Much could still go wrong for the United States following last week’s stunningly successful removal of illegitimate Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
For one, loyalists of the Chavista regime might dig in for the long haul, forcing President Donald Trump to make good on his threat of a second strike more devastating than the first. China, Russia, and Iran, already seething over lost footholds, will surely funnel arms, cash, and propaganda to any holdouts.
To be sure, the American public did not sign up for a prolonged war and will not abide by one. Trump’s America First base would sharpen its knives against him. The same precision and resolve that defined the initial raid must be maintained for the remainder of the larger mission.
Yet, despite the precariousness of the situation, the calculation behind the move remains sound. The strategic benefits of the move outweigh the risks. And the moral basis for intervention is powerful.
First, the moral case. Despite telling a New York judge that he is a “decent man,” Maduro is a full-fledged monster, even for an authoritarian despot. He ordered beatings and killings of political opponents and tortured protesters. His corrupt mismanagement of the Venezuelan economy sparked hyperinflation, food shortages, and mass migration from the country. His ties to drug cartels turned Venezuela into a dangerous narco-state that flooded America’s streets with drugs, empowering some of the most evil and vicious organizations the world over. And in 2024, he rigged the national election to retain power, with evidence revealing that he lost in a landslide.
Maduro is an evil man to his core. He belongs in prison. It is good he is there.
The practical case is even easier to make. For one, the spectacularly efficient operation restored a good deal of American deterrence lost in recent decades. The U.S. performed this mission independently, without aid from allies, and it was a masterclass. It reinforced that America’s military is the greatest in the world, and it is to be respected and feared.
For decades, the world witnessed an American military terribly mismanaged and unable to finish the job, from the Vietnam War to the long slog in Iraq to the shameful Afghanistan withdrawal under Biden. But for the second time in Trump’s second term, the military executed a complex, history-altering mission.
If America’s enemies didn’t understand our capacity to exert our will through force before, they do now. Our fighters turned Venezuela’s $2 billion Russian S-300VM air defense system, thought to be the industry standard, into an expensive paperweight in under 20 minutes.
When the world’s most advanced non-NATO air defense system can be neutralized in the time it takes to watch a Seinfeld rerun, adversaries recalculate. The U.S. is in a stronger global position than it was a week ago. That is beyond doubt.
Speaking of our adversaries, the move evicts them from a critical energy stronghold. With Maduro gone and the U.S. now in charge, China loses its access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves. PetroSinovensa, a partnership between the national oil companies of China, CNPC, and Venezuela, PDVSA, forged during the Chavez regime, develops extra-heavy crude that ships to China to service Venezuela’s sovereign debt. A new pro-U.S. regime will now likely be forced to rethink this arrangement as a matter of survival.
Operation Absolute Resolve knocked Russia down a peg, too. For one, it demonstrated, yet again, that Trump is willing and capable of attacking a Kremlin ally with impunity. That Russia’s missile defense system sputtered only furthers the embarrassment. Russia’s condemnation of the raid as “armed aggression” at the U.N. Security Council, made with a straight face, apparently, reeked of panic.
The move also stands to worsen Russia’s economic woes. Putin relies on oil sales to prosecute his war in Ukraine, and Russia’s economy is sensitive to global oil prices. The United States’s goal to revitalize Venezuela’s oil sector could flood the market and drive down oil prices globally. Diminished oil revenues would significantly hamper Putin’s capacity to continue a war that distracts America, draining its resources.
Other possible benefits could abound. Should Venezuela stabilize and become prosperous, many, if not most, of the migrants who flooded into the U.S. during Biden’s presidency might voluntarily return home. Future outflows will halt, thus resolving the “root causes” of illegal immigration that Kamala Harris never managed to figure out.
THE MILITARY’S STAGGERING COMPETENCE UNDER TRUMP
Finally, a stable and prosperous democratic Venezuela would help rebuild the moral credibility lost during the Iraq War. It would demonstrate that American power can be used not just to dismantle a dictatorship, but also to help foster a self-sustaining democracy in its own hemisphere in a country with a democratic DNA and a desire for self-determination. Linking arms with the most recent Nobel Prize winner, María Corina Machado, will send a strong message to the world about how America really regards dictators.
There is still much to be done. And plenty can, and probably will, go wrong. But Trump’s bold choice is both logical and morally defensible. America should rally around the effort, not only because of what it means for Venezuelans, but also because of what it means for us.