Every empire tells itself it is rescuing someone. On Jan 3 Trump said the U.S. will run Venezuela until a "safe, proper" transition, and that phrase should ring alarm bells across every smaller nation. Temporary control has a habit of becoming permanent administration, and permanent administration breeds permanent enemies. If the plan involves marching oil companies in and selling crude, you have declared the motive in plain English. Venezuela will not forget that, and neither will the rest of Latin America. The U.S. may win the raid and lose the century, because humiliation travels faster than any helicopter. Ask yourself what happens when the next government in Washington inherits this mess and decides to double down rather than admit failure.