CNN
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US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said Sunday that the US Armed Forces “would be ready, if called upon” to take action in Venezuela after President Donald Trump suggested he has already made a decision on a course of action there.
“The president and the secretary of war have spent a lot of time thinking about what is the best thing they can do for the American people. And I can speak from the Army’s perspective, which is that we have a lot of training in that part of the world. We are reactivating our jungle school in Panama. We would be ready to act on whatever the president and the secretary of war need,” Driscoll said in an interview with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”
He declined to say whether any orders had already been given, but added: “We would be ready, if asked.”
U.S. military personnel have trained alongside Panamanian security forces in what is formally known as the “Combined Jungle Orientation Course,” which, according to the U.S. Southern Command, “focuses on survival, tactics and patrol operations” in jungle conditions.
Trump was briefed by his team earlier this week on a number of options, including airstrikes against military or government facilities and drug trafficking routes, or a more direct attempt to remove the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, from power. Trump indicated Friday that he has “more or less” made a decision on the path forward, but declined to offer details about what that would entail.
In recent days, the US has amassed significant assets in the region, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford; about 15,000 soldiers; more than a dozen warships; and 10 F-35 fighter jets.
