{"id":14108,"date":"2026-01-11T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/we-broke-venezuela-now-what\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:32:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:32:51","slug":"we-broke-venezuela-now-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/we-broke-venezuela-now-what\/","title":{"rendered":"We broke Venezuela \u2013 now what?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=3ba4ce41-a358-5d9b-b360-ebd942a1f4df&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=2000\" width=\"1680\" height=\"958\" alt=\"\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There\u2019s an old saying: \u201cYou break it, you buy it.\u201d If you enter a store, examine its goods and accidentally break something, you own the consequences.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s apply this rule to our nation\u2019s military history.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1960s, we entered Vietnam and broke it. Over more than a decade, in the face of corruption and insurgency, over 58,000 of our troops bought it.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1990s and 2000s, we entered Iraq and broke it. In the resulting civil war between Shia and Sunni Muslims, thousands more of our troops \u2013 including at least one from Cortez \u2013 bought it.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2000s, we entered Afghanistan and broke it. In the face of corruption and relentless Taliban resistance, many more of our troops bought it.<\/p>\n<p>Early on the morning of Jan. 3, 2026, we entered Venezuela and broke it. In the face of longstanding oppressive tyranny, what happens next?<\/p>\n<p>I repeat: We broke Venezuela. What happens next?<\/p>\n<p><strong>James F. Andrus<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-9f46b3d2b1d805818916161ddd10be86\">Cortez<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s an old saying: \u201cYou break it, you buy it.\u201d If you enter a store, examine its goods and accidentally break something, you own the consequences. Let\u2019s apply this rule to our nation\u2019s military history. In the 1960s, we entered Vietnam and broke it. Over more than a decade, in the face of corruption [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-14108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19331,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14108\/revisions\/19331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14108"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=14108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}