Thanks, Elly.
Shanaka Anslem Perera
In the early hours of January 3, 2026, reports indicate that EA-18G Growler jamming pods activated somewhere over the Caribbean. What happened in the minutes that followed will be studied in war colleges for the next century. What it means will reshape global strategy for the next generation.
The capture of Nicolás Maduro represents far more than the removal of a narco-dictator. It represents the crystallization of a new doctrine of American power that the world has not seen since the height of the Cold War. It represents the categorical humiliation of Russian military technology and Chinese strategic investment. It represents the final answer to the question that has haunted international relations since the disastrous withdrawals from Kabul: Does America still have the will to act?
The answer arrived on rotors in the darkness above Caracas.
To understand why this operation constitutes perhaps the most significant geopolitical event since the fall of the Berlin Wall, one must first understand what actually happened, then understand what it means, and finally understand what comes next. The implications cascade across every domain of international relations: from the credibility of Russian arms exports to the viability of Chinese Belt and Road investments, from the legal architecture of American power projection to the very definition of sovereignty in the twenty-first century, from the future of the Iranian regime to the calculus of every dictator who believed great power patronage could shield them from American justice.
This is not merely the story of how Delta Force captured a dictator with zero American casualties. This is the story of how a second Trump administration, dismissed by European capitals and mocked by the foreign policy establishment, executed the most decisive assertion of American hemispheric dominance since Theodore Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet around the world. And it is the story of how that assertion sent a message that reverberated not just through Caracas and Moscow and Beijing, but through Tehran, where the regime that has defied American pressure for four decades now confronts the question: Are we next?
The chattering classes will debate the legality for years. The historians will argue about proportional
ity for decades. But the dictators of the world understood the message instantly.
The United States is back. And it is not asking for permission.
Continue reading …
Shanaka Anslem Perera
In the early hours of January 3, 2026, reports indicate that EA-18G Growler jamming pods activated somewhere over the Caribbean. What happened in the minutes that followed will be studied in war colleges for the next century. What it means will reshape global strategy for the next generation.
The capture of Nicolás Maduro represents far more than the removal of a narco-dictator. It represents the crystallization of a new doctrine of American power that the world has not seen since the height of the Cold War. It represents the categorical humiliation of Russian military technology and Chinese strategic investment. It represents the final answer to the question that has haunted international relations since the disastrous withdrawals from Kabul: Does America still have the will to act?
The answer arrived on rotors in the darkness above Caracas.
To understand why this operation constitutes perhaps the most significant geopolitical event since the fall of the Berlin Wall, one must first understand what actually happened, then understand what it means, and finally understand what comes next. The implications cascade across every domain of international relations: from the credibility of Russian arms exports to the viability of Chinese Belt and Road investments, from the legal architecture of American power projection to the very definition of sovereignty in the twenty-first century, from the future of the Iranian regime to the calculus of every dictator who believed great power patronage could shield them from American justice.
This is not merely the story of how Delta Force captured a dictator with zero American casualties. This is the story of how a second Trump administration, dismissed by European capitals and mocked by the foreign policy establishment, executed the most decisive assertion of American hemispheric dominance since Theodore Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet around the world. And it is the story of how that assertion sent a message that reverberated not just through Caracas and Moscow and Beijing, but through Tehran, where the regime that has defied American pressure for four decades now confronts the question: Are we next?
The chattering classes will debate the legality for years. The historians will argue about proportional
ity for decades. But the dictators of the world understood the message instantly.
The United States is back. And it is not asking for permission.
Continue reading …
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