Trump's Venezuela Punitive Expedition

President Donald Trump has given Venezuelan dictator and cartel kingpin Nicolas Maduro a harsh warning: Resign Venezuela's sham presidency and vacate the country, or face U.S. military might.

Trump's usual critics fume and cry foul. Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth argue they are fighting a 21st-century counterterror war and are acting to repel at least three slow but deadly invasions: 1) a smuggling invasion of deadly drugs killing millions of Americans; 2) organized foreign gangsters who commit heinous crimes (and may serve as "sleeper" terrorists and assassins); and 3) of millions of unvetted illegal immigrants whose welfare demands bankrupt America's social safety net.

In a column written in August 2025, I noted that in this century's first decade, Communist China began subtly transforming Latin American drug trafficking syndicates into "hybrid warfare" organizations. The evolved cartels, their Beijing connections hazy and obscure, have become proxy armies waging plausibly deniable criminal-anarchic and chemical war against Americans on American soil.

The goal? Undermining American political will and sapping American wealth. This warfare has a name: disintegrative warfare. In a disintegrative war, a "unitary belligerent becomes increasingly fragmented by secessions."

Turning U.S. cities into anarchic hells attacks American political cohesiveness and economic productivity. Killer drugs like fentanyl are chemical weapons. From 2020 to 2024, approximately 600,000 Americans died of drug overdoses. That's roughly equivalent to U.S. military deaths in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Communist China was and remains the world's primary source of fentanyl.

Since August, with Venezuela the first target, the Trump administration has made it clear it is committed to fighting and defeating disintegrative war on the U.S.

Maduro accuses the U.S. of imperialism, but he's a regional aggressor. Like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, Maduro routinely threatens neighbors with invasion and annexation, especially Guyana. Maduro's biggest threat, however, is to the Venezuelan people. He has driven millions into exile, then seized their properties. He has stolen two elections -- from Juan Guaido in 2019 and Edmundo Gonzalez in 2024. International observers contend Guaido and Gonzalez defeated Maduro, but Maduro and his military ignored the ballots.

Rubio continually reminds Beltway media that the Trump administration is using a "whole of government" approach to confronting Maduro and his socialist dictatorship.

The acronym DIME is the quickest way to summarize utilizing "whole of government" power. DIME: "Diplomatic," "Information," "Military" and "Economic" power. When "policy is working," diplomacy, economic interests, military power and information power (both the ability to communicate and to gather intelligence) complement one another. With synergy, the sum is greater than the parts.

Media concentrate on the M because aircraft carriers, B-52 bombers and special operations helicopters make superb video segments. Indeed, as this month begins, we witness the largest contingent of U.S. combat forces in the Caribbean basin since the 1994-1995 Cuban migrant crisis (ignited by Fidel Castro, a hero of Chavez and Maduro).

The Venezuelan military is the heart of Venezuela's Chavista socialist regime. Venezuela's senior military officers belong to a drug cartel that has existed since the mid-1990s, the Cartel of the Suns (CDLS). The military also oppresses the population and controls the oil fields.

So the U.S. military's M must play a major role by confronting the Maduro/CDLS regime with more firepower than it can possibly survive. Attacks on drug-carrying boats and the Pentagon-provided drone videos of those attacks (Military and Information components in DIME) tell CDLS criminals they are targets of lethal attacks. What can the gangsters do? Rubio's suggestion: Encourage Maduro to leave.

Does the Trump administration need to declare war to conduct this operation?

The Pershing Punitive Expedition (also called the Pancho Villa Expedition) provides an instructive example of Washington using U.S. military power to punish deadly attacks on American citizens and the criminal violation of U.S. borders.

On March 9, 1916, Pancho Villa and his rebel force attacked Columbus, New Mexico, and killed 18 Americans. The U.S. garrison repelled the attack, but the assault sparked a nationwide demand for Villa's arrest. Gen. Frederick Funston argued Villa used the U.S.-Mexican border as a "shelter." President Woodrow Wilson (a Democrat) subsequently ordered the Army to organize a punitive force and pursue Villa in Mexico.

The Army failed to catch Villa. That noted, the 11-month-long military expedition (March 1916 to February 1917) involved some 14,000 U.S. Army regulars and a small air squadron operating deep inside foreign territory. In 1916, the Army had around 110,000 regular soldiers. The expedition to punish and stop deadly attacks on U.S. territory (and, in the process, curb border crime) involved around 12% of the Army's professional troops -- a huge military commitment, without a declaration of war.

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To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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