In the early morning hours of the third of January, a flight of U.S. military helicopters made a rapid descent into Caracas, Venezuela. Their arrival at the compound of Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro was revealed only three minutes earlier by precision bombs falling from B1 bombers from Dyess Air Force base in Abilene, Texas. Attack helicopters providing aerial cover returned fire from hostile ground units while commandos of Delta Force breached the compound and helped FBI agents take Maduro and his wife, both of whom had been earlier indicted, into custody. The successful operation (Absolute Resolve) which involved over 150 fighter jets, bombers, refuelers, troop transport, and rotary wing aircraft was over in a little more than four hours. The debate as to whether this operation should be commended or condemned will continue much longer.
With its startling success, Absolute Resolve is by any measure another amazing operational victory by the men and women of our United States military. Regardless of your political leaning, we can all be thankful and proud that the shield of protection every American citizen lives his or her life under, is an uncompromising guarantee. However, no sooner than Maduro had been taken into custody did the web of legal entanglement flourish from the opposition. There is nothing wrong with that debate, but it should be grounded in fact and substantiated by precedent. Senator Tim Kaine, a vocal and prominent democrat, along with others, decry the lack of prior congressional notification of the mission to arrest Maduro. In his criticism, however, Kaine makes no mention of a similar action taken by the United States in 1990 against the country of Panama. This was ordered by President George H.W. Bush to affect the arrest of General Manuel Noriega in a very similar scenario under very similar conditions. Neither does Kaine refer to the CIA assassination of a US citizen in a foreign country ordered by President Barack Obama. In August of 1995, President Bill Clinton ordered air strikes in the Bosnian war without the approval of the full Congress. The mission to Venezuela had been planned and scheduled for early November. It was delayed for a considerable time due to weather. Had Trump notified Congress prior to the original schedule, all surprise would have been lost, and in all probability, the mission would have failed.
Nicholas Maduro came to power in a fraudulent time when a once prosperous Venezuela had become victim to corruption, graft and financial default. He filled his prisons with Venezuelans that were never heard from again. His regime seized land and personal property and turned Venezuela’s oil industry into his personal finance arm supporting an international narcotics export empire that included human trafficking, as well as supplying major amounts of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl to the United States and Europe. Maduro had close ties with the countries of Iran, China and Russia. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Maduro was in the process of strengthening these ties. He was the primary supplier of oil for Cuba which will now face serious shortages. One thing is undeniable. His reckless time in power has created a dangerous pool of poison in the Western Hemisphere. To ignore that is reckless in itself. The action President Trump has taken will take time to breed success or failure. The motives for the action will be villainized, as well as lionized. That is to be expected when Donald Trump is involved. Many comments will be offered on either side, most justified, but perhaps the final consideration as to the fidelity of this undertaking will be revealed in the hearts and souls of the Venezuelan people when and if they again live in a country free of oppression and grounded in democracy. It is a difficult question. What is your answer?
