This photo taken on the early morning of Jan. 3, 2026 shows a view of the city of Caracas, capital of Venezuela. [Photo/Xinhua]
With his usual Truth Social bravado, U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a "large-scale strike" against Venezuela. According to his statement, President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were "captured and flown out of the country" in an operation carried out "in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement."
Trump's phrasing is doing a remarkable amount of work. The U.S. military kidnapped a sitting head of state, yet the action is being framed as a cooperative law enforcement operation. This is the logic of lawfare: using the language of criminal justice to recast acts of force as a procedural necessity.
This rhetorical move is not accidental. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Maduro and several senior Venezuelan officials on charges including narco-terrorism and corruption. By foregrounding "law enforcement," the administration seeks to collapse a crucial distinction: Maduro is no longer presented as a sovereign leader but as a fugitive. What might otherwise be recognized as an act of war is reframed as the execution of an arrest, albeit on an international scale.
This script feels familiar because we've seen it before. On this exact day, Jan. 3, back in 1990, the U.S. finished its "police action" against Manuel Noriega in Panama. William Barr, who would later become attorney general under both George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump, wrote a now-infamous memo arguing that the president has the "inherent constitutional authority" to order the abduction of foreign nationals, even if it violates international law.
The irony here is thick enough to clog the Panama Canal. The U.S. is essentially claiming that its domestic law enforcement has global jurisdiction. The FBI and DEA are now the world's bouncers, authorized to kick in the doors of foreign presidential palaces if they happen to have an indictment filed in a D.C. district court.
The perils of this "lawfare" are twofold:
First, it erodes the principle of sovereignty. If a state can simply label another country's leader a criminal to justify intervention, sovereignty ceases to be a meaningful safeguard and becomes little more than a courtesy.
Second, it establishes a precedent that will not remain unilateral. If U.S. courts can be used to legitimize military action abroad, other powers can adopt a similar strategy, issuing their own indictments, warrants and justifications for force against foreign officials.
By framing this strike as a "law enforcement" matter, Trump is attempting to seize the moral and legal high ground before international opposition can fully mobilize. It is an attempt to make the world's most powerful military look like it's just "doing its job" and "following the rules" — rules that the U.S. wrote, interpreted and enforced at the tip of a bayonet.
But no matter how often U.S. officials call it "law enforcement," a large-scale strike on a foreign capital still looks, smells and acts like an act of war.
In the 21st century, the most effective weapon in the U.S. arsenal isn't the Tomahawk missile. It's the legal memo that justifies it.
中新经纬1月11日电 据《华尔街日报》中文网11日报道，据Cognizant Impact周三发布的一份研究报告称，在未来10年内，生成性人工智能对美国经济的影响力将达到惊人的1万亿美元，但这可能会让工人付出代价。 报道称，这项 2024春节档：史上最火，史上最“卷” 羊城晚报记者 李丽 据国家电影局统计数据，2024年春节档总票房80.16亿元，在观影人次、场次和票房3个维度创造影史最高纪录。 过去10年间，看电影逐渐成为中国人过年的新民俗 春节档缘何爆发“撤档潮” 2024年春节档以80亿总票房打破多个纪录，迎来开门红。而8部影片有4部官宣“退档”，也为这个春节档带来了“史上罕见”的标签。一时全网哗然，#我也退出了春节档#、#撤档元年#等成热门话题 龙年春节档的卖相与怪相 龙年春节档迎来尾声。回望春节前夕，无超级大片，多数影片都是熟面孔且不举行首映，观众进影院如开盲盒。以“贾玲减重100斤”为首的各种营销策略铺天盖地袭来，一度让部分观众产生逆反心理，对 中新经纬2月23日电 (王玉玲 刘雪玉)近期，美国开放人工智能研究中心(OpenAI)的文生视频大模型Sora一经推出，就引爆互联网。有业内人士认为，以Sora为首的多模态大模型，将带人类走向更超乎想象的地方。如何看待Sora的发 最高法：加强种业知识产权保护 全面落实惩罚性赔偿制度 在国务院新闻办公室2月22日举行的发布会上，最高人民法院知识产权法庭副庭长中林介绍，法庭5年来共受理案由为植物新品种纠纷的案件481件，审结364件，已涵盖了主 。本文链接：US attack on Venezuela is warfare dressed as lawfarehttp://www.sushuapos.com/show-5-84986-0.html
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