This isnt chess. The government and military are still intact, the VP seems vehemently against rolling over, it just pisses off America’s enemies more and lets them know that kidnapping a head of state is now on the table and they’d better close the Kidnapping Gap and be more ready for that possibility and look into how to do it themselves. That just leads to holding foreign kings for ransom again, it’s not done cause under a system that isnt absolute monarchy the snake works just fine without the head, no one does this cause it’s pointless and opens up equally dirty retaliation, if a head of state orders the kidnapping of another head of state the target could be more on them personally than before, which usually people who want to stay alive try to avoid. How does this advance American Interests as opposed to a more normal act of aggression? Seems like really bad strategy to me.
Considering Trump has already threatened to do just that if things don’t end up going the empire’s way, I wouldn’t be surprised at such depravity.
If this is a big fuck up on their part, and they do decide to go in again, then I imagine the optics of that would be worse than their first attack. They already have Maduro, the guy they’ve been manufacturing consent against for years. Going after a bunch of people the average normie has never heard of would be much harder to defend.
Not that it would scare the empire from doing what it wants, because who’s gonna stop them.