Early Saturday morning, the Trump administration demonstrated that it could, with enough preparation, potentially kidnap or kill just about any leader that it wants. Turning that power into effective control over how foreign countries govern themselves is a much rougher test.

The raid on Caracas was an unsettling demonstration of the effectiveness of U.S. air and sea power. With no American casualties and no significant damage to equipment, U.S. air and special forces assets were able to crack open Venezuelan air defenses and abscond with President Nicolás Maduro.

Early Saturday morning, the Trump administration demonstrated that it could, with enough preparation, potentially kidnap or kill just about any leader that it wants. Turning that power into effective control over how foreign countries govern themselves is a much rougher test.

The raid on Caracas was an unsettling demonstration of the effectiveness of U.S. air and sea power. With no American casualties and no significant damage to equipment, U.S. air and special forces assets were able to crack open Venezuelan air defenses and abscond with President Nicolás Maduro.

While Venezuela’s Russian- and Chinese-made air defenses aren’t quite state-of-the-art, they are formidable enough that they were

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