Op-Ed

A clean operation can remove a dictator, but it cannot erase the precedent that the United States is willing to decide, by force, who gets to lead.

If Washington starts talking like it can “govern” Venezuela from across an ocean, it stops sounding like a partner in democracy and starts sounding like the kind of power that mistakes a crisis for an invitation.

Removing a head of state without clear legal authority can destabilize regions, undermine democratic credibility, and create long-term security risks that diplomacy and restraint are better suited to manage.

Many people believe what they wish to believe, and when that impulse hardens into political identity, facts and truth become disposable while anything that flatters “their values” becomes sacred.

He is the man who steps into the dark so others can sleep, who wears the weight of public doubt as quietly as the badge on his chest, and who stands the post not for praise, but because order, safety, and decency still require someone willing to answer the call.

America First, stripped of the noise and put back on the rails of our founding principles, means building a stronger economy, securing the nation with fairness and resolve, guaranteeing real access to healthcare, defending human rights, and protecting public health so every American has a stake in the country’s future.

Vietkanization is deliberate political warfare that keeps regimes standing while hollowing them out, outsourcing coercion to criminal proxies, capturing courts and elections under false anti-corruption banners, and locking the hemisphere into managed instability that slowly bleeds United States influence without firing a conventional shot.

Selective skepticism is not accountability; it is a loyalty test disguised as truth-seeking, and when veterans wield it against each other, credibility stops being a standard and becomes a weapon.

America First, as I see it, is not a slogan for exclusion or division, but a demand that our leaders put the American people first through servant leadership, transparent accountability, and a steady commitment to prosperity, security, fair healthcare, and basic human rights.

America First is not a slogan borrowed from the moment, but a throughline from the Founders’ hard-earned lessons that a nation survives and thrives only when it puts the safety, prosperity, equal justice, and unalienable rights of its own citizens at the center of every decision.

Over the last four administrations, Congress has steadily surrendered its constitutional authority, allowing presidents to expand executive power, especially through executive orders and unsanctioned military action, and unless the American people demand a revival of congressional oversight, the balance of our constitutional republic will continue to erode.

Bombing terrorist organizations is a tactic not a strategy, and SOCAFRICA’s 2015–2017 Gray Zone approach used a long-term, population-focused, partner-enabled campaign that integrated military and non-military efforts to neutralize Boko Haram and ISIS–West Africa by strengthening governance, protecting civilians, and building sustainable regional security.