Even more raid details coming out now.

"U.S. Will Now "Run" Venezuela After Maduro Capture: Trump."

DETAILS

aggiehawg said:

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YouBet said:

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Another reason why Cuba is now on the clock. They were getting heavily discounted oil from VZ. I'm quite sure their regime is ****ting their pants right now and has been on the horn to Russia all night and morning trying to get them to commit more resources.

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Russia won't or can't do squat while we have so many military assets in the area.

And this was not an invasion of VZ eventhough some libs use that terminology. Maduro should be happy he was not taken out by the CIA to a black site for rendition.

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Agreed but that won't stop Cuba from desperately making the call.

About the only thing Russia can do is run some subs in the area which provide nothing in the way of actual resources.

aggiehawg said:

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Just don't follow Paul Bremer's huge mistake in Iraq. Don't fire all of the Baathists that actually ran crap there. Keep those functions (such as they are) going with US oversight. I'll get into post WWII Japan in a minute. But also important to note that the other massive mistake in post Saddam Iraq was the flock of hundreds and hundreds of NSOs going there getting federal handouts from USAID and other federal sources. They just impeded progress creating more problems than they solved.

Now we left Hirohito in place in Japan during the post war occupation. Work more behind the scenes as opposed to a conquering state. We ended the war in the Pacific but did so without taking Japan's land as our own.

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VZ won't have the sectarian violence. We don't need to fire the military and create unemployed pissed off guys. Pay them to keep working. That's the secret.

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Not trying to be that guy, but... the proper terminology is "brumated".

Mammals hibernate. Reptiles brumate.

HTH

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Cuba, you're on deck.

BREAKING:

Trump on Cuba: "The people there have suffered for many years. I think Cuba is something that we'll end up talking about, because they're a badly failing nation."

🇺🇸🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/av0Bldhpzc

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 3, 2026

fullback44 said:

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We need Cuba for a nice vacation place - all the Cubans come to America anyways - just get him too and let's all take our boats to Cuba on the weekends

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A friend of mine's parents escaped from Cuba. He would love this!!!

HoustonAg2106 said:

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techno-ag said:

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Ed Harley said:

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Can't wait to be "running another country." Isn't this exactly what Trumpers voted against?

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Wow Debbie Downers here. Let's celebrate the win. Or are you pro-socialist and upset he won something?

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Being against socialism doesn't mean you are pro launching an assault on socialist countries who have not posed a threat to us

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You guys are being ridiculous about this.

Former Vice President and now Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez addresses the nation, calling for calm and the immediate release of Nicolás Maduro and his wife by the United States. pic.twitter.com/zrhRrnrmgi

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 3, 2026

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VZ won't have the sectarian violence. We don't need to fire the military and create unemployed pissed off guys. Pay them to keep working. That's the secret.

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True. It is well known Maduro did not trust his military to protect him so he had Cubans guarding him. (Not that they were of much use last night.)

https://instagr.am/p/DTDHbnDjtEA

annie88 said:

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Congress pulling their bull**** about it being unconstitutional. He didn't tell the Democrats because they would've warned Venezuela and Madero and endangered our troops. They're that ****ing evil.

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They must have forgotten that in Obama's final year, 2016, the U.S. dropped at least 26,171 bombs in seven countries (Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan). That's an avg. of 72 bombs per day.

annie88 said:

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HoustonAg2106 said:

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techno-ag said:

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Ed Harley said:

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Can't wait to be "running another country." Isn't this exactly what Trumpers voted against?

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Wow Debbie Downers here. Let's celebrate the win. Or are you pro-socialist and upset he won something?

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Being against socialism doesn't mean you are pro launching an assault on socialist countries who have not posed a threat to us

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You guys are being ridiculous about this.

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How are we being ridiculous? We voted for a man who ran on no new wars. Now he's talking about Colombia and Cuba being next…where does it end exactly? Should we just run the whole hemisphere? Everyone is acting like this is over and it's just a one night thing, but this is far from over

Just Dance Vance captures Maduro
(Create your own videos with: https://t.co/vpvOfFPvHi )$Pwease#Venezuela #Trump #Maduro #JDVance pic.twitter.com/j0dWHu1prJ

— NostromoCore (@NostromoCore) January 3, 2026

the geopolitical defense of this other than "zomg oil" is pretty simple but you have to by stripping away the lazy framing.

the venezuela-russia-iran-china alignment does not matter because of oil per se. oil is a part of it but not the mechanism. The mechanism is alignment across complementary points of contact that directly stress the US and strengthen options for people who dont like us.

venezuela matters because it has a combination of proximity by geography and sovereignty. on the surface the proximity is the easy issue to point to, but sovereignty is the more important issue. it is inside the US zone of influence that can host or launder actions without crossing a formal threshold of war. russia/china dont need venezuela to project force because they're not realistically going to engage with US domestically. but it is an avenue to project persistence or irritation, and that is materially easier with access to nominally sovereign state in our backyard that the US was notionally constrained from treating as hostile. that irritation is partially in the form of drugs.

venezuela functions as a conversion layer for these countries. the maduro regime reduced geopolitical / market friction and added optionality for the other three. but i think for us the real issue is china, and this is where really where oil by itself becomes too blunt a reason. china does not only need oil, it needs oil outside of US chokepoints and financial control, and that means oil supplied by producers with no alternative buyers. under sanctions venezuela/russia/iran are captive sellers. china converts our sanctions pressure into their own energy security at a discount, which is directly opposed to our interests at this time.

the way things were shaping up venezula stabilized otherwise fragile adversaries and was actually using our leverage against us. the sanctions system is optimized to isolate and then break isolated nodes, so something that reduces that or actually terns it into resilience is long term unacceptable.

Satellite imagery from @vantortech shows significant damage to large sections of the Fuerte Tiuna Military Complex in the southern suburbs of Venezuela’s capital of Caracas, with at least five warehouses totally destroyed in last night’s strike operation by the United States. pic.twitter.com/o3SETjOfg1

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 3, 2026

President Trump yesterday morning: Shopping for tile for the White House ballroom.

President Trump this morning: Orders strikes in Venezuela and captures Maduro.

— Libbey Dean (@LibbeyDean_) January 3, 2026

also what makes me laugh about all this is the whole sovereignty as a shield argument only works under the international rules-based-order which people seem to have forgotten was made up by the united states to control the world without overt empire, and in no way should we ever accept that it constrains us. its a fake rule set we created.

once you get that through your head and realize that at the state level it's pure anarchy tempered only by pragmatism understanding what happens in the world will be a lot simpler.

somehow people in washington drank our own koolaid and think that "international law" is a thing that restricts US sovereignty.

🚨 ÚLTIMO MOMENTO 🚨

Venezolano que estaba transmitiendo en vivo graba el momento exacto donde caen las bombas de EE.UU y explotan sobre caracas

IMÁGENES SENSIBLES #Venezuela #Caracas #Maduro pic.twitter.com/Arx1qrwlt7

— Javier Milei Nashe (@MileiNashe) January 3, 2026

nu awlins ag said:

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fullback44 said:

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We need Cuba for a nice vacation place - all the Cubans come to America anyways - just get him too and let's all take our boats to Cuba on the weekends

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A friend of mine's parents escaped from Cuba. He would love this!!!

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Yes I agree - all the Cubans want their country back, that have wanted this for years. Just get it over with

and one other comment.

when you look at the whole picture, kicking over maduro is about as multilayer 64d chess move you could make geopolitically right now.

it hits china and russia squarely in the nuts while we are operating in our own backyard. we turn more isolationist / western hemisphere focused but also find overlap for all of our serious geopolitical adversaries in one pressure point.

even better when we do it we get to pants russian air defense tech.

We fixed the keg said:

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YouBet said:

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Another reason why Cuba is now on the clock. They were getting heavily discounted oil from VZ. I'm quite sure their regime is ****ting their pants right now and has been on the horn to Russia all night and morning trying to get them to commit more resources.

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Good point. Cuba and Columbia are have to both be highly concerned at the moment.

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This is super great for us in terms of the chicoms. They are very resource poor in terms of oil. The fact that we can cut them off of their Venezuelan oil at the flip of a switch puts a complete monkey wrench in their plans to invade Taiwan. Now if Iran falls, then we have them by the short and curlies, and their chances of invading Taiwan tank. If we can ride them out for about 10 years, they won't be a problem anymore. They are also heavily dependent on food imports, and their water supply is shrinking, and what there is is like drinking from one of the pipes exiting the local Dupont plant. Not to mention their food supply is also super contaminated with pesticides/chemicals, and finally, the Temu-quality vaccine the chicoms made everybody take has destroyed their immune system/national health. They have been dropping like flies for years now. Their population is probably between 500 and 700 million! And the people who have decent health REFUSE to have kids!!! CCP It was nice knowing you!!!

annie88 said:

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HoustonAg2106 said:

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annie88 said:

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HoustonAg2106 said:

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techno-ag said:

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Ed Harley said:

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Can't wait to be "running another country." Isn't this exactly what Trumpers voted against?

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Wow Debbie Downers here. Let's celebrate the win. Or are you pro-socialist and upset he won something?

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Being against socialism doesn't mean you are pro launching an assault on socialist countries who have not posed a threat to us

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You guys are being ridiculous about this.

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How are we being ridiculous? We voted for a man who ran on no new wars. Now he's talking about Colombia and Cuba being next…where does it end exactly? Should we just run the whole hemisphere? Everyone is acting like this is over and it's just a one night thing, but this is far from over

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These aren't wars.

Do you know anything about Cuba or Columbia? The pain and suffering and torture they have placed on their people for decades? Do you see the Venezuela people grateful and happy do you have a ****ing clue?

You are defending pure evil.

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Saying that the celebration excuses our actions is the oldest propaganda in the neocon playbook. How are you not tired of 30 years of this bull**** narrative? All of these examples end in disaster

Zobel said:

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and one other comment.

when you look at the whole picture, kicking over maduro is about as multilayer 64d chess move you could make geopolitically right now.

it hits china and russia squarely in the nuts while we are operating in our own backyard. we turn more isolationist / western hemisphere focused but also find overlap for all of our serious geopolitical adversaries in one pressure point.

even better when we do it we get to pants russian air defense tech.

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Putin now has to fight his war with Ukraine with much lower prices for the oil that...by the way...the handwringing Euroweenies are still currently buying from him.