No Casualties
President Donald Trump evidently likes to start the year off with a bang. Remember back to 3 January 2020? That’s when the Trump administration ordered the drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.
Now, six years later, look what’s happened. The second Trump administration has carried out a large-scale regime-change operation in Venezuela, blowing several sites to smithereens and capturing the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, a left-wing tyrant, and his wife and flying them out of the country. Rumors in Washington were predicting Trump would order the operation before Christmas, but, notes the Spectator US, the president waited until 2026 started before pulling the trigger.
The raid was stunning, a climax to the showdown that had been building for months. Mr. Maduro, according to the WSJ, declined the offer from the U.S. to leave Venezuela peacefully. Donald Trump, for his part, followed through on his threat and ousted the despot. The U.S. President, after choosing the face-off, had to act or lose credibility with the world. Pulling it off without an American casualty was astounding.
Nicolás Maduro will have more than enough time to reflect on how much better his life would have been had he taken Washington’s warnings seriously and slipped into a luxurious exile. Leaders in Cuba and Nicaragua now may feel compelled to retire early and gracefully.
According to Donald Trump:
Mr. Maduro and his wife were headed to New York, where they will face trial for narco-trafficking. But Mr. Maduro’s damage goes well beyond the drug trade. His socialist and authoritarian policies burdened the region with millions of refugees. He flooded the U.S. with migrants … to sow political discord.
Maduro made Venezuela part of the six-country adversary, which included Russia, China, Cuba, and Iran. All played a hand in keeping Maduro in power.
Reverberations
Capturing Maduro establishes Mr. Trump’s promise to keep America’s enemies from spreading chaos in the Western Hemisphere. The Journal calls it the “Trump Corollary” of the Monroe Doctrine. The operation was a dazzling and magnificent act, writes the WSJ, and the competence and resolve that it demonstrated will do more to shore up American power and world peace than all the best speeches President Obama ever made. Despite the Left’s crying that it is unlawful under international law, Maduro’s actions justified Trump’s.
Mr. Maduro stole last year’s presidential election after he lost in a rout. He barred popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from the ballot, and the candidate who took her place won and then went into exile to avoid arrest. The critics want to praise Ms. Machado’s courage while doing nothing to help the Venezuelan people.
How about kvetching that Trump acted without congressional approval?
George H.W. Bush deposed dictator Manuel Noriega in Panama in 1989 without a vote in Congress. Mr. Maduro is a greater threat than Noriega, and Venezuela is at least as important to U.S. security.
Democrats, adds the WSJ, are criticizing Mr. Trump so they can pounce if the operation runs into trouble.
What’s Next?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed Saturday that this was at core a “law enforcement” operation to arrest the Maduros, which sounds like a dodge to avoid saying this is about regime change or a U.S. occupation. But when Mr. Trump offers, “we are going to run the country now,” this means an occupation that requires nation rebuilding for some duration.
Now, Who Are the Neocons?
Trump’s fear, most likely, is that by just snatching the Maduros and leaving Venezuela to fend for itself, it could produce Maduro II.
(The WSJ) won’t be the only ones to say the President owes George W. Bush an apology for his ex post facto criticism of U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Trump is pursuing the Bush freedom agenda, at least in the Western Hemisphere. Are we all neocons now?
Looking to the future, at least the near term, Trump has been guarded. Perhaps this is prudent, suspects the WSJ.
Members of the Maduro military, backed by Cuba, want to run a terrorist insurgency against U.S. forces or advisers in the country.
Marco Rubio’s goal could be persuading a large part of the military to back a new government not run by Maduro’s henchmen.
For freedom and stability in the region, Venezuela needs an election sooner rather than later.
The left has had a 20-year heyday in the Americas that has done great harm to its people and allowed deep inroads by China. A reversal is underway in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia, and a right turn in Venezuela would continue the hopeful trend.
Donald Trump’s willingness is also another step in the revival of U.S. deterrence from its collapse under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, notes the Journal.
The overall message to our adversaries is salutary. If Mr. Trump can succeed in nation-building in Venezuela, the Castro coterie in Cuba may want to start looking for some other place to live.
