ideological liberation rhetoric. That’s economic conquest by another name.

A Rule-Breaking Superpower

International law is clear: the UN Charter prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, except in self-defense or with Security Council authorisation. No such authorisation existed. No credible self-defense justification was presented. What occurred was, by legal experts’ assessment, a violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. It was an illegal act of aggression.

And that’s precisely the point: the under the Trump Regime, the US now publicly makes the rules, and then breaks them when convenient.

So let’s be brutally honest: what the world is seeing now - the kidnapping of a sitting head of state, the bombing of sovereign territory, the razing of a national symbol - is not an anomaly. It’s a dangerous pattern.

This is Australia’s Titanic Moment

For decades, Australian leaders have tied our strategic identity to the US. We’re investing hundreds of billions into AUKUS submarines. Much of that money is going straight into US ship building industries. We seem to be deriding or ignoring diplomatic alternatives, pushing deeper into a dangerous security relationship that demands more from us. And our Defence and Foreign Ministers are insisting that shared “values” still bind Canberra and Washington. What planet are they on?!

So here’s the uncomfortable analogy that has to be made:

Australia is pinning its future to a ship that’s ripping up the rule book and sailing us towards catastrophe. We’re like passengers demanding deck chairs on the Titanic.

What Should Australia Do Now?

I’ve been writing for over a year about how Australia needs to find new friends. If we continue to act as a vassal, then we’re making a profound strategic error.

So-called “shared values” aren’t earned by rhetoric. They have to be shown by consistent behaviour. Right now, the US’s conduct in Venezuela reveals a superpower and regime that respects no one’s interests but it’s own.

Australia must recognise that reality, not romanticise an alliance that’s a lifeline tethered to a sinking ship. It’s time to wake up. Before we go down with the Titanic too.

The US is no longer the friend or ally it once was. Time for Australia to wake up and jump ship.