John Mearsheimer, the "highly respected" political theorist has a defuct crystal ball, which just shattered into a million pieces over Venezuela. In a now-viral clip, Mearsheimer confidently pontificated why Trump couldn't possibly snatch Nicolás Maduro without turning Caracas into the next Vietnam quagmire. Spoiler: Less than 48 hours later, Delta Force did exactly that, and the only quagmire was the egg on John's face.
Mearsheimer, with his professorial gravitas, warns of a "huge piece of real estate" requiring "100 plus thousand troops" for regime change. "Social engineering is incredibly difficult," he intones, channeling his inner armchair general. Militaries, he says, are just "giant killing machines," not nation-builders. Fair point, if we were talking about a full occupation. But Trump? Nah, he'll "back off" and "cut a deal" because his base hates endless wars, and past fiascos like the "one-month" Houthis debacle prove he's no hawk.
