Trump has shown there aren't any rules. We'll all regret that

I never thought it possible that you could look back on the Iraq war and feel some measure of nostalgia.

- By Nesrine Malik

For a time when there were at least concerted attempts to justify unilateral interventions and illegal wars in the name of global security, and even a moral duty to liberate the women of Afghanistan or “free the Iraqi people”.

Now, as the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, is in essence abducted and Venezuela taken over by the US, there is barely any effort to situate the coup in any reasoning other than the US’s interests. Nor are there any attempts to solicit consent from domestic or international lawmaking bodies and allies, let alone the public.

“America can project our will anywhere, any time,” said the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth. The US will now “run Venezuela” said the president, Donald Trump. “We are going to have a presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil.” It is claimed that Maduro is guilty of “narco-terrorism” and other charges including “Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns [sic] and Destructive Devices against the United States” - charges that not only fail to clear the bar required for invasion and abduction, but also apparently are not even taken that seriously by Trump.

The point, as demonstrated by triumphalist posts on social media that include hip-hop-soundtracked montages and Trump as a gangster in chief, is in the very rebuke of the notion that US actions are subject to due process. The Venezuela coup is not an exhibition of the long arm of the law, but the fact that the US is the law and is not subject to any higher one, able to wield its power and lethality in the dead of night, kill dozens of innocents and face no consequences, let alone censure.