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If you were hoping that yet another Republican president would use yet another pretense to wage yet another war against yet another oil-rich country, then Saturday’s attack on Venezuela was welcome news.

The same is true for those who are rooting for the emasculation of Congress, for fans of the US getting involved in foreign boondoggles so that American oil companies can make a buck, and for the manufacturers of the boots that may be put on the ground in the South American country.

Because that is where we are headed.

Following the attack on Venezuela that culminated in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, i.e., the first step in something commonly known as “regime change,” Donald Trump announced that the US would now be in charge of Venezuela, which made the assertions of those pretending that this was a law enforcement action sound ridiculous.

It didn’t help that the US president indicated that he believes American companies are somehow entitled to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and that the generated revenue would pay for any occupation.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference from Mar-a-Lago.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure and start making money for the country,” he added, without specifying for which country the oil companies will be making money.

In a way, it’s refreshing that Trump is just saying all of this stuff out loud because we can stop pretending that this is about anything other than imperialism and oil.

Sure, the president had previously claimed he is targeting Venezuela because of its “narco-terrorism,” which is also the excuse the administration uses to justify the extrajudicial killing of boat crews alleged to be involved in smuggling narcotics.

Whenever Trump and his allies talk about these strikes, they usually reference fentanyl, which is responsible for more than two-thirds of all overdose-related deaths in the US.

However, that drug isn’t coming from Venezuela, which is evidenced by the absence of the word “fentanyl” from the indictment of Maduro and others that the Department of Justice released on Saturday.

This fact wasn’t lost on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the Trump loyalist-turned critic.

“Mexican cartels are primarily and overwhelmingly responsible for killing Americans with deadly drugs. If US military action and regime change in Venezuela was really about saving American lives from deadly drugs then why hasn’t the Trump [administration] taken action against Mexican cartels?” Greene said. “And if prosecuting narco-terrorists is a high priority then why did President Trump pardon the former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez who was convicted and sentenced for 45 years for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into America? Ironically cocaine is the same drug that Venezuela primarily trafficks into the US.”

A very valid question.

But its hypocrisy will be the administration’s smallest problem if history is any guide.

Usually, US attempts of regime change, nation building, and installing puppet leaders don’t turn out so well.

In Venezuela, for example, it seems unlikely that the well-funded and heavily armed cartels and gangs will go quietly. In addition, while Maduro was an authoritarian leader, he was still popular with the country’s poor, so a lot of things would have to go right for this to somehow end well, i.e., without turning into a bloody quagmire.

And even if it works out, the attack shows that the US is no longer one of the “good guys” on the global stage.

For decades, Democratic and Republican administrations alike have used the military for strategically and morally dubious conflicts around the world. By eliminating even the pretense of just cause, Trump is taking things to another level, and some of the other main villains, such as China and Russia, will be paying close attention.

For example, what is to stop the regime in Beijing from invading Taiwan because it poses a nebulous threat to the mainland… or perhaps simply to get its hands on its neighbor’s tech sector?

And on what grounds would the US object?

The truth is that it can’t because it is now just another bully that takes what it wants because it can.

Once again, we turn to Greene, who has emerged as one of the few Republicans who tell the truth — and all it took was for Trump to brand her a traitor and for her son to get death threats.

“Why is it ok for America to militarily invade, bomb, and arrest a foreign leader but Russia is evil for invading Ukraine and China is bad for aggression against Taiwan? Is it only ok if we do it?” she stated while making it clear that she is not endorsing Russia or China.

She is right, of course.

And where does it stop? Perhaps not with Venezuela. During a press conference, both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that Cuba might be next (and perhaps Colombia).

Mind you, this is exactly the kind of foreign entanglement the president promised to not engage in when he was on the campaign trail.

Now, however, with the might of the US military at his disposal and with zero oversight from Congress or the courts, things are looking very different, and it seems as though Trump has developed a real taste for bullying other countries into submission.

Panama and Denmark/Greenland should take note.

By the way, even though that is how Trump supporters will characterize any criticism of the president’s attempt at nation building in South America, none of this means that we are defending Maduro. He was an authoritarian ruler who stayed in power after losing the last election.

But if that is the measuring stick for military interventions, then the US would have had to invade itself in 2020 when Trump refused to admit defeat. The only difference is that Maduro actually managed to stay in office.

The bottom line is that Saturday’s attack and the kidnapping of Maduro do nothing to make the United States safer, they provide other bad actors like China with a blueprint on how to get away with bullying smaller countries, and there is no telling what the cost will be in American lives and treasure before all is said and done.