Dispatch from the Front Lines: The Don-Roe Doctrine in full effect

The world you knew is over now.

Well, to be fair, we at The Line tried to warn you that 2026 wasn’t going to be better.

Again, sorry.

We return from our holiday break to a glaring example of just how seriously the U.S. is taking its new Monroe Doctrine. You may recall your Line editors freaking out just a little late last year when the White House issued its National Security Strategy, which called for a series of seemingly self-contradictory policy goals; non-interference in world affairs, while simultaneously taking a kind of ownership over the Western Hemisphere.

And not a few weeks out from that publication, we have an intervention in Venezuelan government and affairs that would have been considered unthinkable only last year. Earlier this week, the United States carried out a military operation to kidnap President Nicholás Maduro and his wife, and fly the pair back to New York where they will face drug trafficking and related charges. Regardless of what you think of Maduro, this is all probably not great news for us.