They got him. The nightmare of Nicolas Maduro’s illegitimate, murderous regime in Venezuela and the untold hundreds of thousands who have died at the hands of the lethal drugs pouring in from the South American narco-terrorist state has mercifully come to an end. After the daring capture of Maduro and his wife in the dark of night, the question quickly turns to what will happen next in once-prosperous Venezuela and, most importantly, how the success of this breathtaking military and law enforcement operation will change the geopolitics of not just the western hemisphere, but the entire world.
SHOCK AND AWE
This action was bold as brass. It will be debated for years if not decades to come – its likelihood was discussed on Liberty Nation News as long as four months ago. Brett Velicovich, a former U.S. Army intelligence and special operations soldier, articulated about the purpose and execution of the historic mission on Fox News: “What we just witnessed is Venezuela, the collapse of a regime that survived for years on corruption, fear, terrorism. Maduro didn’t just govern his country. He turned a once-wealthy nation into a narco-terrorist state, he exported incivility across the region, and he hid behind sovereignty while bleeding his own people dry. And I think the explosions [Friday] night are just the sounds of justice finally catching up to him and his cronies who have starved their people while lining their pockets with drug money and illicit oil deals.”
Trump stated that the roughly three dozen drug boats from Venezuela that he has blown up in recent weeks were each carrying enough fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin to kill, on average, 25,000 people. To place in full perspective the ultimate purpose of Trump’s audacious mission, fentanyl overdose has become the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, surpassing COVID-19, car accidents, cancer, and suicide.
Fentanyl is beyond deadly, 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, and it accounts for 70% of the United States’ 100,000+ drug overdose deaths in the past year. To make it even more unpalatable, most of these overdose deaths happened to users who were unaware their product was laced with lethal illegal fentanyl.
Despite the inevitable criticism Trump will attract from the left and some on the right, these facts alone should justify the use of extreme force to protect the safety and security of the American people.
MADURO AND THE ‘DONROE DOCTRINE’
Coming on the heels of the precision strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, this high-risk, high-reward capture of a glorified drug lord indicted in a U.S. court sends an unambiguous message to bad actors around the world who threaten American sovereignty. With Maduro gone, China, Russia, and Iran, in particular, plus the failed communist state of Cuba, will no longer find safe haven in Venezuela. They will no longer be able to continue using it as a base of operations to spread their influence in our backyard, i.e. the western hemisphere.
That brings us to the Monroe Doctrine, adopted by the fifth U.S. president, James Monroe, in 1823, which Trump updated to the “Donroe Doctrine” during his news conference on Saturday. It established a U.S. policy of non-intervention in European affairs in exchange for reciprocal European non-interference in the Americas, including the U.S. as well as Central and South America, essentially closing off further colonization from the eastern hemisphere.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, President John F. Kennedy experienced the most dramatic example of the necessity of the doctrine. With Soviet nuclear facilities being assembled in Cuba, just 90 miles from the coast of Florida, he faced down and subdued the most clear and present danger to American security in our 250-year history. But in reluctantly complying with the terms of the Monroe Doctrine, Kennedy agreed to remove American missiles from along the Soviet border in Turkey.
While Trump sang the praises of the seemingly perfectly executed mission, he raised many an eyebrow when he declared that the U.S. will take charge of an as-yet-undetermined transition to a popular government in Venezuela, leaving wide open the country’s path back to normalcy.
It was equally surprising that Trump said he does not believe Maria Corina Machado, who defeated Maduro by an enormous margin in the country’s last democratic election before Maduro discarded the results, does not have sufficient “support or respect” among Venezuelans to simply fly home and assume the reins of power.
The president might believe what he said, but in reality, his statement could well be designed to send the signal that the U.S. will not be in the business of hand-picking Maduro’s successor, which would be a bad look on the world stage.
Indeed, the president was clear that this is not a ground war of the kind we conducted in Iraq, but a highly limited incursion fixed on a single target. It was designed as a one-and-done, though more force may yet be required to subdue Maduro’s allies, many in the military high command, who became filthy rich with drug profits as the Venezuelan economy fell into hyperinflationary ruin.
Trump spoke extensively about recapturing the country’s oil industry, built by Americans and seized by Maduro, and the billions of dollars it should produce to pay for our presence there during the upcoming transition. One way or the other, it certainly seems likely that the transition to a legitimate government in Venezuela will be created through new democratic elections, with the pro-American Machado well positioned to capture the presidency she was previously denied.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
President Trump has employed Herculean measures to stop the supply of deadly illegal narcotics that were flowing freely into the country during the Biden era, from closing the border to his interdictions on the sea and in the air around Venezuela. But that is just one side of the equation in what many have called America’s drug epidemic. Supply can be reduced dramatically, and deaths can be prevented, but that does little to affect demand. Until the many millions of Americans who use or are addicted to hard drugs turn away from these dangerous intoxicants, ruthless and sophisticated drug cartels of the kind run by Maduro will eventually figure out new ways to re-establish their lethal supply chains.
Remember the “TACO” label leftists tried to pin on Trump? It meant “Trump always chickens out.” After the precision strike in Iran and now this equally perilous and successful mission, that insult can safely be discarded in the ash heap of history. While millions of Venezuelans who fled their homeland during Maduro’s ruinous regime are celebrating and may now dream of returning home, the fallen dictator just discovered, like the mullahs in Iran, that Trump doesn’t bluff when it comes to protecting American citizens. Another military intervention in a foreign land and potential escalation of the conflict rightly concern war-weary Americans. But Trump has always been clear that, while he will go to untold lengths to protect the country, he is entirely opposed to American-enforced regime change. In the end, though, ask yourself just one present and fundamental question: Like the demolition of Iran’s nuclear program, is this country and the world a safer place with the Venezuelan dictator removed from power?
Tim Donner is a senior political analyst for Liberty Nation. Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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