It's hard to believe only four weeks ago the U.S., at the whim of Donald Trump, invaded Venezuela to snatch its leader Nicolas Maduro. The New York Times (free link) reports he thinks his strategy was a big success and intends to duplicate it in Iran:

Mr. Trump’s decision to snatch Mr. Maduro from his bed, but keep the rest of the Venezuelan leadership in place, is an experiment in remote-control occupation. After the Delta team landed by helicopter that early January night, killed Mr. Maduro’s Cuban and Venezuelan guards, and seized him seconds before he could lock himself in that safe room, Mr. Trump blessed the installation of Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as acting president. She will stay there, he has said, as long as she follows Washington’s instructions.

...In a brief conversation with The New York Times on Sunday, on the second day of the American and Israeli attack on Iran, he cited the Venezuela experience as a model for what he was trying to accomplish in Iran. “What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,” Mr. Trump insisted. “Everybody’s kept their job except for two people.”

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