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Venezuela

Not really... depends on the stakes and how the action has been framed. The stakes for this operation were significantly higher than, say, a convoy escort mission during OIF. If the convoy gets blown up by an IED, people will shrug because it's a common occurrence that bears no real impact to the outcome of the war. It won't make the news. In contrast, if an American aircraft had gone down in Venezuela, it would have determined the outcome of the operation, and been a huge deal with political consequences and significant public interest.
Fair enough…but to the individuals in that OIF convoy the stakes were equal to those of the Venezuela op.
 
Fair enough…but to the individuals in that OIF convoy the stakes were equal to those of the Venezuela op.
Sure, but we're not making policy based on individual stakes. If we did that, no country would ever go to war. Individual stakes only carry real significance if they are directly tied to national level outcomes.
 
We flew with impunity over Mogadishu until a magic bullet brought down a helicopter and turned what had been become regular ops into a shit show that change the course of our interaction in Somalia. This could’ve been more like that I think.
So events not unique to the Venezuela operation, right?
 
We flew with impunity over Mogadishu until a magic bullet brought down a helicopter and turned what had been become regular ops into a shit show that change the course of our interaction in Somalia. This could’ve been more like that I think.
Probably with a little less bodies being dragged through the streets and a little more Hanoi Hilton televised interviews. Plus a diplomatic shitshow that would’ve ensued. Not sure POTUS or his advisors would’ve kept the fingers off the trigger with an embarrassment of that nature and subsequently doubled down.
 
Despite a few helicopters getting roughed up, the raid displays some excellent planning. Military experts are stunned at how easily the CHICAP supplied air defense system was carved up to a point that even Taiwanese commentators are piling on. There was nothing easy about this operation, but it is a wonderful example of exceptional staff work and operational execution.

 
So events not unique to the Venezuela operation, right?
I’m celebrating the execution, but I’d say it was a cross between the worst of Bin Laden and Mogadishu risk-wise. Flying into a sovereign country that was kind of expecting it, and primed to shoot you down.

And the payoff, arresting a country’s leader for drug charges when you just pardoned another country’s former leader of drug charges.
 
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