More intervention is called for, not less |
Those of us persistently critical of Donald Trump should acknowledge when he gets something right. In the case of the operation to extract Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela, he got it not just right but about as right as a commander-in-chief can get.
There is obviously a great deal yet to be determined for a post-Maduro Venezuela, and way too much typical Trumpian chest-beating and crowing in the aftermath, but all of that is outweighed in a big-picture sense by Maduro's toppling and the manner in which it was executed — far more important than whatever particular interests were at stake in Venezuela was our interest in sending a message to despots around the world that we know where they are at all times and won't hesitate to do to them what we just did to the Venezuelan communist/drug kingpin.
There is nothing bad that can come from sending such a message to our unsavory adversaries, whose close cooperation with each other stems only from an awareness of their shared unsavoriness.
Put differently, far more important than the impact of the removal of Maduro for Venezuela is the extent to which it encourages enemies in places like Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, Havana, and Tehran to step more lightly and fearfully.
In Gerard Baker's words in The Wall Street Journal, "The Maduro grab was a superbly executed act of strategic opportunism that removed a........