U.S. policy toward Venezuela has repeated one of the gravest errors of modern American foreign policy. Before the invasion of Iraq, General Colin Powell warned President George W. Bush with chilling clarity: “You break it, you own it.” That warning was ignored then—and it has been ignored again.
Through sweeping sanctions, open calls for regime change, and the casual threat of force, the United States helped destabilize Venezuela’s economy without assuming responsibility for the human consequences. The result has not been democracy or stability, but deeper poverty, shortages, migration, and suffering borne almost entirely by ordinary Venezuelans—not by political elites.
Powell understood that power creates obligation. When a nation uses its economic and political might to fracture another country’s institutions, it inherits moral responsibility for the aftermath. Coercion without accountability is not strength; it is abandonment.
Foreign policy is not ideology, and it is not punishment for its own sake. Venezuela’s crisis demands diplomacy, humanitarian engagement, and respect for sovereignty—not blunt-force pressure detached from human cost.
America was warned once. Repeating the same mistake is not resolve—it is refusal to learn.
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