I wrote this a few weeks back the morning after the United States abducted the leader of the 53rd largest country (by population ~32 million), at the time I was thinking of shopping it around as an opinion piece or letter to the editor but it’s getting a little old. I’d like to put it somewhere before the world has completely moved on to the next unprecedented act.
It was just over a year ago when the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two high ranking Israeli officials, notably Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This warrant, I am to understand is largely symbolic; it is unlikely that the Prime Minister would find himself in any “hostile” countries (read “hostile” as countries willing to uphold international law). Any such warrant against the president of the United States would, likewise, be symbolic but important. If the international community is unwilling to uphold law and order, on even a symbolic level, than what kind of world order remains?
The brazen attack on Venezuela and subsequent disposal of President Nicolás Maduro was likely illegal under all but the most construed US laws and definitely illegal under international law. Those of my generation, and frankly anyone over the age of about thirty, ought to remember the US’s sabre-rattling leading up to the invasion of Iraq. At least George W. Bush had the decorum to lie about the pretenses of such an invasion (although that was also a clear breach of international law and against the best evidence of nearly all independent investigations). Twenty-three years later, Donald Trump needs no such veneers: thus far, he acts with impunity. In 2003, it was clear to those who were looking that the US was about to invade a sovereign nation to plunder it’s oil reserves. In 2026, one need not even read between the lines: “We’re going to have our very large US oil companies... spend billions of dollars start making money for the country and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so.”
There are arguments to be made against the character and regime of President Maduro; however any such accusations could be leveled at any number of US-friendly regimes without the pretext for invasion or occupation. It was not narcotics trafficking, nor the lack of open and fair elections, or any number of paper-thin excuses for this attack on a non-hostile sovereign nation. Make no mistake, as Trump himself alluded to when he accused Venezuela of “ripping [us] off”; it was simply the Maduro Administration’s refusal to play ball with US interests.
I’m sure there are no small number of nations that would love to slap the cuffs on Donald Trump; however, none would dare. The US is just too powerful to take orders from any other nation individually or in the collective. As a permanent member of the UN security council, their veto power makes that entire body impotent. Such is the world which the US created over the course of the 20th century and it is the one in which Donald Trump is now a beneficiary. Any warrants issued by the ICC, would carry the same power as that issued for Netanyahu. We can not have any illusions about this. However; any nation that wishes to be remembered on the right side of history must act in accordance with international law and call for the arrest of President Donald J. Trump.