By Ira Katz
January 15, 2026
I am not credentialed in any way to comment on Trump's Venezuelan adventure. But I will include incontrovertible facts that I believe are relevant to properly anticipating the after effects of this "triumph" of the moment.
This is a continuation of American/Neocon/MIC/CIA foreign policy. Trump only changes the outward style. It is a real question, as always, who is deciding. Brian Berletic has been convincing on this topic.
While there is nothing functionally new here, there is a potential silver lining of Trump's brazen (think Mob boss) approach is that the rest of the world will have a harder time ignoring the true nature of American foreign policy. It is like during Covid I thought the powers-that-be were perhaps going too far too fast. As a result millions of people have a much better understanding of how those powers-that-be actually operate.
As a function of how many Americans will die in Venezuela (I don't know myself), Republicans are crushed in the elections and Trump is impeached, and even removed from office. The political class in both parties hate him.
It seems all of Trump's political capital is being sucked up in foreign wars. Will there be any possibility of success left for Robert Kennedy and other domestic policies in energy, commerce, social programs, etc. ? Was the Trump/MAGA populist turn in politics a complete mirage?
While the 1-D chess move is to steal oil for the benefit of his backers, there is likely a 2-D geopolitical move intended. As indicated here, "Critics call it regime change. The White House calls it securing America's backyard. When U.S. forces captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro this past weekend, the operation defied easy categorization. It was neither the attempted nation-building that destabilized Iraq and Afghanistan, nor a retreat from the world stage. It was something else: the most dramatic demonstration yet of a foreign policy that strengthens alliances while breaking with adversaries." I have emphasized the phrase America's backyard and will illustrate what this means and what it might portend using Google Maps.
The distance from Miami to Caracas is almost 1400 miles. I will take this to be America's Backyard. I live just outside Paris. The distance from St. Petersburg to Paris is just over 1300 miles. So I suppose I live in Russia's Backyard. The distance from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan is about 120 miles. This is like being in China's house in more ways than distance. These easily known, incontrovertible facts, along with Trump's brazen attitude, will almost force Russia and China to become more aggressive in their own backyards. We now live in a much more dangerous
