Last night, I actually had the thought that I would have a news free / tech free Saturday.

Then I wake up to the news of military strikes in Venezuela and the arrest of Maduro.

No new wars.

No regime change.

Unless we any it.

And so the cycle continues…

On the substance of it, I am relatively indifferent. Is Maduro a criminal? Yes. Ok. Now what?

The first question I have is does this require congressional approval? Strikes on boats in international waters is one thing. Military strikes in a foreign country and arresting their president, taking him into custody, is quite another. Even the defense that “other presidents have done the same without congressional approval” fails as an analogy, because this strike involves taking a foreign President into custody. At least with Iraq, Congress first passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution.

Also, this is one heck of a precedent to set. I think many countries would love to do the same two other countries’ leaders.

The second question I have is, what now?

The argument some people (or bots 😂) are raising on Twitter is that this was not a military strike or regime change, but a law enforcement exercise. OK, what now? Practically speaking, a country is now without a president. What is the next step?

People often abuse of the expression “this is just a distraction”. The expression is overused, but if it ever had application, it is now. Nothing distracts from crisis at home like military strikes abroad. Just ask Slick Willie…

I have a bad feeling this is a turning point, and one of no return.

Seeing former proponents of “no new wars” and “no regime change” suddenly turn into cheerleaders for war and regime change feels like the scene from 1984 - when the crowd suddenly and instantly cheers on the new script for the speech as though it had been the original script for the speech all along.

Seeing the specious arguments that people are raising… "America goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy."

“well, 74,000 deaths a year from fentanyl says otherwise” say the buffoons who don’t understand Venezuela has virtually nothing to do with fentanyl in America. If that is the rationale, you would want to arrest the Canadian Liberal government.

This is not a fear hiding a wish, just an outright fear: I fear this is a point of no return for this administration.

I fear it is the end of any populist movement. People will just give up, if they haven’t already.

I fear this is the worst and least thought out decision this administration has ever made.

I don’t know how long it takes to see an influx of refugees, but that is what I would expect next. A country collapsing even further, and the predictable mass exodus of people looking to escape the consequences of foreign intervention in their domestic government.

Or maybe it works out, and in a year or two or five, we look back and admit the foresight of the decision for yet more regime change abroad.

I guess it’s possible. It just hasn’t played out that way in the past. Maybe this time will be different. cough