The retired Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden told The Post there’s one mission he would have come back for.
“The Maduro raid — I had two immense feelings: I felt extreme pride and a little . . . jealousy,” Robert O’Neill said.
The stealth operation in January saw US forces snatch Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro at his Caracas home. He is now being held in a federal prison in Brooklyn, awaiting trial on narco-terrorism charges.
“Oh man, I wish they recalled me to do that mission, that was so much more complex than what we did — you’re taking out the president of a country without killing him. You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.”
O’Neill says the Maduro raid and the ongoing war with Iran are not isolated events. He sees them as moves in a larger chess game vs. communist China.
“This is a big push to take away China’s ability to invade Taiwan,” he said. With Venezuelan and Iranian oil cut off, China will lack the resources to launch a full-scale invasion of the island nation.
“They can’t invade Taiwan if they don’t have power,” he explained.
Taiwan represents an essential strategic interest of the US, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. It produces 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors and lies at a key chokepoint in the South China Sea.
“I’m a chess player and you do need to knock out pieces, and Iran is a piece we’re gonna just push out, Venezuela is a piece. China’s the queen,” he said.
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