2) Bolton is deliberately trying to ambush the press into overreacting prematurely and running with this so as to discredit the MSM.

3) The picture was photoshopped in order to embarrass Bolton/Trump by domestic opponents of the administration.

4) It’s Russian misinformation/fake news in order to muddle and confuse the situation, or perhaps to frustrate US diplomacy.

5) The US is trying to provoke Maduro into doing something stupid, or to scare him into NOT doing something stupid.

No matter how or why this image came about, I would be very wary about basing any military or diplomatic policy on it or its implied message.

What I found interesting is the graphic in the background. Someone went to all the trouble to produce that map highlighting all the countries that supported Maduro in bright, garish red. That’s a classic propaganda map, the sort of thing that would be right at home in a 1930′s newspaper. Is this really the thing you’d expect to see at a National Security Briefing?

Oh, and one more thing. There is no way we could mobilize and move 5000 troops and move them to Columbia without everybody knowing about it–even if they were non-combat troops meant only to provide logistics and
support for our allies. And there is no way we could do it in less than a few weeks–or perhaps even months.

Of course, maybe someone wants our friends, or our enemies, to think we can.

In short, I don’t think we know enough about this to evaluate it properly, either as a pro- or anti-Trump move. I don’t know any more about this than you do, but my instincts tell me this is more about domestic politics than about foreign policy.

“Afghanistan -> Welcome the Talks. 5,000 troops to Colombia.”