Lion said:

There are some basic similarities between Saddam's regime and the Chavez-Maduro political continuum in Venezuela:

(1) Possessing a lucrative state-controlled oil industry
(2) Having repressive security forces
(3) Seeking to destabilize neighbors (particularly Colombia, via support for guerrillas)
(4) Aggressive anti-U.S. rhetoric
(5) Seeking to expand regional influence (via giving away oil to Cuba et al, seeking to strengthen axis of leftist governments)

However, I don't see those similarities as particularly profound.  Maduro is not the murderous megalomaniac that Saddam was by any stretch of the imagination.  Yes, he has strong authoritarian tendencies and is capable of killing his own people through security forces, but he is not capable of committing atrocities on the scale that Saddam was.  Similarly, he would never outright invade a neighboring country, or threaten the U.S. or anyone else with a chemical weapons/WMD attack.  Bombast and large-scale bloodletting were what set Saddam apart; Maduro is just another politician at the head of a repressive state apparatus.

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Now I don't have to type anything

Shins said:

I hope no one is implying that we "liberate" Venezuela

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