But right now, we're seeing the United

States um leverage its military hardware

in a way that we haven't for a long

time. Most people agree that what Trump

did over Venezuela is completely wrong,

illegal, um and sets a dangerous

precedent for Russia over Ukraine, China

over Taiwan, etc. However, we've also

seen them now targeting specific

tankers, which some people are less

critical of because it helps reveal and

expose Russia's shadow fleet. Now, as

someone with a Navy background, how do

you look at these things? But here's a

framework that I think will help you. Uh

the tactical, operational, and strategic

level. It comes from the military. And

here's how I'm going to explain it.

Tactical level in the military is you

have certain equipment. Let's say a

tank. And it has certain capabilities.

It shoots so far. You need certain kinds

of munitions to stick in it. And certain

caliber of munitions will destroy it.

And then you take these things and you

form TAC unit tank units, right? And

they're all these different kinds of

units. That's the tactical level. At the

operational level, it's going to be uh

either a battle or a campaign, which is

a succession of battles for the

military, where you're going to put

together these little tactical units,

and probably you're going to seek an

operational objective like take that

hill or prevent someone from taking that

hill. If you're thinking at the

operational level for politicians, I'm

going to transfer this idea to to a

different realm. It would be winning the

election, right? You gota and if you're

going to be a politician and do anything

for certain offices, you've got to be

elected or the guy who appoints you has

to be elected, right? And then there's

the strategic level, the important one.

Why are you doing any of this? Why are

you fighting someone? Is it just to

maximize the kills on the battlefield?

That seems like a crazy uh objective.

And the a strategic objective typical

ones are at national levels are

improving national prosperity or

defending national security. Okay. So

you're asking me about the uh we're

going to do some ambulance chasing of

what happened this last week visav

Madura. All right. The operational level

you look and go wow they got them in in

a few hours. I mean it cost billion

millions. I mean, I don't know what the

cost is of all the aircraft carriers and

they did however many months of prep on

the uh anatomically correct building and

blah blah blah. I have no idea what the

cost of it all is. But you look and go,

"Wow, within hours they got the guy and

uh maybe he got uh got bruised in the

process, but he's alive in New York."

So, you go at the operational level,

that's great. Okay, I'll give you

another operation that was great. The

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was

one of the most brilliant military

operations in world history. They took

out the US fleet. They lost almost

nothing, right? It looks great right

after it happens. But whoops, the United

States was totally isolationist up until

that point. Most Americans couldn't find

Japan on the map. And then afterwards,

the United States was hellbent on a

march to Tokyo. Whereas Japan had

intended that to be like a newspaper

thapping on the dog saying, "Stay out of

Asia. You got no interest here. You got

it. It'll cost you too much." Boomerang.

It's a disa. It is a strategic disaster.

And all of these things, success or

failure is measured only at the

strategic level. So generals can brag

about Vietnam and go, "Hey, we won every

battle against uh the North Vietnamese."

Okay, where's the South Vietnamese

government? Whoops. Right. So, all

right. So, we got Madur Maduro, but what

are the strategic consequences of this?

If you're Latin American, I mean, this

is me hypothesizing.

Uh,

what do you suppose their reaction's

going to be? They're probably appalled

and they're going to think of every way

to organize against us because it's

scary having the United States roar into

your capital. And uh I'm no fan of

Maduro, don't get me wrong. Right.

>> Well, yeah, he's he's evil. I got it.

But you know, the world is full of evil

people. And there's another piece which

is if you want to just remove evil

people around the world, you will be

overextended so fast. And that's another

problem. So this is highly alienating to

Latin Americans, right? That that goes

in the negative comment at strategic

level. It also is a question is okay,

what's everybody else going to do? And

everyone else would go, wow, you know,

no one could stop the Americans. So

okay, Cambodia and Thailand apparently

are having a tiff. Like why not keep on

going on with that? Who's going to stop

you? Right? This is the erosion of the

rules-based order. Everyone thinks I'm

doing my thing and that's great, but if

all the rules disappear, you're in

trouble. It's like um traffic rules. If

you're the first speeder on the highway

that ignores all the rules and takes

U-turns in bizarre places, you'll get

away with it. What happens when everyone

does it? There will be no police force

capable of containing it. So, there are

going to be massive strategic effects.

And then the real question is, what's

the follow-on operation? Is it going to

be Cuba? Is it going to be Greenland? If

it is Greenland, that's the end of the

Western Alliance. It's unbelievable that

we're even contemplating this.