First the victory: the US military executed a splendid operation in Venezuela, capturing Maduro and his wife in an operation that was prepared over several months but actively lasted only about two and a half hours. It caused only about 40 casualties, most of them among Maduro’s bodyguards. It was the kind of operation that the Russian Army tried but was unable to execute against Zelensky in Ukraine. The Chinese may dream about such an action with respect to Taiwan but, at least until now, have not dared to try it with their plodding “people’s army”. The US army is simply the best fighting force in the world, and nobody else comes close.
Now to the defeat: Trump could not simply accept this victory and turn it into a political win as well. If he had publicly congratulated the US forces, announced that it was a win for the Venezuelan people who had been cheated by the corrupt Maduro regime out of their win in the last election and that the US would work along with whatever new government the Venezuelan people would elect, he could have added a political win to the military one. But no, he had to brag that the US was going to “run Venezuela for the foreseeable future” and take the Venezuelan oil. His rich buddies already set up corporations and investment groups to start looting Venezuela’s natural resources under the protection of the US army that will be running Venezuela for quite some time.
This makes it obvious, that fighting drugs was only a pre-text, it was all about the oil all the time. Venezuela produces mainly cocaine, primarily for the European market. Only a small fraction of the drugs produced in Venezuela makes it to the US. Claiming that the US military actions in central America, from bombing small vessels to now this strike on Caracas were about battling narco-terrorism is extremely hypocritical. When you furthermore consider that Trump just recently pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras and the only leader of a central American government that was actually convicted to a 40-year prison term in the US for, in his own words, “stuffing millions of tons of cocaine up America’s noses”, the hypocrisy becomes even more obvious.
On the brighter side for Maduro, the Hernandez precedent must give him hope that some day he may also receive a Trump pardon, if his friends find ways of sufficiently line the pockets of the corrupt Trump clan and their friends.
With his actions and words Trump has turned what could have been a victory for the US into an international political defeat. That Russia, China and the few allies they have would denounce the US strike was to be expected. But virtually every other country, from South America to Europe to Asia, has criticized the US action. The rest of the World is shocked by the brazen way the US has violated international law and norms. It is a clear sign that Trump may have gone too far. Trump has revealed the ugly side of US power, the “jingoism” hat the late Senator Fulbright criticized in his 1966 book “The Arrogance of Power.” He has set a dangerous precedent that Russia and China may attempt to follow.