Regime Change Always Leads To Death, Destruction and Chaos.

If You Want To Know What Venezuela Would Look Like After A Regime Change War, Just Take A Look At Iraq, Libya, Ukraine and Syria.

Trump is currently moving closer and closer towards a regime change war in Venezuela.

To see what would result from this regime change war, one only needs to take a look at the most recent Western regime change wars in Iraq in 2003, Libya in 2011, Ukraine in 2014, and Syria in 2011-2024.

In all of these cases, U.S. regime change led to destabilization, chaos, death, and an increase in lawlessness and terrorism.

In the case of Iraq, the U.S. and UK went to war to remove Saddam Hussein from power based on false claims that he possessed weapons of mass destruction, fabricated by UK, US, and Israeli intelligence, who wanted regime change in Iraq due to its support for Palestinian resistance groups, and to take the country’s oil.

While the war was built on bringing “democracy” and “freedom” to the people of Iraq, the UK government’s Inquiry into the war released in 2016 admitted that the removal of Saddam Hussein led to mass destabilization.

The inquiry noted, “In the absence of a functioning Iraqi police force and criminal justice system, and without a clear Coalition Phase IV plan, looting and score‑settling became a serious problem in Baghdad soon after the regime fell. The looting of ministry buildings and damage to state‑owned infrastructure in particular added to the challenges of the Occupation.”

The Inquiry went on to write, “After visiting Iraq in early May 2003, General Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff, observed: ‘A security vacuum still exists [in Baghdad] ... particularly at night. Looting, revenge killing and subversive activities are rife … Should a bloody and protracted insurgency establish itself in Baghdad, then a ripple effect is likely to occur’.”

It added that after the regime change, “Food shortages and the failure of essential services such as the supply of electricity and water, plus lack of progress in the political process, however, began to erode the relationship between UK forces and the local population.”

As Al Jazeera noted , “In May 2003, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Paul Bremer, disbanded the Iraqi army and intelligence services and barred the long-ruling Baath Party from participating in the government formation process. The decision alienated hundreds of thousands of trained men and created a security and governance vacuum in the country that devastated it for years” adding, “The transition from US to Iraqi rule in the mid-2000s saw the killing of tens of thousands of Iraqis, the launch of an al-Qaeda-led armed uprising, the outbreak of a sectarian civil war, and eventually, the rise of ISIL (ISIS).”

Similarly, in the case of Libya in 2011, NATO intervened to back Jihadist rebels in the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi based on the false claim that he was about to massacre civilians.

A UK Parliament Inquiry later admitted that, “the proposition that Muammar Gaddafi would have ordered the massacre of civilians in Benghazi was not supported by the available evidence” and that, “It is now clear that militant Islamist militias played a critical role in the rebellion from February 2011 onwards”.

Similarly, the UK parliament inquiry admitted, “When his (Gaddafi’s) Administration collapsed in October 2011, security, basic governmental services and the rule of law collapsed with it ”adding that, “The lack of effective government and internal security resulted in fragmentation, lawlessness and violence”.

Furthermore, the inquiry noted that, “Libya purchased some £30 billion of weapons and ammunition between 1969 and 2010. Many of those munitions were not issued to the Libyan Army and were instead stored in warehouses. After the collapse of the Gaddafi regime, some weapons and ammunition remained in Libya, where they fell into the hands of the militias. Other Libyan weapons and ammunition were trafficked across North and West Africa and the Middle East” adding that, “arms originating from Libya have significantly reinforced the military capacity of terrorist groups operating in Algeria, Egypt, Mali and Tunisia” and that, “weapons abandoned by the Gaddafi regime fuelled instability in Libya and enabled and increased terrorism across North and West Africa and the Middle East.”

The report also noted that, “Political instability in Libya has led to a permissive environment for terrorist groups in which to operate, including ISIL affiliated groups,” adding that, “ISIL took advantage of governmental weakness to seize territory and bases in Sabratha, Dern,a and Sirte”.

When the U.S. covertly backed a coup against the elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, similar destruction followed.

Ukrainian political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko has documented the effects of the U.S.-imposed IMF ecenomic reforms on Ukraine after the regime change, including:

• “Ukraine’s GDP shrinking by approximately 17%”.

• The exchange rate going from “8 hryvnias (Ukrainian dollar) to 1 U.S dollar” in 2013 to “23 hryvnias to the dollar” in 2015

• Inflation rising from 24.9% in 2014 to 43.3% in 2015

• a “significant decline in industrial production during the first two years” after the coup, leading to Ukraine losing “its economic cluster that manufactured goods with high added value (machine engineering)”

• “mining and metallurgical complex, energy (coal production), chemicals, food production”, “sustained significant losses”.

• “an increase in unemployment and the emigration of citizens from Ukraine to neighboring countries—primarily to Poland and Russia.”

• “utility rates increasing by 123%, reaching up to 20% of family income” from the IMF introduced policies

Furthermore, the coup saw the mainstreaming of previously fringe far-right militias and political parties that took part in the overthrow of Yanukovych.

Foreign Policy magazine noted at the time, “The uncomfortable truth is that a sizeable portion of Kiev’s current government — and the protesters who brought it to power — are, indeed, fascists”, and the UK’s Channel 4 reported that, “the far-right took top posts in Ukraine’s power vacuum”.

The new far-right forces in the government began to crack down on Eastern Ukraine’s ethnic Russian population.

The European court of human rights has documented that when far-right nationalist militia groups trapped ethnic Russians in a burning Trade Union Building in Odessa, burning 42 alive, the new far-right government, “had not done everything they reasonably could to prevent the violence, to stop that violence after its outbreak, and to ensure timely rescue measures for those trapped in the fire in the Trade Union Building” adding that, “The deployment of fire engines to the site of the fire had been deliberately delayed for 40 minutes, and the police had not stepped in to help evacuate people from the building promptly and safely. Therefore, the State had failed to ensure timely rescue measures”.

These clashes eventually led to a civil/proxy war in Eastern Ukraine, which killed 14,000 people and eventually, the proxy war in Ukraine.

Finally, the most recent U.S. regime change operation in Syria, which included spending billions of dollars arming and training rebels and placing crushing sanctions on the country- eventually leading to the fall of Bashar al-Assad in late 2024- has caused similar destabilization.

The Syrian human rights NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) noted , “Nine months passed after the fall of Al-Assad regime and dissociation of military and security institutions, which caused critical security vacuum throughout Syria and left military forces which later took control of the country facing considerable challenges at all levels, especially the security and economic situations; this, in turn, has led to a state of confusion and instability” adding that, “the fall of Al-Assad regime also coincided with unprecedented security chaos in all Syrian areas, where some weak-willed individuals exploited that situation for personal gains”.

The NGO “documented the death of 10,672 people across Syria during the period between December 8, 2024, and September 6, 2025, in acts of violence and violations by local and foreign parties” including, “8,180 civilians, including 438 children and 620 women”.

The report noted that since the regime change, “3,020 civilians were extrajudicially executed” by CIA-backed jihadist rebel forces, now in control of the country’s military and security forces.

The report also noted that the regime change and new Western backed government led by former Al Qaeda leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, have led to mass sectarian violence, writing that the mass killings, “coincided with systematic media campaigns launched by parties loyal to the new government fueling sectarian hatred through linking specified sects to political stances, such as accusing people of the Alawite community of ‘being remnants of Al-Assad regime,’ accusing people of the Druze community of ‘spying’ and accusing the Kurds of ‘being separatists’”.

In all four of these cases, regime change wars have led to mass instability and chaos because that was their intention: to destroy countries that did not bow down to U.S. economic and foreign policy demands.

If Trump’s regime-change war in Venezuela succeeds, the result will be no different.

Trump himself admitted in 2023 that due to his regime change efforts in Venezuela during his first term, “Venezuela was ready to collapse,” adding, “we would have gotten all that oil, it would have been right next door”.

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