The Intoxication of Power: A Sin of the Ages and the Hollow Victory Over Venezuela
Photo by: Elmedia News
In the long arc of human history, few temptations have proven as enduring and ruinous as the intoxication of unchecked power. This ancient sin, the very one that caused the fall of the Light Bearing Seraphim; Lucifer, who sought to rise above all authority and claim dominion for himself, continues to seduce leaders across time. Pride and the lust for absolute control blind the powerful to consequences, erode restraints, and ultimately invite destruction. Today, this same force manifests not in celestial rebellion but in the quiet dismantling of democratic consent, the normalization of unilateral military action, and the redefinition of threats to justify permanent executive supremacy.
The recent military operation in Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, stands as a stark illustration. This action was not about protecting Americans from an imminent military threat, nor was it driven by the need for Venezuelan oil. The United States already produces more oil than any other nation and exports millions of barrels daily; there is no shortage in the USA or in Europe. Venezuela’s oil infrastructure has been in collapse for years, with refineries failing, rigs deteriorating, and output at historic lows. The country cannot supply meaningful quantities of crude in the near term, and any meaningful recovery would take five to ten years even under ideal conditions. If the objective had truly been access to oil, simpler paths existed: lifting sanctions, expanding existing Chevron operations, or reopening legal energy corridors. None of those required warships, airstrikes, or the abduction of a foreign head of state.
The true aim lies elsewhere. This intervention demonstrates that the president no longer needs consent, not from Congress, not from courts, not from the American people. Through carefully crafted national security strategies and defense documents released in recent years, the executive branch has redefined what constitutes a national security threat. Drug trafficking, transnational criminal networks, migration-driven instability, and regional disorder have all been elevated to the same level as traditional military dangers. Once labeled as such, these issues become justifications for military action without the need to declare war, seek congressional authorization, or engage in meaningful public debate. Diplomacy recedes, oversight vanishes, international law becomes optional, and the military becomes the primary instrument of policy.
This pattern is not new, but it has accelerated. In recent months, the United States has conducted or supported military strikes across multiple countries without a single declared war or congressional vote. Venezuela provided the stage: a foreign crisis large enough to activate emergency authority, emotionally charged enough to rally support, and external enough to distract from domestic consolidation of power. The operation normalizes the idea that a president can order the capture of a foreign leader, transport him to face charges on U.S. soil, and announce that America will temporarily run the country until a transition is deemed complete. Once this precedent is set, future administrations inherit the same expanded toolkit. Temporary power grabs become permanent structures of control.
Critics often reduce such actions to oil or economic gain, but that is a 1990s lens applied to a 2025 reality. Private equity interests and reconstruction contracts may profit in the long run, yet the immediate driver is not barrels of crude. It is the creation of a permanent state of emergency that bypasses traditional checks. When every social ill; narcotics, migration, instability is framed as a national security threat, dissent can be cast as undermining security, oversight becomes dangerous, and protests are recast as instability. Democracies do not always fall through overt coups; they hollow out gradually when force replaces consent and strategy supplants law.
Yet amid this erosion of democratic norms, one outcome is frequently hailed as a victory: the deadly blow dealt to the narcotics trade that has ravaged American children and families. The flow of fentanyl, cocaine, and other poisons across borders has claimed countless young lives, torn communities apart, and left grieving parents in every state. By targeting the leadership and infrastructure tied to narco-trafficking networks, this expedition is presented as a moral triumph, a decisive strike against the cartels that profit from American addiction. Supporters argue that removing such figures disrupts supply chains and sends a message that the United States will no longer tolerate the poisoning of its youth. In this narrative, the operation becomes a righteous act of protection, shielding the next generation from a scourge that has already taken too many.
Dracula – The Untold Story
This framing allows the intervention to appear balanced: not purely about power, but about safeguarding the vulnerable. But like Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula said; “Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from defeat“. Thus the deeper question remains, when executive authority expands through manufactured crises and redefined threats, when oversight is bypassed and consent is no longer required, the victory over narcotics becomes a convenient justification for a larger transformation. The children saved from drugs are real, the suffering inflicted by cartels is undeniable, and any reduction in that flow deserves recognition. But the method matters. A republic cannot endure when its leaders prove they can act without permission and still claim moral high ground.
This is the intoxication at work: the belief that ends justify means, that control secured today will remain benevolent tomorrow, that power once seized will not corrupt further. History warns otherwise. When pride blinds leaders to restraint, when strategy replaces accountability, and when foreign crises become domestic tools, the republic itself is placed at risk. The children may be spared one poison, but they inherit a nation where power concentrates in fewer hands and consent becomes optional.
The path forward demands vigilance. Congress must reclaim its role through funding decisions and oversight. Courts must enforce constitutional boundaries swiftly. The military must refuse unlawful orders. Above all, the public must recognize what is being normalized before it becomes irreversible. Guard the republic, lest the sin of the ages claim yet another generation.
Now to us the Church and other spiritual institutions who guard against the unbearable pressures of the gates of hell, this article provides a lens with which your hearts may not be frustrated with the chaos of our century, and a foundation onto which you can reimagine your ministry frontiers in making our world a better place. Amani Milele – Peace Forever
Read more about the Author here: Philip Kakungulu
Follow my YouTube channel: Peacewarrior001
References:
– CBS News: U.S. strikes Venezuela and captures Maduro; Trump says “we’re going to run the country” for now https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/venezuela-us-military-strikes-maduro-trump/
– The New York Times: Inside ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ the U.S. Effort to Capture Maduro https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/us/politics/trump-capture-maduro-venezuela.html
– ABC News: US captures Maduro, carries out ‘large scale strike’ in Venezuela: Trump https://abcnews.go.com/International/explosions-heard-venezuelas-capital-city-caracas/story?id=128861598
– The New York Times (live updates): Maduro Arrives in N.Y.; Trump Says U.S. Will ‘Run’ Venezuela https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/03/world/trump-maduro-venezuela-us-strikes
– Time: Trump Says U.S. Will ‘Run’ Venezuela and Take Control of Oil. https://time.com/7342937/venezuela-trump-maduro-oil/
– CNBC: Maduro overthrow in oil-rich Venezuela unlikely to shake energy markets in the near term https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/03/trump-venezuela-attack-oil-markets.html
– CNN Business: Trump says US is taking control of Venezuela’s oil reserves. Here’s what it means https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/03/business/oil-gas-venezuela-maduro
– CDC/NCHS: Provisional Drug Overdose Data (updated monthly, includes 2025 provisional figures) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm
– NPR: Drug deaths plummet among young Americans as fentanyl carnage eases (2025 trends). https://www.npr.org/2025/06/10/nx-s1-5414476/fentanyl-gen-z-drug-overdose-deaths
– NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse): Drug Overdose Deaths: Facts and Figures. https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
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