They were still making signs and shit when the airplane hit the tarmac in New York.
Or worse, they had the signs prepped and ready days in advance because they assumed a drawn-out war was the only way the situation could play out, since their only concept of and precedent for war is Ukraine and Gaza.
That's just another part of what makes this situation such a masterstroke, I think we've been so bogged down by protracted engagements that people didn't even consider this a possibility, and none of the typical talking points work.
Waste of taxpayer money? We were in and out, and there's infinite oil on the horizon.
Don't make our boys die across the ocean? Literally zero Americans killed.
Innocent Venezuelans are dying? 40 enemy casualties, and I've still seen no proof that any were civilians.
You can't do this to citizens of a foreign nation? Every relevant western power has wanted Maduro deposed for over a decade, and the situation is overwhelmingly popular with the Venezuelan people.
If anything, this should stand as a testament to what humane necessary change looks like. The whole situation was fast, bloodless, and ruthlessly effective. Pax Americana, in its most pristine definition.
This is an idea that was so popular and and so supported by at least one facet of every side of the compass, executed so impossibly well that there's basically no way to argue against it in a way that doesn't make you look like a retard, plant, or anarchist.
