U.S. imposes new sanctions against Venezuela

Hmm. And Charlie, the president said a land war could begin soon in Venezuela. That's a serious escalation. What might that look like? Is that a possibility? Yeah, well, OK, so Errol, it is obviously serious. And he is the president. He's the commander in chief. And he's part of the decision-making process on what that would be and what it would look like. But I have to say-- he said it a couple of days ago. He actually said it a couple of weeks ago, too. But soon we have to take him seriously. Now, what would it look like? It depends on what it is. With the kind of military capacity that they've got down there right now, they could launch something like 200 cruise missiles. That's how many destroyers and cruisers they've got down there, and they can launch those. Now, you don't have to fly into Venezuela to do that. Is that a land war? Possibly. They've got four squadrons of F-18 fighter jets down there. They've got two more squadrons of F-35 stealth fighter jets. In terms of a land war, in terms of sending US military troops in there, Venezuela is twice the size of Iraq. And that force is, like, 150,000 to get in there. They have about 15,000 forces down there. And in terms of landing forces, you got about 2,200 Marines on one of those amphibious. Even if you were to, say-- like, Panama. Panama is a tenth the size of Venezuela. And even then, they'd have three times the troops or land troops. Because you're talking about soldiers, foot soldiers, that would have to go in. So in no way are they militarily positioned for a land invasion. But if the land war is punitive strikes using any one of those Tomahawk cruise missiles-- the United States used 24 cruise missiles in the attack in Iran. They're fully capable weapons. And you've got all the fighter jets. So when he says land war, I have to imagine what that land war would look like. And those are the options, because that's what the military is all about. Those are the options that are currently mustered in that region. And President Trump is the commander in chief. The folks in the military follow his direction. But you have Navy Admiral Alvin Halsey. He was in charge of military forces in Latin America. He's officially stepping down today. And he's just the latest in a number of senior military officials to exit under Defense Secretary Hegseth. What does this mean to the bigger picture? Well, he's among two dozen or so high-ranking officers-- flag officers are what they call them-- who have stepped down or been pushed or whatever it may be. But Errol, we have to talk about the timing. So this is the guy who's in charge of Southern Command, SOUTHCOM. That's the region, the area of responsibility. So he would have been seeing these boat strikes, may have been arguing with the Defense Secretary over the legality, because he's stepping down today. That's the official ceremony that's happening today. But he made that decision maybe six weeks ago. And you have to look at the timing. Why would the person who's in charge of America's biggest kinetic fight right now, and with all the controversy over these boat strikes, why would he chosen to have stepped down early one year into a three-year term?

Very important question. Charlie D'Agata in our DC Bureau, thanks.