The Actual Stakes – Finishing The War on Terror
Hugh Hewitt > Blog
Monday, January 5, 2026
The strategic implications of the US capture of Maduro are reaching much farther than most people imagine. The mainstream media is so blinded with Trump hatred that they cannot see what a brilliant stroke this actually is. There is more than one way to win a war. Reagan/Bush won the Cold War in a way I never could have predicted and did not foresee. I think Trump may be doing the same thing with the War on Terror, begun by Bush 43, which like the Cold War before it has been dismissed and not prosecuted by intervening administrations.
Consider first the analysis by the Washington Times this morning:
Mr. Trump’s ouster of Mr. Maduro from power in Caracas could help stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S., reestablish American dominance over its own hemisphere and deal a major blow to the growing influence of China and Russia in the region, and provide a windfall of oil revenue and access to rare earth elements and other crucial materials in the mineral-rich country.
That’s quite the outcome from a single, short military action, demonstrating quite a bit of strategic thinking. But leave it to the Jerusalem Post to examine the full implications of this raid:
“Already in 2022, when I served as defense minister, I exposed the growing ties between Maduro’s Venezuela and Iran,” former defense minister Benny Gantz wrote on X/Twitter. “While one hand armed the rogue regime in Venezuela with advanced drones, the other Venezuelan hand sent tons of drugs to kill Americans around the world.” Iran and Venezuela also assisted each other in oil-smuggling operations….
Hezbollah has managed to sustain itself financially through drug-smuggling networks and cooperation with various criminal actors. The Chávez and Maduro governments, which turned a blind eye to these activities and, according to US authorities, even stood at the head of drug cartels, created fertile ground for such cooperation.
Brian Townsend, a DEA agent, described their role as follows: “They launder money and provide networks that help cartels move funds through the Middle East. They take a cut of the drug trade, which finances their operations.” In recent years, the connection between the two entities became so significant that senior Venezuelan government officials effectively worked for Hezbollah.
Read the whole thing. We did a whole lot more than just remove a Head of State to try him on drug trafficking charges. We clearly reestablished American power in the Western Hemisphere while at the same time removing a huge funding source out from under one of the largest, most deadly terrorist organizations in the world. Moreover, we did it in a single night. Iran is so worried the Supreme Leader is dusting off his exit plan.
I remember how, as Reagan/Bush ended the Soviet Union, so many were blinded to what was happening. Those men were criticized constantly. But save in the minds of the fevered few who had little or no access to the public discussion, they were not demonized. Even when the Berlin Wall actually fell, many wanted to see it as an accident of history and not give them any credit.
But where we are now is quite different. There is a clear and good strategy at play. That many are not seeing it is unsurprising. But when it comes to Donald Trump’s role in it, people are not merely refusing him credit – they are trying to paint him as a bad actor in it. When history is finally written, I think they will be gravely disappointed. Trump is far from a flawless man, but I think history will have good things to say about him.
