Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

Bolton pushes Shanahan to develop more military options for Venezuela...

Under the orders of John Bolton, the Pentagon is busily developing new military options for Venezuela, both for the imposition of regime change, and more specifically for trying to deter either Russia or China from doing anything to help President Maduro.

While officials continue to insist “all options are on the table,” Pentagon officials say that they are trying to come up with plans that stop short of direct military invasion or any combat operations.

As with a lot of foreign policy cases, the administration’s appetite for aggressive military intervention doesn’t necessarily extend to the Pentagon leadership, and they are more inclined to try to focus on increasing their regional presence instead of outright trying to conquer Venezuela.

While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of bankrolling Maduro to prolong the crisis, Chinese officials fired back that Pompeo’s comments were “irresponsible and utterly unjustifiable,” adding that “lies are lies, even if you say it a thousand times, they are still lies. Mr. Pompeo, you can stop.”