There have been two parts to the political world's reaction to the American operation that deposed and captured Nicolas Maduro. The first part was to marvel at what Brit Hume called the "extraordinary level of skill, technology and daring" on the part of American forces and leadership. Hume noted that the U.S. performance, when considered alongside the flawless attack on Iran's nuclear program, sent to the world "precisely the opposite signal from that sent by the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan."

The second reaction emerged after President Donald Trump's press conference announcing the action. "We're going to run [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump said. "So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition."

With that, much of the attention to the Venezuela matter turned away from the military and intelligence aspects of the operation to a simple and absolutely vital question: What did Trump mean by "run"?

The president explained to some degree but still left a lot of questions. A reporter asked, "What is the mechanism by which you're going to run the country? Are you going to designate U.S. officials to coordinate?" "Yes," answered Trump. "It's all being done right now. We're designating people. We're talking to people. ... We're going to let you know who those people are." When........

© Townhall