Operation Absolute Resolve showed that America is the most powerful nation in the world and it’s not remotely close

As the new year started, and many people were wondering what 2026 would bring them, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro learned that his dictatorial regime had finally come to an end. It’s a good thing, too.

For more than a dozen years, Venezuelans have been oppressed by Maduro’s dictatorship, which was marked by an economic crisis, human rights abuses and the active undermining of democracy.

Per a federal court indictment, Maduro faces narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy and weapons charges. Venezuelans, both abroad and here in the United States, are almost unanimously celebrating Maduro’s ouster by the United States.

Democrats should be, too, though many are not, despite acknowledging Maduro’s evil regime for years and even criticizing President Donald Trump for not removing Maduro. It’s yet another example of Democrats’ hypocrisy: They seem to hate Trump more than they want an oppressed country to be liberated. That’s pretty remarkable.

President Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and hundreds of U.S. military members carried out one of the most calculated, precise and successful military operations ever, “Operation Absolute Resolve.”

The planning, foresight and flawless execution, which involved more than “150 aircraft launched from 20 bases around the Western Hemisphere, including F-35 and F-22 jets, and B-1 bombers,” Reuters reported from a briefing by Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should impress anyone, Republican, Democrat, American, US ally, or even US adversary.

This force for good was necessary to end an evil that permeated Venezuela. Maduro was a brutal dictator: His rule created a large-scale humanitarian crisis. Nearly 8 million people have fled Venezuela since 2014 after he came to power, more than 20% of the population.

As The Associated Press reported in August 2025, “Maduro ‒ sworn in this year despite credible evidence he lost reelection ‒ has created economic conditions that largely limited people’s access to food nationwide, with the value of wages plummeting.”

Trump’s daring move has not only toppled a dictator who stole the last election from his own people, hopefully allowing for their duly elected, rightful president to lead, but it has also accomplished strategic dominance in an influential country. This move by Trump stops Venezuela from courting our enemies ‒ Russia, Iran and China ‒ to act against US interests.

But besides being an act that benefits not just the US, but the Venezuelan people, Operation Absolute Resolve, the name of the operation that deposed Maduro, sent a strong message to America’s adversaries, particularly our biggest rivals Russia and China: you guys are not remotely in our league.

Russia had their own “special military operation” against a country that borders them, Ukraine, and nearly 4 years into the war, Russia has barely taken 20% of the country. China’s military is more of an unknown quantity, but it is certain that they would not be able to go into a country that there is an ocean between, take out their leader in a matter of hours, with not a single Chinese death.

It shows that for all the talks of US power decline and multipolarity, the US is still the most powerful nation in the world, and it’s not remotely close. In fact, seeing US forces in action and seeing Russia’s war on Ukraine, the gap between the US and supposed big powers like China and Russia might be larger than we imagined.

It’s not that the US is slightly more powerful than nations like Russia and China, the US is so far ahead that there isn’t even a comparison. The only thing that constrains the US is that the American people understandably do not want the country to get bogged down in long wars, and how comparatively benign the US is to previous World Hegemons.

This doesn’t mean that threats go away and that the US won’t have geopolitical challenges and failures in the future. But it should put the public at ease about the rise in power of China, and put to rest any idea that China is even close to an equal power to the United States.