The U.S. attack on Venezuela, much like its attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities last summer, was an operational masterstroke that undermines China, Russia, and Iran. It may undermine deterrence. America’s adversaries may conclude that the Trump Doctrine, which has now been employed twice, means the U.S. acts with decision only when the United States faces a sufficiently vulnerable enemy, and only if it can fulfill specific operational criteria. China, in particular, may assume it can simply present too thorny a target for American power to crack. The solution is for the Trump administration to move beyond tailored strikes and to wage a large-scale effort against America’s enemies through economic, intelligence, and alliance means.
The raid that captured Venezuelan narco-terrorist-in-chief Maduro was an instance of spectacular planning. Only the United States could have conducted Operation ABSOLUTE RESOLVE. The U.S. used technical means and high-end human intelligence sources from a clandestine team inserted into Venezuela months before the strikes to build a detailed picture of Maduro’s daily habits. It combined this with a likely offensive cyber effort that disabled Venezuelan electricity just as the operation began. In turn, U.S. carrier aviation and aircraft deployed from the American homeland simultaneously jammed and attacked Venezuelan radars and air defense systems, creating a corridor for U.S. Delta Force operators to insert into Caracas, capture Maduro and his wife, and extract him within 30 minutes. Some luck was involved, of course, with one helicopter taking damage from low-level anti-air fire. But any threat that Venezuelan defenses posed was mitigated to the greatest possible extent.
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