First Venezuela, then Cuba, then Colombia — then NATO?

In the winter of 1989-1990, when President George H.W. Bush made the case for the U.S. decision to invade Panama and remove military dictator Manuel Noriega, he noted his indictment by a U.S. grand jury for participation in a massive cocaine smuggling operation, his nullification of presidential and legislative elections won by opposition party candidates, and his violent abuse of pro-democracy forces. After the elected president, Guillermo Endara, took office and the corrupt Panama Defense Forces were dissolved, the U.S. role in the nation receded.

By contrast, in 2003, when his son, President George W. Bush, made the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, he based it on never-substantiated claims of Iraqi responsibility for the 9/11 attacks and never-confirmed claims of Iraqi development of “weapons of mass destruction.” He also expressed inexplicable confidence that the U.S. could somehow convert Iraq into a Western-style democracy. The result was a debacle of wasted American lives and money.

On Saturday, after the U.S. had captured and removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump could have gone the Bush 41 route and vowed to help Venezuela revive its democracy and economy, but passed on nation-building. Instead, in a rambling press conference, he went on a dystopian version of the Bush 43 route, suggesting the U.S. would “run” Venezuela for an indeterminate time while bringing in U.S. companies to rebuild its oil infrastructure. Instead of committing to install the opponents who had the 2024 election stolen from them by Maduro, Trump dismissed opposition leader María Corina Machado as “weak” and “not respected.” Incredibly, he spoke more highly of Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s “gracious” vice president, noting that she had been sworn in as president. He outlined zero steps to remove Maduro’s many murderous allies still holding positions of power.

Things have only gone downhill from there. Trump has since made explicit that his key goal was to take control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, the biggest in the world. This is raw imperialism — a powerful nation plundering a poorer one.

But as terrible a development as this was, it was topped by all the signs that Venezuela won’t be the last nation that Trump targets, in the apparent belief that the ease with which Maduro was removed will be the norm going forward with any nation that gets in his way.

Since Saturday, Trump has said that Cuba “looks like it’s ready to fall” and that Colombia is “run by a sick man, not going to last very long.” And in remarks by White House officials, it was made clear that Trump is actually contemplating the military seizure of Greenland — a province of Denmark, a longtime ally that with the U.S. was a co-founder of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. This would lead to the end of NATO, which has long been the most stabilizing force in the world as it has grown from 12 to 32 members.

It is not “derangement” to think this would be awful. It is rational. It is time that Republican leaders who retain a semblance of rationality do all they can to head off this looming disaster.