If you’re feeling contradictory about all of this … join the crowd. I look at what unfolded in Venezuela, and frankly, I feel some contradictions. On the one hand, you know, I’ve reported in Venezuela and Nicolás Maduro was a dictator. He was oppressive. He mismanaged the economy. He was a disaster for Venezuela and for the entire region. There are approximately 7.9 million refugees who fled Venezuela going to Colombia, to other countries, you know, impoverished in a country that has so much oil wealth, because of mismanagement there. Venezuela and the entire region would be much better off with Maduro out if he is replaced by somebody better. Yet, at the same time, if we’re going to question Maduro’s legitimacy, as we should — look, he appears to have lost the last presidential election — we also have to look at the legitimacy of the U.S. operation to remove him. And there are serious doubts about the legality of that. Right now, I’m talking to you from Taiwan where one has to wonder whether Xi Jinping and China will look at operations like this and think, “Well, if the U.S. can do that in Venezuela, then why can’t I do that in Taiwan?” So, you know, we have to look at that precedent. We have to look at the legality of what we have done. And then we have to look at the practical impact of this. If Maduro could be replaced in Venezuela by a democratic government that could manage the economy well, that would be great for Venezuela. But note that the Venezuelan vice president is still there. The Cubans who surround Maduro appear to still be there. So it’s not clear that the regime has been overthrown at all. In fact, it seems to still be in place even if Maduro himself is gone. And I think we should also remember that we have some experience in helping remove dictators, including in Iraq and in Libya, and finding that it is a lot easier to topple a dictator than to institute a democratic populist government in its place. Look, I think it’s worth celebrating the ouster of a harsh dictator. I think it’s important to raise serious questions about how that was done. I think it’s important to yearn for a better Venezuela and yet hold realistic doubts about whether today’s operation will actually accomplish that.
