Strategy or Spectacle in South America?

Recent U.S. airstrikes against alleged "narco-terrorist" boats near Venezuela are portrayed as victories in the war on drugs but function more as political spectacle. The strikes are intended to intimidate the Maduro regime and signal U.S. resolve to rivals like China and Russia, who have growing influence in the region. This strategy is critiqued as ineffective for actually stopping drug flow, as Venezuela is a transit country and the targeted boats are a minor part of the trafficking network. The approach risks repeating past mistakes of the Global War on Terror, where tactical actions metastasized into open-ended campaigns without clear strategic goals, and normalizes militarized pressure as a peacetime tool.