Who Will Run the Country?

Since 2001, the US has shown incredible military prowess in removing regimes -- and very little ability to ensure stability afterwards. Are we about the repeat this failure in Venezuela

Watching President Donald Trump’s press conference this morning, I was reminded of a question President George W. Bush asked three days before the US invasion of Afghanistan: “Who will run the country?”

Unlike Bush, Trump came prepared with an answer: “we are going to run the country now.” But that raises another question: How?

Since 2001, the United States military has demonstrated its extraordinary ability to use military force to remove despicable leaders from power. It did so in Afghanistan in 2001, in Iraq in 2003, through NATO in Libya in 2011. And now in Venezuela in 2026. But in all these earlier cases, the aftermath proved messy, costly, and ultimately unsuccessful. In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime that was toppled in 2001 now rules the country. In Iraq, a deadly insurgency and growing Iranian influence followed the toppling of Saddam Hussein. In Libya, Muammar Qaddafi’s killing set the stage for a decade of civil war.

Will things going any better in Venezuela? Trump’s press conference doesn’t provide much confidence that it will.