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The White House has quietly turned up the heat in the Caribbean, moving the USS Gerald R. Ford and a massive strike group into waters near Venezuela as part of a broader military buildup this November. Washington says the move is about cutting off the flow of drugs and narco-terrorists who are poisoning American towns, but make no mistake: projecting strength in our hemisphere is also about keeping hostile regimes and their patrons on notice.
Under the banner of Operation Southern Spear, U.S. forces have been conducting strikes on vessels they allege are transporting narcotics, a campaign that began in September and has, according to Pentagon tallies, resulted in roughly eighty enemy combatant deaths. Conservatives who care about public safety understand that the cartels long ago ceased being mere criminals and now act like armed, transnational gangs that threaten communities and sovereignty alike.
The administration has also doubled down legally and financially, increasing the reward for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro to $50 million as it accuses his regime of profiting from and protecting narco-trafficking networks. If Maduro is indeed acting as a patron for criminal enterprises that export death into the United States, then naming and pressuring him is not diplomacy — it is defense of the American people.
Venezuela has predictably responded with bluster, mobilizing ships, arming militias, and promising guerrilla-style resistance while claiming the U.S. is seeking regime change. For years Venezuelan state actors and corrupt elements of the security apparatus have been implicated in smuggling and illegal shipyards — Americans should not be naive about who benefits from chaos across their border.
International critics and human-rights organizations howl whenever America refuses to stand down, accusing U.S. forces of bending international law; of course, the same critics offer little help when our cities are being flooded with fentanyl and our children are dying. The argument that we must stay passive while criminal enterprises operate with impunity is both morally bankrupt and strategically foolish.
This is the sort of decisive action conservatives have been calling for: leadership that defends the homeland rather than lecturing enemies about niceties. When an administration treats narco-terrorists like the serious national-security threat they have become, we should back our troops and intelligence professionals instead of reflexively joining global hand-wringers. No one said defending liberty would be polite.
Make no mistake, this is also a battle against creeping socialism and the old communist playbook — corrupt regimes that trade ideology for survival and trafficking for power must not be allowed to export their chaos northward. Americans who remember the Cold War know that appeasement and soft-pedaling only embolden tyrants; showing resolve in the Caribbean is exactly the kind of posture that keeps our freedoms intact.
Washington now has to pair this hard power with smart policy at home: tighten the border, dismantle domestic drug distribution networks, and cut off the demand that fuels the cartels. Conservatives will push for law-and-order solutions, stronger deterrence, and support for veterans and sailors who are putting themselves between American children and poison.
Patriots should stand with our men and women in uniform and with leaders who finally treat the drug crisis as the existential threat it is. If the choice is between timid platitudes and the tough, principled action necessary to defend our nation, take the side that keeps our nation safe, sovereign, and free.
