This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible’s list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor

Text originally published January 3, 2026.

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The kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife solidifies America’s role as a gangster state. Violence does not generate peace. It generates violence. The immolation of international and humanitarian law, as the U.S. and Israel have done in Gaza, and as took place in Caracas, generates a world without laws, a world of failed states, warlords, rogue imperial powers and perpetual violence and chaos. If there is one lesson we should have learned in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, it is that regime change spawns Frankensteinian monsters of our own creation. The Venezuelan military and security forces will no more accept the kidnapping of their president and U.S. domination – done as in Iraq to seize vast oil reserves -- than the Iraqi security forces and military or the Taliban. This will not go well for anyone, including the U.S.

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Photos

TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-GAZA

TOPSHOT - This picture taken from a position on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, shows the sun setting behind destroyed buildings in the Palestinian territory, on July 1, 2025. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. Forces In Afghanistan On Anti-Taliban Operation Mountain Thrust

DEH AFGHAN, AFGHANISTAN - JUNE 22: American soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division deploy to fight Taliban fighters as part of Operation Mountain Thrust to a U.S. base near the village of Deh Afghan on June 22, 2006 in the Zabul province of Afghanistan. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-IRAQ-CONFLICT-DIYALA

TOPSHOT - Iraqi government forces celebrate while holding an Islamis Sate (IS) group flag after they claimed they have gained complete control of the Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, on January 26, 2015 near the town of Muqdadiyah. (Photo by YOUNIS AL-BAYATI / AFP) (Photo by YOUNIS AL-BAYATI/AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-VENEZUELA-ARMY-PARADE-REHEARSAL

TOPSHOT - Soldiers of the Venezuelan Army march during a rehearsal parade within the framework of the Independence Day celebrations at the Fort Tiuna in Caracas on July 3, 2023. (Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP) (Photo by FEDERICO PARRA/AFP via Getty Images)

IRAQ-ARMY DAY

Iraqi soldiers march in a military parade marking the 79th anniversary of the foundation of the Iraqi army in Baghdad 6 January 2000. Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein said in his Army Day speech, his first in five months, that the nine year UN embargo against his country was crumbling in the face of “resistance” as his officials launched a fresh diplomatic offensive across the world to win support for Baghdad’s defiance. (Photo by KARIM SAHIB / AFP) (Photo by KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Civilians Flee Basra

BASRA, IRAQ - MARCH 29: As oil fires burn in the distance, a man covers his face near the entrance to the besieged city of Basra March 29, 2003 in Iraq. Baath Party loyalists have taken up positions in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, making it a target of the U.S.-led war on Iraq. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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