All the global benefits Trump reaped by grabbing Maduro |
A certain class of analyst purported to be scandalized by the American night raid on Venezuela that snatched away strongman Nicolás Maduro and his wife. By ordering the attack on a weak hostile nation, these people claimed, President Trump has given permission to every global bad actor to misbehave.
China has been given a green light to invade Taiwan. Russia is finally free to trespass on … I don’t know, maybe Ukraine?
Even by today’s declining standards, that line of analysis is pathetically shallow.
Neither Xi Jinping nor Vladimir Putin look to the US for permission. The opposite is closer to the truth: They wish to make trouble and undermine the hegemonic power.
Russia assaulted Ukraine and China conducted naval exercises in Taiwanese territorial waters, all without filling out the White House’s “Permission to Invade” form.
What will be the lesson, for Xi and Putin, of the Great Venezuela Raid?
I would think it’s this: that Trump will run enormous risks to protect American interests.
I leave it to the intelligent reader to reflect whether this will encourage or discourage rash adventures.
Trump has no wish to carve up the world like an apple into spheres of influence, in which China, Russia and the US can plunder smaller nations at will.
His meddling in conflicts in Africa and Asia is proof of that — and anyone who has observed Trump for longer than half a minute will know he doesn’t set boundaries on his actions.
In reality, Trump’s style in geopolitical gamesmanship is without precedent, at least in my experience.
In any given theater, he looks for the tactical strike that will utterly alter the strategic landscape to our country’s advantage.
After allowing the Israelis to plow and seed the field in Iran, Trump harvested a strategic victory by dropping bunker-busting bombs on the regime’s nuclear facilities. From that moment, events in the Middle East tilted in our direction — and the negative consequences for Iran continue to multiply as I write........