The name of the US military effort that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in the very small hours of the third day of the new year was Operation Absolute Resolve. Although a degree of official condemnation regarding congressional authorisation, timing and the basic principle of national sovereignty came reflexively, it seems apparent that a development like this, on its face, has a strange equalising quality for the States. America willingly pours so much cash into its military and attaches so much feeling to it. My clumsy efforts to understand the veteran experience have, over time, assisted my…

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