This week, we unpack the U.S. military operation in Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro, not as a breaking-news spectacle, but as part of a much longer story.

We talk about America's history of intervention in Latin America and beyond, why so many people are cheering this moment as "strength," and what gets ignored when power replaces diplomacy. From oil and sanctions to immigration narratives, drug trafficking claims, and selective outrage about legality, we ask what it means when the rules suddenly don't matter—and who pays the price when they don't.

This conversation connects history, faith, empire, and memory: how quickly we forget past interventions, how language is used to sanitize violence, and why "no U.S. casualties" is never the whole story. We also wrestle with the moral questions underneath it all—what responsibility looks like, what loving your neighbor actually demands, and why long-term consequences rarely factor into short-term celebrations.

As always, this isn't about defending dictators or excusing abuse. It's about refusing to flatten complex realities into slogans—and insisting on critical thinking when it matters most.

Books, article, and poem mentioned:

How to Hide an Empire

Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present

Grenada Revisted

Mark Twain's The War Prayer