Trump’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ Moment |
The American empire has known many regime-change wars, almost all of them disastrous. Donald Trump belongs to a proud tradition now: intervening recklessly and catastrophically in the affairs of a foreign nation, and unleashing the kind of chaos that has no discernible end point, assuming he is halfway serious about following through on his stated goals.
Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, has arrived with his wife in New York, captured and ready, at some point, to be tried by the U.S. Justice Department. Trump and his Republican sycophants have brayed about the operation, claiming absolute victory for toppling Maduro and speeding him out of the country. There are stray echoes of George W. Bush’s celebration in the weeks after his 2003 invasion of Iraq — “Mission Accomplished” — a sense that, like a film, there will be a time when the credits roll and everyone can lope on home. This is how our mad-king president has always perceived reality, and it’s clear he was enthralled by the airstrikes and CIA espionage, how buildings exploded, troops swooped in, and a nation’s dictator was humbled. At least 40 Venezuelans, a mix of military personnel and civilians, have been killed.
Maduro is not worth defending — he’s an autocrat who has immiserated his people — but this does not mean what Trump did was remotely justifiable. The world is littered with autocrats. Whatever illusions of international law that are left a quarter way through the 21st century are gone. China must look at Trump with some envy; why not swarm tomorrow and take Taiwan for good? As