Overseas Military Intervention

Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, has been arrested by U.S. special forces and sent to a prison in Brooklyn, New York. Many people have criticized this action, and their criticism should not be viewed as support for or protection of Maduro. Such a view is a classic slippery slope fallacy, much like claiming, "Oh, if you are against police brutality, you must be against law and order."

The question is never whether Maduro is a criminal. He is undoubtedly a dictator who has committed numerous crimes, and the U.S. had a warrant for his arrest long before "Trump 2.0." The real question is: should we, and can we, simply send armed forces to another nation to arrest its president?

This was certainly an act of war rather than just a "special military operation." Consider the opposite scenario: if Maduro had sent troops to Washington, D.C., bombed our capital, killed over 100 Americans, and arrested the U.S. President to take him back to Venezuela, the United States would undoubtedly go to full-scale war and fight back immediately.

This was definitely an invasion, yet war was never declared and Congress was not notified. Congress holds the power to declare war, and no military operation against Venezuela had been approved. The majority of people opposing this are not supporting Maduro; they are supporting constitutional process.

Furthermore, we were lucky this time because there is no such thing as a 100% guaranteed victory. This was a highly sophisticated invasion, and if it had gone wrong, it could have easily turned into a disaster like the Battle of Mogadishu, resulting in hundreds of U.S. troops being injured or killed.

Overseas military interventions should be carefully planned and follow well-established processes instead of occurring simply because a president gives an order to arrest another country’s leader. Americans are tired of fighting foreign wars, especially after 20 years of prolonged conflict in the Middle East.

There were also many shady details surrounding this operation. First, on the prediction market Polymarket, there was suspicious activity where bettors allegedly used insider information to wager on Maduro's arrest, earning half a million dollars. Second, big oil corporations seemed to be notified of the operation even earlier than Congress.

Ultimately, this seems more like winning a risky gamble in Vegas than a successfully executed, transparent military operation.