The image of Nicolas Maduro, blindfolded and handcuffed aboard a US aircraft carrier, is clearly staged to demonstrate American military prowess. But for the rest of the world, the scene signals something else: the end of the very international order America once claimed to uphold. Despite Washington’s narrative, this was not merely a “law enforcement operation,” but a calculated geopolitical move serving the interests of the US.

The message Trump sends through this operation is unmistakable: the US has shifted its global strategy from maintenance to extraction. The nation that once assumed the mantle of the “Global Policeman” has left the building; the “Global Predator” has arrived.

America’s change of role may seem brutal, but the driving logic is rational. When a superpower can no longer generate value through internal growth, it inevitably turns to external extraction. Consider the $38 trillion US national debt that is mathematically impossible to repay. Washington knows it cannot re-industrialize America any time soon, nor can it indefinitely sustain the financial bubble it has created with Wall Street. No wonder Trump is eyeing the oil in Venezuela—of course, not just to extract value, but to block its connections with emerging economies like China and Russia.

Yet, here comes the irony. Capital craves certainty. It requires a predictable legal framework, stable supply chains, and respected borders to function. But by “normalizing” the abduction of a sovereign head........

© The Spine Times