On January 3, the United States conducted a military operation dubbed Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela. Airstrikes on military targets in and around Caracas enabled forces to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been widely accused of stealing the 2024 election from opponent Edmundo González Urrutia. Maduro now faces federal charges related to narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.

Glenn Beck’s head writer and researcher, Jason Buttrill, a former Defense Department intelligence analyst, is still reeling in excitement from this “watershed” operation, which shockingly took less than three hours from start to finish.

While most commentators are stuck on the obvious, framing the strike as retribution for Maduro’s narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, and alleged election theft; his regime's role in mass migration to the U.S.; and Venezuela’s alliances with Russia and China — or as a big oil heist — this lightning operation hides layers of genius the establishment will never admit.

On this episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” Liz and Jason break down three explosive implications of Operation Absolute Resolve.

1. No more excuses for forever wars

Liz, a self-described “anti-neocon,” says this military operation proved that forever wars — prolonged occupations that keep our troops overseas and our tax dollars invested in foreign affairs — are a choice, not a must.

“You should be thanking Trump for this military operation in Venezuela, because all other facts of the reasons why Trump went in Venezuela aside, we are never going to experience forever wars in our country again because the American people … can see so clearly now that they are a deliberate political choice. They are unnecessary,” she argues.

President Trump already razed Iran’s nuclear capabilities in just 12 days with Operation Midnight Hammer back in June 2025. Venezuela is now the second example proving that war can be rapid and still effective.

“There's going to be no excuse ever again for forever wars,” Liz says.

2. U.S. fires cyber warning shot at enemies

Liz then recalls Trump’s comment in the press conference following the Caracas strike. He said, “It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have. It was dark, and it was deadly."

He was hinting at how U.S. forces engineered a massive blackout across much of Caracas and surrounding areas to facilitate the surprise capture of Maduro.

While many countries have been developing cyber attack strategies for years, their programs have largely been kept under wraps. The fact that the U.S. deliberately revealed its cyber capabilities was intended to intimidate other nations, Jason speculates.

“I think it was a threat to the rest of the world that yes, we have this capability. We can completely shut your country down before we go over there. Air defense doesn't really matter because we'll just shut it down and then fly in anyway,” he tells Liz.

Jason assumes that it was specifically a threat against China, whose technologies power Venezuela’s air defense system, and Russia, which supplied the country with the missiles designed to target American warplanes.

“Now it looks like all those systems — foreign, bought by our enemies — were all purchased off of Temu. That's what it looks like. That’s what we did to them,” he laughs.

“There's Chinese military experts operating their air defense systems, Russian experts for the upkeep on their air defense missiles, and then you have the Cuban intelligence apparatus, which is all over the country, that is supposed to be informing everybody about what's going on, and we just sailed right through it.”

3. Oil denial: Starving China’s war machine

While many outlets are framing Operation Absolute Resolve as a means of gaining access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves, Jason says that’s the shallowest reading of the operation.

“Yes, it is about oil, but not in the fact that we want to take the oil. We don't want our adversaries getting their hands on [it],” he says.

By cutting off China's access to Venezuelan (and potentially Iranian) oil while Russian supplies remain heavily sanctioned, the U.S. has severely restricted China's fuel options, making a major military operation — especially invading Taiwan — far more difficult and risky due to potential energy shortages for its armed forces, Jason explains.

“3D chess is what you're describing,” says Liz.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above.

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