In a year already crammed with unusual, ground-breaking actions politically and by our government, one thing really popped out of the news recently: The Trump administration announced a $50 million reward for the arrest of Venezuelan strongman President Nicolas Maduro.
It is one thing to issue a bounty for any of the leaders or field men of South American narcoterrorists who have caused so much havoc importing narcotics and fentanyl to the United States and damaging the lives and health of so many of our citizens. However, it is entirely another thing to go after the leader of another country, who, whether we like it or not, was elected by the citizens of a particular country and try to arrest him in the course of bringing him to justice.
I had several friends in Washington, D.C., who worked in the CIA and foreign affairs who regularly reminded me that the last thing we want to do on the world stage is get into surreptitious clandestine shooting wars with leaders of countries who like this sort of thing and who are very good at it. They have the people and resources in their country who would like nothing more than to be the ones who took out a leader of the United States or any European democracy in broad daylight on cable TV.
It is hard enough to protect the life of a U.S. president without there being any added impetus such as retribution for arresting their elected president or government official, despite any accusation of their involvement in any heinous activity, such as those for which Maduro is being accused.
There are far better ways to react to such actions, such as trade sanctions and other diplomatic actions. One way that has been seldom used to great effect, mainly because it has not been fully exercised, would be to withhold all direct foreign aid by the U.S. government to the country of Venezuela starting immediately. Such a withdrawal of billions of dollars of U.S. federal direct aid or guaranteed loans would throw Maduro and his administration into turmoil. It would force them to make the tough decisions no elected politician ever wants to make to maintain their government, namely raise taxes on the people and narcoterrorists in Venezuela or cut spending in other programs and shift it to more important priorities in Venezuela. They will then be judged by the people who elected them, either harshly by voting them out of office or with reelection because they approve of their harsh antics against the U.S. and the rest of the free world.
There are not enough security officers in America to defend every prominent elected official to begin with. The day after I became chief of staff to North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole in November 2002, I was escorting her from the Capitol to the Russell Senate Office Building across Constitution Avenue. This was almost exactly one full year since the 9/11 attacks, and all I can remember was watching the traffic jam of taxicabs forming before us and me standing beside her as perhaps her only protection against an attack against one of the most visible and recognizable female politicians in the world. The next morning, I almost ran to the Capitol Police office to beg them to assign an officer to protect her. They said they only do so for the Senate majority leader and the speaker of the House.
There is no need to put any more of a target on the back of any U.S. elected official than already exists.
