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America Is Now a Rogue Superpower
- woggy 8mo agoBased on recent stories on Ukraine signing agreements with GCC countries, it is Russian oil money vs Gulf oil money now.
- doctaj 8mo agohttps://archive.ph/JOqhI https://archive.ph/JOqhI
- amarant 8mo ago[flagged]
- casey2 8mo agoSince they are currently at war with Ukraine if they make a profit from selling oil Ukraine will just drone strike their ports. These weird conspiracy theories that the US moves at the behest of Israel and Russia don't hold any water.
- micromacrofoot 8mo agoThey're common because they're probably less weird than reality, which is seemingly "there's no consistent or clear official reason for doing these things"
- throw-the-towel 8mo agoWhy say "will" when Ukraine already is striking the ports?
- catlover76 8mo ago[dead]
- reamaer 8mo agoIf conspiracy exists, it's not US, just single person so ewhere at the top. If leverage exists, it might not dictate every move, just enough to help out the strategic direction.
- pohl 8mo agoAt the very least, it’s uncanny how every “stupid” thing he does suddenly makes sense through that lens.
- adventured 8mo agoIran has been a target since long before 9/11. Look up General Wesley Clark's seven countries in five years YouTube video. This was the plan all along, Trump has nothing fundamental to do with it, he was just willing to pull the trigger. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and lastly Iran They saw the opportunity with Iran weakened, their proxies were knocked down, and Israel was fully mobilized.
- Covzire 8mo agoIt doesn't add up at all, the cost of oil is just one metric and so far the prices are still lower than the last administration's self-inflicted high oil prices that we had just a few short years ago. Obviously the price of oil isn't the whole story. Also Iran had been supplying Russia with a lot of parts for drones. Now they can't, making Ukraine's victory more likely than before.
- tasty_freeze 8mo agoFour years ago the world was coming out of covid and supply chains were screwed for years. Much of the inflation was not due to any particular policy, but just fallout from what COVID did to world markets. The reasons for high oil prices now are a completely different cause.
- dathinab 8mo agoyes but Trump also now has a excuse to abandon Ukraine, and a excuse to lifte trade Embargos on Russian Oil (he already did) this might still not change the outcome of the war, but might still be more useful then drone parts in the sense that if you either don't have money to buy drone parts or the seller stops selling you are better of with money? and maybe he hopes for a Iranian terrorist attack before the midterms so that he can use that as an excuse to not have proper Election (Iran using terrorism for retaliation when other means fail isn't exactly new, so this isn't even that unlikely and a iff we assume he or the people consulting him really are that evil, then a false flag attack is also an option.)
- orwin 8mo agoYou assume way too much competence on either side.
- lo_zamoyski 8mo agoWorse, it is simply unrealistic no matter how competent you are. Conspiracy theories always hinge on highly improbable conditions to hold or require someone have fantastical abilities.
- dathinab 8mo agovery good for Russia quite good for China to better understand US military capabilities maybe good for Trump if he wants to come up with excuses to fully size government power / avoid or fake mid term elections or even "just" frighten voters that if the a government change happens now it will be "very bad" for the US etc. bad for the US (both as a supper power and for it's citizens) and if escalating (which seems very likely) potentially far worse for Europe, Turkey and likely some other places because the refuge wave this can cause is one a completely different level then the one by Syria (like >4x times as bad if worst comes to worst, 1) simple put for all those who want to destroy democracy in the west this is grate in many ways. --- 1: Syria had ~21 Mil citizens before the war, Iran has ~92 Mil + 9 Mil refuges from Afghanistan + others. In general Iran is the land wich currently houses the largest number of refuges AFIK. If thinks go bad this are the people which often will have to flee first. To make matters worse there is a ongoing drinking water crisis, even without a ware or destroyed desalination plants Iran might need to evacuate Tehran (~10 Mil).
- lo_zamoyski 8mo agoIf there's any constant across the political spectrum, it is that Putin is some kind of magical wizard. The only difference of opinion is whether he's a good wizard or bad one.
- arkensaw 8mo agoif he was a magical wizard (good or bad) surely Ukraine would be part of Russia by now, and not a 4 year long quagmire
- lo_zamoyski 8mo agoTell that to the conspiracy theorists.
- partiallypro 8mo agoThe US attacking one of Russia's only remaining allies, and one of their biggest arms dealers, is a backdoor effort to help Russia? How does that even make sense? I really think people should log off for a while and actual evaluate what they are saying instead of listening to totally online grifters. Could this help Russia in the very short term? Sure, does it mostly hurt them in the long run? Probably a lot more so, assuming the regime were to actually fall especially (feels like it's not going to at this point.) The US not being able to control their strait also shows China just how difficult controlling the "South China Sea" would be in the event of an invasion of Taiwan. Which is just a stupid coincidence.
- adventured 8mo agoThe single most interesting thing that will come out of the Iran war, is it's giving the go-ahead signal for China. I don't mean morally specifically, I mean practically: China is plainly seeing the US can't sustain a long campaign what-so-ever. The US has burned through ~850 Tomahawks in weeks, 20-25% of its stock. Again an opponent that wasn't that hard to knock down in terms of air to ground / ground to air, and strategic targets. While the US can demolish high value targets all day long (assuming it can find them), it won't be able to sustain volume. And this is against a dramatically outmatched opponent (in terms of air + navy + intel, not boots on the ground). China will build a hundred cruise missiles per day and truck them in from factories far away from the coast. The US can build 10-20. China's cruise missiles won't be as good, and they won't need to be. And that's the absolute least of what China will hyper produce in a mobilization to a war manufacturing stance. The US should just wave the flag before the first shots are fired re Taiwan given what we're seeing in Iran, it's over before it ever begins. The US can't control the Straight of Hormuz properly, without taking losses (which it clearly doesn't want to do). That's a trivial task compared to trying to keep China from controlling the waters near Taiwan. The US won't be able to even get close to Taiwan is what this is demonstrating. China can stand-off the US easily. The US is showing China and the world that it has zero chance at stopping a takeover of Taiwan. China should be looking at this Iran mess and moving as fast as it can to launch their invasion. The US isn't ready, and won't be. The US could put up a big fight at a full war mobilization, given some time to spin up. That scenario will not occur with regard to Taiwan. China has the green light. --- edit: There was a story about the early days of the invasion into Iraq by the US, after 9/11. It was about the US soldiers rolling into Iraqi towns, cities. They thought the US soldiers were maybe superhuman, or at least had extraordinarily advanced technology. An Iraqi boy wondered if the US soldiers could see through buildings with their helmets and goggles. After all they dispatched Saddam from power so quickly, seemingly so easily - one can understand the wonder. Then they figured out the US soldiers were just meatbags like any other soldiers. That IEDs killed them just the same, and sniper rounds, and so on. One of the very large benefits to rarely using your capabilities as a military superpower, is so that your enemies are unsure of just what you're capable of if pushed. And if you're lucky enough to put on a staggering outcome - as in the first Gulf War - in which Russia got to see their hardware decimated by vastly superior US weapons, then you should rest on that perception as long as possible. Iraq and Afghanistan substantially weakened the perception of US military domination (just a Vietnam did before that, for a generation). Iran doesn't show the US to be weak per se, rather, it shows the limits of its present endurance capabilities among other things. And that's what China needs to know. And of course this happens to major powers from time to time throughout history. Russia goes into Ukraine and gets humiliated, its capabilities at the point of launching that war, were revealed to be embarrassingly mediocre compared to what was thought to exist. Or the USSR and Afghanistan before that.
- catlover76 8mo ago[dead]
- jmyeet 8mo agoHow times have changed when a neoliberal institution (not quite as bad as The Economist) openly says this: > Even the threat of terrorism from the region was a consequence of American involvement, not the reason for it. Had the United States not been deeply and consistently involved in the Muslim world since the 1940s, Islamic militants would have little interest in attacking an indifferent nation 5,000 miles and two oceans away. Contrary to much mythology, they have hated us not so much because of “who we are” but because of where we are. In Iran’s case, the United States was deeply involved in its politics from the 1950s until the 1979 revolution, including as the main supporter of the brutal regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The surest way of avoiding Islamist terrorist attacks would have been to get out. This is absolutely correct and it's wild we now live in a time when mainstream media just comes out and says it. I agree with two general themes of this article: 1. This administration has done more to destroy American's global power than any other in history and it's not even closer. We live in a time when Europe is questioning its position of being America's dog. The Gulf states are questioning what they get out of America's security guarantee if America can't or won't protected them; and 2. Russia and China are huge winners here. China simply has to do nothing and not interrupt the US while they're making a historic and unprecedented mistake. And Europe and the US will likely make peace with Russia over Ukraine because of spiralling energy costs thanks to America's reckless misadventure in the Gulf. This is going to end very badly for the US and it will (IMHO) go down as the biggest own-goal in American history.
- bamboozled 8mo agoChina has played much much better chess so it's not surprise they're benefiting. However, I don't really see how China will benefit from Iran being in ruins. Can you elaborate on how China benefits ? From what I can tell, The USA is either going for force a regime change or it's going to ruin Iran. Where will China get oil from then? You might say Russia but that's a precarious situation for them to be in.
- monknomo 8mo agochina benefits from America eroding its global power is what the thesis is, I believe. Iran being a quagmire that erode's America's global power.
- NooneAtAll3 8mo agoSo... will we see EU apply sanctions?
- 12971h 8mo agoRobert Kagan is not wrong about many points, but it is worth noting that he is one of the leading neocons, husband of Nuland, and architect of PNAC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_C... The think tank (Brookings Institute) which he is part of laid out the Iran strategy "Path to Persia" something like 15 years ago. I think he does recognize that the US needs Europe for projecting power, so that part is genuine. The US could not prosper against a hypothetical Eurasian union. Not sure what to make of this. Maybe it is supposed to appease the EU (you still have allies in Washington), maybe it is a wakeup call for the deep state to pull the brakes.
- xg15 8mo agoYeah, given that there are some theories floating around that Trump is actually executing the "Path to Persia" paper, it's interesting that those people are (ostensibly) distancing themselves from it.
- kackerlacker 8mo agoI think most far from center paper writers are more successful if they don't let reality limit their ideas. Probably few consider a real idiot with enough power to ruin them as a threat when they start putting pen to page.
- xg15 8mo ago"Be careful what you wish for, it might come true"
- anakaine 8mo agoWho even is the deep state any more? MAGA was sure it was backroom democrats. Project 2025 has provided much of the playbook for this administrations run, and thats deep red conservative territory. Meanwhile we have an overwhelming body of evidence for market manipulation and extreme profit taking on the war and oil fronts, pointing to politically aligned financiers. I don't think the deep state is any discernible single group, but rather whoever we want to point the finger at on a particular topic.
- goldforever 8mo ago[dead]
- gspetr 8mo ago[dead]
- fuzzfactor 8mo agoCan't read the Atlantic any more since it became private, but nobody can deny that America's more of a rogue and less super than it was a year ago.
- throw0101c 8mo ago> Can't read the Atlantic any more since it became private It has always been in private ownership, never having been owned by a publicly traded company: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic#Ownership_and_editors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic#Ownership_and_edi... Currently majority ownership is with Laurene Powell Jobs (widow of Steve Jobs).
- fuzzfactor 8mo agoGood information, but this is a time I don't mean stock ownership. More like "members only" for the website where they don't accept "strangers" like they used to do :(
- disgruntledphd2 8mo agoJust stop JavaScript from executing and it's still public.
- c420 8mo agohttps://pressreleased.alwaysdata.net/ https://pressreleased.alwaysdata.net/ Add-on free bypass
- CHB0403085482 8mo agoIf you missed it ~ https://acoup.blog/2026/03/25/miscellanea-the-war-in-iran/ https://acoup.blog/2026/03/25/miscellanea-the-war-in-iran/
- O1111OOO 8mo agoA rogue superpower? We are never going to right the ship when we keep misrepresenting ourselves. Self-reflection is difficult or... too close to the forest to see the trees. The USA is a rogue terror state and we're living in the aftermath of democratic collapse. Everything we see in the news is theater for the masses.