Iranian state media has confirmed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed during the strikes the United States and Israel conducted on the country. NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez reports from the White House on what impact the leader's death could have on the country and region.
Although, it’s worth noting that this was largely a stunt. The US did not have the ability to actually invade Venezuela or to topple the government.
It was indeed a stunt, keep in mind that the US spend trillions to maintain an army capable of invading other countries, it’s just not convenient for them to do so.
It’s more than just inconvenience. The US does not have a good track record fighting prolonged conflicts. They can destroy a country and make millions of people suffer, but they rarely achieve long term objectives.
I would argue that their long term objectives are usually achieved, USA pretty much control the whole world.
the US absolutely doesn’t control the world, the war in Ukraine and recent attempt at a trade war with China is a great example of just how weak the empire really is. The US failed to subdue Russia and their attempt to cut Russia out of the global economy resulted in a separate economic system forming with increasing amount of trade happening outside western control. Now, global majority is allied with China against the empire, and hence why we see the US desperately lashing out.
The US has hit an inflection point where the cost of maintaining the empire outstrips the plunder. All the forever wars have drained critical resources, while financial capitalism moved essential production overseas. Now the US finds that it has little economic leverage, and its material base is eroded.
“The dying serpent always bites”. The roman empire went out like this too, overextending itself with a lot of imperialist wars, then devolving into internal strife and instability until it hollowed out and everyone left.
Indeed, it does seem to be a consistent pattern throughout the ages. I imagine a big part of it is that the ruling class becomes increasingly disconnected from material reality, and they start making decisions based on how they think the world works rather than how it actually is.
You’d argue and you’d lose that argument. If you think the Empire controls the world then you’re clearly not seeing or you don’t want to see how it’s collapsing. If they would have accomplished their objectives they wouldn’t have a single opposition force in the world, yet there are plenty. Maybe you think the world is white people only? Because they do have control over all of their colonies and they are all white Westerners.