based on site demographics I can’t be alone in this. immediately feels like 2004 never ended.
fuck every single person involved in conceiving and executing these actions, and the many who will make excuses for it.
EDIT: idk why I was so specific about the years. any fellow “war on terror” experiencers are the intended audience here.
PSUV is deeply interwined with their military and vice versa. Chavez and Maduro actually purged and rebuilt their militaries unlike some Latin America leaders. Given the old military removed Chavez early in his presidency (didn’t take) and he also was a former officer.
Why didn’t they shoot back then?
they did, some manpads got shots off before they got lit up by the apaches
that they didn’t down any of them isn’t all that surprising, their actual AAA was outclassed and got flattened leaving only manpads firing in the dark at low flying, fast, stealthy helicopters that have countermeasures specifically designed to render IR guided manpads ineffective
Was any of it caught on video?
there was a video somewhere in the newsthread of a small amount of return fire, shared by Awoo i think
the yankees admitted to one helicopter being damaged at least
bear in mind the entire raid was over within an hour in the middle of the night, not all that much time to get good video
There’s like a host of reasons they might not have ranging from electronic warfare to bribing a small number of guys (which is easier than a whole ass coup).