Maybe the U.S. Special Forces action in Venezuela was surgical and impressive, but the politically foundering Trump regime didn’t just bring an ugly wart of a dictator to justice. Far more importantly, it cut the heart out of a rules-based world order based on the national sovereignty protections of the U.N. Charter. As a major founding partner in the United Nations, the United States was always one of the guarantors of those principles. Our country is swiftly becoming one of the bad actors of the Western Hemisphere, the voracious seeker of power and control of our smaller neighbors, much like Russia.
The Venezuela action basically feels like a home invasion, and a possible precursor to a, again, Russia-style grip on government where widespread fear keeps the regime in power and a small country — or the ordinary person — lives at the whim of the state. No longer even pretending to carry out the laws of our country, the Trump outfit is writing its own rules, which spells trouble for you, me and the citizenry everywhere that loves dignity, fairness and peace. If this is allowed to stand, all we love and treasure about our country and its constitutionally embedded principles falls.
Jonathan von Ranson
Wendell