When America “Runs” a Country, the World Should Pay Attention
As 2026 stumbles out of the gate, we’re told not to panic. Nothing to see here. Just the United States announcing that American forces will temporarily run the country.
Temporarily, of course. That word has an impressive history.
The problem with pretending the world is rules-based is that eventually someone stops pretending. The U.S. seizure of Venezuela isn’t just a regional intervention - it’s a declaration that the polite fictions of global diplomacy have expired. What follows won’t stay neatly contained in South America.
President Trump justified the move on narco-terrorism, election interference, and the need to secure Venezuela’s oil. Fair enough - if you accept that the world’s largest proven oil reserves just happen to sit beneath one of the most corrupt regimes on earth, and Washington suddenly developed a conscience.- China, unsurprisingly, is furious. Sovereignty, international law, all that jazz. Beijing is very big on sovereignty - particularly other people’s.
But if you think this is just about Venezuela, you’re missing the point entirely.
This isn’t a one-off. It’s a signal flare.
Venezuela Was Never the End Game
Venezuela wasn’t just another basket case with a Marxist moustache. It was a laundromat - washing oil, money and influence.
Under Maduro, oil production collapsed, but the exports didn’t stop. They simply took the scenic route to China, Russia and Iran, discounted just enough to keep the lights on in places the US would rather see in the dark.
And then there’s the drugs. The so-called “Cartel of the Suns” isn’t some internet fever dream - it’s been an open secret for years. Fentanyl doesn’t appear by magic. Someone protects the pipelines.
So the US pulled the plug. Literally. Black out Caracas, lift the president, and suddenly the message is unmistakable: we’re back in charge of the valves.
Venezuelans, at home and abroad, are celebrating the end of a regime that destroyed a once-wealthy nation and sent millions fleeing. Critics mutter darkly about “another Iraq.” They’re not wrong to worry - but they are ignoring what comes next.
Iran Is Watching Very Closely
If I were sitting in Tehran, I’d be sweating through the prayer mat.
Venezuela was Iran’s Western Hemisphere foothold - oil swaps, sanctions evasion, and the quiet suggestion that America’s backyard wasn’t as secure as advertised.
Now that foothold is gone.
More than that, Venezuelan oil under US control gives Washington something it hasn’t had in years: insurance. If Iran threatens Hormuz, the Americans have a cushion. And cushions make bold decisions easier.
Trump has already warned Tehran about cracking down on protests. Israel is openly agitating. Intelligence agencies are circling like crows .
No one sensible expects boots on the ground in Iran –that would be lunacy. But targeted strikes? Infrastructure sabotage? Support for internal dissent?
That isn’t speculation. There is a pattern forming.
And Then There’s China
This is where it gets truly interesting.
China imports roughly seventy per cent of its oil. A very large chunk of that came from Iran and Venezuela - cheap, off-grid, and conveniently outside American supervision.
Now one of those taps has been turned off. The other is under threat.
Add in US influence over Middle Eastern suppliers and maritime choke points, and suddenly Beijing’s war planners are staring at a nightmare scenario: a fuel-starved movement trying to project power across the Taiwan Strait.
Some might argue the Venezuela move gives China a precedent to take Taiwan - you did it, so can we. That’s the shallow reading.
The deeper one is deterrence.
An invasion of Taiwan isn’t just about ships and missiles. It’s about diesel, aviation fuel, and sustained logistics. Cut the oil, and the dragon wheezes.
If China moves, it risks embargoes, blockades, and a US Navy that still understands choke points better than anyone alive.
Venezuela was meant to be Beijing’s hedge. It’s gone.
The Real Question
So what are we looking at?
A return to blunt American interventionism? Quite possibly. A reshuffling of global power? Almost certainly. A year where every move echoes in Tehran, Taipei, Moscow and Brussels? Without doubt.
The uncomfortable truth is this: the rules everyone pretends to live by have been dead for a while. Venezuela didn’t kill them - it merely confirmed the autopsy.
For some Venezuelans, this will feel like liberation. For others, occupation. For the rest of the world, it’s a reminder that when great powers stop pretending, things move very fast.
If you think President Trump is not dead serious when he says, “we have the greatest military on earth,” just listen to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan “Raizin” Caine explain in detail how the military captured Maduro in the dark of night.
— TheStormHasArrived (@TheStormRedux) January 3, 2026
Unbelievably badass 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/2gyzZ0fAaJ
2026 isn’t easing in quietly.
It’s kicking the door open.
The comforting lie is that this is about oil, or drugs, or one failed dictator.
The harder truth is that we are watching the scaffolding of the world being dismantled in real time.
And once the guardrails are gone, only power decides who stands - and who is run. We may be in for a hell of a ride.
BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUSPEACE THROUGH STRENGTH 🇺🇸
— Wasson Watch Co. (@WassonWatch) January 3, 2026
This gives me goosebumps. SOUND ON. pic.twitter.com/T1VZO7d1F8
