Donald Trump shared footage of missile strikes on Venezuela set to Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Defoe said the clip, written about the Vietnam war, encapsulated the tone adopted by the US administration, an attempt to present the intervention as “some sort of action movie."
Joining the show was Brida Brown of Unique Media, Colm O’Gorman, human rights campaigner and founder of One in Four, and Gary Gannon, Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central.
O’Gorman said there was no doubt Maduro “won’t be missed by very many people at all," describing him as a “horrendously corrupt authoritarian” responsible for widespread human rights abuses.
He pointed to thousands of arbitrary arrests, executions, the collapse of the economy and the fact that seven million people had fled the country.
Maduro, he said, clearly lacked electoral legitimacy, with no free or fair elections held during his time in power.
However, O’Gorman stressed that this could not justify the US action.
He described the intervention as “a flagrant breach of international law”, noting that the UN Charter prohibits military intervention except in self-defence or at the invitation of a legitimate government.
He added that the operation may not even be legal under US law.
Defoe noted that US officials offered little defence of the legality of the action at their press conference, beyond claims that Congress could not be informed because it “leaks”, with no reference to international law.
O’Gorman said the US would likely attempt to justify the operation by claiming it was supporting law enforcement, pointing to Maduro’s indictment in the United States.
O’Gorman warned that the episode reflects a collapse of the international rules-based order.
“Law and the rule of law has no meaning anymore,” he said, pointing to Ukraine, Venezuela and threats against Colombia as signs that powerful states are increasingly willing to act without restraint.
Gannon described the US press conference as “one of the most extraordinary things” he had witnessed, but also “probably the most truthful Donald Trump has ever been."
Both Gannon and O’Gorman expressed concern that Trump’s statements should now be taken literally, looking at Greenland, Cuba and Taiwan as potential future flashpoints.
Brown pointed to reporting by Mark Almond in the Mail on Sunday, who suggested the operation had been “months in the making,” noting that “the USS Gerald R. Ford moved into the Caribbean in October” and earlier strikes on drug-smuggling boats were “just preludes to the main show.”
Brown added that Trump had been “talking quite a lot about the Monroe Doctrine, basically the right of the US to decide what goes on in the Americas.”
