Chapotraphouse

The performative "anti-war" stance from the Right always been contingent on the idea that war is bad because it weakens America or at least makes it look weak. Boots on the ground getting slimed by guys in Adidas pants with improvised weapons during a ceaseless insurgency across a decade, with no clear objectives? Bad. Orchestrating some Looney Tunes operation to kidnap a foreign head of state and killing 80 people in the process (who are extra expendable, being foreign, brown and "communist"), all while making off with their resources like bandits? Good.

It demonstrates the lopsided might of the empire (however eroded it has been since Iraq) and flaunts its diplomatic impunity, which is sugar to short-sighted hogs who think stuff like soft power and tact is for sissies. Sure, you can argue how these theatrics in some ways do the opposite and make America look more erratic and desperate but that won't work for people conditioned to worship the superficial visage of "strength".