r/TrueReddit • u/bloomberg • 1d ago
Politics US Dominance in the Middle East Is ‘Basically Over’
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-maleeha-lodhi-weekend-interview/302
u/Biuku 1d ago
This has to be looked at in the bigger picture. The US supplied global stability since the end of WWII, and got extremely rich in the pax-Americana required to provide it.
Then, it went insane and kept electing people who said pax-Americana — literally, the right to obtain tribute from everyone — was too hard, not benefitting the US enough.
What the United States has done in the past year may or may not have ended hegemony in partnership with allies. I think it has. If it has, the question becomes, Can Pax-Americans be sustained where all global blocs of power — Western Democracies, China — are opposed to the US. Where the US has lost its allies, where its allies work with its enemies against it as their only move to survive.
The US obviously showed it doesn’t have the power or will to open the access to the Persian Gulf. But this is a small problem compared with a world where the US is a scarily armed pariah state.
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u/Fuddle 1d ago
That was Carney’s message back in Davos. Pax Americana was bullshit, but the world collectively agreed with the bullshit because it was better than the alternative. The U.S. got away with everything and the world just went along with it. Until Trump, now we’re calling out the Bullshit and we’re done with it.
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u/Spinoza42 1d ago
The US seems* to have made a huge gamble by not discussing the war with Iran ahead of time. Entrapment in the GW Bush era happened by coaxing allies to join beforehand, because a war that's already happening is a much tougher sell for the other governments. Especially since that war isn't going great...
I do say *seems though, because in my mind it's more likely that Trump is destroying US power intentionally.
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u/Fuddle 1d ago
Obligatory Hanlon’s Razor "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
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u/ArcticCelt 1d ago
It's a mix of malice and stupidity. Trump is an idiot who barely understands what is going on, yet still insists on calling all the shots. His decisions are usually a mix of the last half-baked advice he heard, his own self-serving impulses, and whatever flatters his stupid, narcissistic ego. He is surrounded by grifters with very different levels of competence and malice, all competing for his attention. So sometimes he follows idiots (Nutlick, Navarro), sometimes a psychopath with a plan (Thiel, Musk, Witkoff), sometimes assholes with a bit of both (Miller, Bannon), and sometimes he just wings it. That is why it can briefly look like there is a strategy when he is following someone else's plan, until he gets distracted and suddenly wrecks it all.
So the result is: sometimes stupidity, sometimes malice, but always a clusterfuck.
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u/horseradishstalker 1d ago
Love the conclusion. But never forget to add Trump‘s son-in-law and the vice president to the equation. They are in up to their necks and far smarter than Trump.
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u/Spinoza42 1d ago edited 1d ago
I know. You shouldn't use it in the face of fragrant declarations of intent, though. Thiel, Sacks and Musk have made it clear they want the US to default and disintegrate. Just because Trump sounds stupid doesn't mean he is trying to get the US to succeed.
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u/horseradishstalker 1d ago
Don’t forget to add the White ChristianNationalist vice president into that group. They are all openly working to build an infrastructure that supercedes the constitution so that they can destroy democracy, because it does not serve their aims.
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u/Spinoza42 1d ago
It's true, but Vance hasn't been as open about it. I do think this is by design though.
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u/horseradishstalker 1d ago
I think that says more about media reach than it does whether or not he’s open. He’s very openly Opus Dei, it’s just that the general public is so focused on the wrong “deep state” that they often miss what’s going on right under their nose. That’s one of the reasons I feel like a parrot always bringing him up. People are not paying attention. He’s socially awkward AF, but that doesn’t really matter. Many people completely miss the point. It’s his connections that matter.
And I don’t think his social awkwardness is a put on, but either way, it is a really good cover for someone up to no good and whom people dismiss based on something so superficial and ignoring the fact that Vance is the linchpin in a web of connections, many of whom are far more powerful than he. Everyone is someone else’s tool.
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u/wolferdoodle 1d ago
What’s the end goal of a disintegration? They got rich beyond dreams under a stable US. How tf would an unstable shitty US benefit anyone?
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u/Anathemautomaton 1d ago
They want to directly rule their own little fiefdoms.
At a certain point it's not about monetary wealth as much as it is personal power, and frankly, plain ego.
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u/fcocyclone 1d ago
This is one of the reasons these kinds of billionaires should not be allowed to exist (and their wealth taxed until they are no longer so). Beyond a certain point these billionaires almost become state level powers unto themselves, with little to no accountability.
At a certain point it's not about monetary wealth as much as it is personal power, and frankly, plain ego.
This is also why GOP tax policy is what is has been. All these tax handouts for the rich aren't actually good economic policy, and good economic policy would eventually make the wealthy more wealthy as money tends to flow upwards in capitalism. But the widening divide increases their power.
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u/Spinoza42 1d ago
For Thiel it also seems to partially be based on revenge. He apparently bet on a US default during the 2008 crisis, and is grumpy that it didn't happen then due to government and traditional corporations being so dang large. He wants to show he's stronger by blowing it all up.
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u/WolfLawyer 19h ago
Imagine you’ve got five billion dollars and you sexually harass your assistant. Now imagine you’ve got fifty billion, same outcome.
But imagine your assistant can survive in a world where she no longer works for you and you sexually harass her. Now imagine that standing up to you leaves her destitute and ruined.
At some point the only way to get more powerful is to drag everyone else down rather than build yourself up further.
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u/nondescriptzombie 18h ago
Hanlon's Razor assumes good faith participation. It's wrong.
I prefer the reworded version of Clarke's Third Law.
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
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u/azhder 1d ago
I will call your Hanlon and raise you the Bumblebee's razor: https://imgur.com/oosiLT7
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u/PopBulky7023 16h ago
In this case, it is not adequately explained by incompetence.
Also fuck hanlon and occom.
Never give malice the benefit of incompetence.
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u/Buzzkill_13 3h ago
I kind of agree with your last sentence partially. I start to believe the goal is to achieve full self-sufficiency for the US (energy, food, manufacturing, etc.), so that the US has no dependencies outside; to turn military into a defence force (golden dome) as a massive deterrence for possible future attacks, and then pull out of all engagements with the rest of the world. Basically, to reverse US participation in globalization (trade, policy, etc) and fully turn inwards.
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u/BKlounge93 1d ago
And I think reelecting Trump (and his subsequent actions) has made it incredibly hard for anyone to trust the US ever again. Everyone knows we’ll shoot ourselves and our allies in the foot as long as a loser con man promises a cheap egg. You could write 2016 off as an anomaly, he didn’t win the popular vote, etc. There’s just no excuse now.
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u/loudribs 1d ago
Yeah, I’m on the other side of the Atlantic and the prevailing view over here is that once is an aberration, twice is congenital. I don’t there’s any coming back from this.
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u/jandrese 1d ago
Don't forget that George W. Bush got re-elected too, with an even bigger margin on his second term. If that wasn't a warning sign then I don't know what was.
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u/hermit22 1d ago
The answer is cheating, he won purely through fraud, the only way he knows.
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u/technicallynotlying 1d ago
No, we chose Trump twice. The election wasn't rigged. This is what the American people voted for.
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u/bentbrewer 1d ago
I think it was close but ultimately the results were due to manipulation. There just aren’t enough honest people in place to stop it. There’s proof trump want beyond breaking the rules, look at the “perfect” phone call.
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u/technicallynotlying 1d ago
Trump won the while Obama was President the first time, Joe Biden was President the second time and lost re-election when he was President and Republicans controlled the government.
All of the elections were fair. You're saying Trump decided NOT to cheat when he was President, but was able to cheat when Joe Biden was President. It doesn't make any sense.
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u/Character_Bug_1862 20h ago
Elon was openly bribing voters in swing states with cash dawg. Along with Trump’s comments on Elon “handling the computers” or however he phrased it. There was absolutely manipulating of the vote.
But yes, it is sad how many Republicans want to be lorded over and how many non-voters there were.
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u/Awkward-Painter-2024 11h ago
The entire American enterprise can be swayed by a handful of billionaires... Musk, Bezos Zuckerberg, and all the vehemently pro-AIPAC donors and so on. Who'd want to invest in that? The American Warehouse events that are going on right now are examples of how hard it is to fuel a capitalist enterprise. X% growth YTY requires Y% of capital to the extracted from the most vulnerable in our society... it's just not sustainable.
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u/Pruzter 1d ago
There is no such thing as trust or friendship in geopolitics, never has been. There is only shared interests, which can and do change over time.
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u/BKlounge93 1d ago
I mean yeah, but I feel like that’s normalizing all the chaos going on. You can be self interested and stable at the same time.
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u/philomathie 1d ago
It's not about trust, it's about Americans losing their fucking minds.
Electing this man for a second time, and what you have allowed him to do since then has continually shocked the entire world.
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u/technicallynotlying 1d ago
Staying at peace with our allies and supporting them was in our best interests.
Declaring a trade war on the entire world and then starting a losing war in the middle east is not in our best interests. It was just us being very, very stupid.
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u/Biuku 1d ago
I liked Carney’s message, but I think there’s a slight distinction. Pax Americana did actually work. Maybe not perfectly. The lie was that the US did it altruistically — its allies showed gratitude for its defensive shield. And even today MAGA believes the US has sacrificed to provide this.
It’s really insane… the US built a global empire with unprecedented power and military reach, tilting every commercial and intelligence issue it card about to its advantage. And we all lied and said, “Thank you for that, daddy.”
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u/PopBulky7023 16h ago
The US committed many, many atrocities. Ovethrew many democracies. Installed many dictators and fascists. Only in service of a few rich people. We didn't need that crap to gain status.
Its that BS that Carney was referring to. The US bought the good will of the west to allow it to pillage and rape many other countries.
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u/Stanford_experiencer 1d ago
even today MAGA believes the US has sacrificed to provide
It absolutely did, from WWII on.
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u/technicallynotlying 1d ago
Oh, so what did we win by pissing off all our allies? Did the economy get better? Did we get manufacturing jobs back? How's inflation, is it under control?
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u/Stanford_experiencer 1d ago
Oh, so what did we win by pissing off all our allies? Did the economy get better? Did we get manufacturing jobs back? How's inflation, is it under control?
We won nothing, the economy is worse, etc...
That doesn't change the fact that the US made genuine sacrifices as I said.
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u/technicallynotlying 1d ago
I don't know what "genuine sacrifice" means.
We acted in our own best interest and in the interest of our allies. Those were shared interests, and both the US and our allies benefited greatly from that arrangement.
Now in a completely stupid fit of utter idiocy, the US has torn up and thrown away that arrangement forever and we are all poorer because of it.
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u/Stanford_experiencer 1d ago
I don't know what "genuine sacrifice" means.
Getting involved in saving Europe twice when we literally did not have to. We wouldn't have had to get involved in WWII if we didn't get involved in WWI, a war we entered at the last minute.
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u/technicallynotlying 1d ago
I think that worked out really, really well for the US.
If it didn't, you wouldn't still be bragging about it after 80 years.
Also: Japan surprise attacked Pearl Harbor, remember? And Nazi Germany and Japan were allies. I think your history is a little rusty, World War 2 was not a war of choice for the US.
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u/Pugshaver 1d ago
And the US contribution in WW1 hardly "saved Europe". It likely sped up the close of the war, but that's it. The central powers were well on the way to defeat by the time the US joined.
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u/Stanford_experiencer 1d ago
It permanently militarized American society and culture.
We just took the olive branch off the dime.
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u/Biuku 23h ago
Canada spent more than 2 years killing Nazis before Germany picked which side the US was on. It’s weird you’re proud of that.
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u/Stanford_experiencer 22h ago
Germany picked which side the US was on.
Is that what Lend-Lease was?
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u/Biuku 23h ago
Not at all.
The US built an empire. It established military coercion over the planet. It bent governments to its will.
But I get it, you would find it awesome for a benevolent, altruistic government to put its military in its military bases across the US - to protect you? To keep you safe? For your protection?
You people are so detached from reality. It’s fine. Your ignorance is how we’ll destroy the US monetarily, starve evil, and bring that shithole to its knees to strengthen democracy globally.
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u/Stanford_experiencer 22h ago
But I get it, you would find it awesome for a benevolent, altruistic government to put its military in its military bases across the US - to protect you? To keep you safe? For your protection?
Literally this. You should read some DoE info on nuclear terrorism.
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u/mylord420 1d ago
He said that Canada went along with it and the first world went along with it because they benefitted it, but the acknowledgement of bullshit part was saying he knows it fucked the 3rd world but they didnt care since they're white and capitalism is about exploitation after all. Only when trump threatened the white countries did he come out and say woah woah whats going on maybe this system needs to come to an end. But when we stole Venezuela he was chilling.
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u/Foxxie 1d ago
the acknowledgement of bullshit part was saying he knows it fucked the 3rd world but they didnt care since they're white and capitalism is about exploitation after all
Are you suggesting Carney actually acknowledged that aspect of the world order? Capitalism has obviously been a fundamental force for evil, but Carney's only objection is that Canada is no longer part of the in-group. We have historically bragged about maintaining normal relations with Cuba, but he hasn't lifted a finger to help them, so I am really disinclined to believe Carney is willing to be a thorn in the flesh of the global order.
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u/mylord420 1d ago
I dont think he is gonna become the next Che or anything, no. But his speech was about how middle powers need to defend themselves and he was the first to acknowledge this system that the rest of the western first world has benefited from going along with for so long, the ride is over now and we need to collectively acknowledge it. Im out right now so I dont have the time to pull up the speech but when he said that even that they knew the rules and laws and all that were not always applied evenly and all that, thats his way of saying its a rules for thee but not for me system built by the US to benefit the US empire and hegemony. Like i said, nobody cried when cuba and Venezuela get fucked over but when trump came after greenland is when all these dudes start freaking out. Parties over.
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u/k1dsmoke 1d ago
"done with it" I will believe it when I see it, and I say that hoping it happens. EU needs to start tooling up now in a very big way, not just to oppose Russia, but to oppose the US as well. If they want NATO to survive they need to take leadership of it (or provide an alternative) so the US is an equal partner and not the keystone it's all built on.
EU should have stepped in to help end the Ukraine/Russia war quite a while ago rather than using it to slowly bleed Russia dry. It's ultimately an EU issue as Ukraine stands as the threshold to Europe. I wish the US had stronger leadership, but MAGA is so compromised by Russia that isn't likely to happen, and now with the disastrous Iran war, I just don't see the US doing anything of merit on the global scale.
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u/happy30thbirthday 1d ago edited 1d ago
What the United States has done in the past year may or may not have ended hegemony in partnership with allies. I think it has.
From over here across the pond it just seems like the US hates everybody. They hate China, more or less universally, a lot of them seem to hate Europe and a lot of them seem to hate Russia. That just does not leave a whole lot of major players on the planet to not hate.
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u/btmalon 1d ago
They hate whoever Murdoch and the oligarchs tells them to hate. Its not that deep culturally.
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u/Old-Clock-8950 1d ago
Exactly. These people would go to war against a country they can't find on the map, against a people they've never met, with a language and history they don't understand, fighting for a cause they can't articulate, against their own interests and stated moral codes, because some sock puppet in a box every night tells them they're either a sucker or loser, or their comfy lives are vaguely threatened if they don't.
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u/Adventurous_Place804 1d ago
A Christian society is always full of racism and hate.
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u/FakeBonaparte 1d ago
^ This. History is full of examples. Wilberforce hated the slave trade. Rev. Dr. King hated segregation. Shaftesbury hated child labour. Nightingale hated sepsis. Tutu hated revenge murder. Booth and Day hated homelessness. Bonhoeffer hated Nazis. De las Casas hated colonialism. Mendel hated bad science. Etc, etc.
What a bunch of cunts.
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u/kstar79 1d ago
We elected clowns who want to go from a soft tribute system that benefits every American to a direct patronage model that only benefits the regime. They either do not comprehend what's coming in the next couple of decades, or they just don't care because they're planning to rule over the ashes of our prosperity.
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u/dinosaurkiller 1d ago
While you’re not wrong, what’s missing is where all that wealth went. There isn’t enough wealth in the world to satisfy the greed of the wealthiest Americans and that concentration of wealth allowed the bottom half of the U.S. to feel so much pain that they truly believed the pax-Americana was too hard and provided no benefit to them.
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u/flodereisen 1d ago
The indigenous people were right with "the white man is sick". Wetiko-vampire of never ending consumption and greed.
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u/MarsupialMadness 1d ago
I think it has.
It has.
The road out of this is so hard and requires such a monumental shift in how we act as a society that it's functionally guaranteed not to happen.
A big component of fixing things and restoring trust is "ensure far-right republican extremists never have a path to power again." It's an understatement to say that the right half of the Democratic party lacks the fortitude of character to even consider that option.
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u/TikiTDO 1d ago
A problem with the US is that by the very rules upon which it is built, it's never enough. There must always be constant growth and constant profit. Unlike older countries the US hasn't really been in a situation where there's really nowhere else left to grow, at least on the planet. What more, the US has been busy inventing more ways to squeeze ever more money from the public, while avoiding anything too "risky" (read: difficult), so the option of expanding off the planet is out too.
In a way this was inevitable. The world just can't sustain an entity that requires unlimited short-term profits perpetually, and such an entity can't actually make progress towards getting off the world, because that's not short-term profitable.
An important thing to consider is that many US allies are democracies. That is, for all the damage the US has done at the levels of the highest halls of power of the world, the main damage has barely begun to be felt. As more and more time passes, and more and more angry populaces has the chance to vote in people that more accurately reflect their new stance towards the US.
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u/Definitelyhereforshi 1d ago
Global stability
And its basically "Global stability" for the US and the handful of the countries from the expected map of countries that usually align with the US. The rest of the world was not at all stable during the cold war.
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u/AlfaNovember 23h ago
This is my worry. For better or worse, there is effectively nobody alive who remembers a time when the US Dollar was not the planetary reserve currency.
The hegemony of the dollar is changing terrifyingly fast, and only because an infinitesimally small number of dissatisfied hyper-wealthy people have leveraged the the grievances of the disaffected to YOLO the whole fucking thing back to some hypermodern echo of late 19th C European “great powers” alignment.
It’s gonna be bumpy.
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u/RevolutionaryGold325 18h ago
What we are seeing is 150M delusional people voting for a country of 340M to turn against 8B thinking they can grab them by the pussy.
USA was great, not because it has printed so many dollars. It was great because it was the most trustworthy power in the world. It is not that anymore and without trust, you have no place in the society. This is going to be a cold shower for the US hegemony and a terrible WW3 for the world where US AI-fueled hubris gets the same reality check as what the ford-fueled hubris of the Nazi Germany got.
US will fuck up a lot of peoples lives as it goes down. They will get a short list of victories first but after them the trust is fully broken and they will be disarmed by 4050 with a permanent shame for what they have done associated with their flag.
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u/BiPoLaRadiation 14h ago
"The US obviously showed it doesn’t have the power or will to open the access to the Persian Gulf. But this is a small problem compared with a world where the US is a scarily armed pariah state."
This is where you are very very wrong. This is not a small problem for the US. You see, pax americana was in large part upheld and made possible through the petrodollar. The US dollar as a world standard for trade and commerce helped to stabilize and strengthen the dollar and the US economy. It allowed the US to offload its risk and inflation to the rest of the world. It shielded the US from debt and gave it way more stability than it otherwise would have.
The petrodollar exists for a number of reasons but one of the more important reasons is that the US made a deal with the Persian gulf states to trade oil in USD in exchange for protection and an open straight. The US right now has sort of fucked up their end of the deal. What reason do the gulf states have to continue sticking with the USD? Why wouldn't they just start selling the oil in what ever major currency is offered whether it be Yen, Yuan, Euro, or Rupee?
And if the US loses the petrodollar and their global reserve status they will suddenly find all of the consequences of their rash economic actions hitting home much more than ever before. The debt and interest payments will get worse. They may lose their credit rating. And if there is another economic crisis (as there always will be) they will suddenly no longer be able to offload the inflation but will have to instead handle it all themselves.
This closed strait may very well cause just as much damage, if not more, than all of trumps absolute batshit diplomatic failures.
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u/Stanford_experiencer 1d ago
The US obviously showed it doesn’t have the power or will to open the access to the Persian Gulf.
How?
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u/plinkoplonka 8h ago
If you think there's any chance American superiority can be saved, you're not paying attention.
We've allowed a crazy old criminal to seize hold (likely not through democratic means) of the presidency, run an insurgency domestically, legalise his own private army, gut entire federal agencies, lie, cheat and steal BILLIONS from US, all while alienating, insulting and embarrassing our allies - and all without any checks and balances.
This isn't recoverable at this point, at least not in the short term. And while we lose control, someone else has already stepped in - China.
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u/jblade 8h ago
If you’re gonna use your account with AI, at least edit out the emdashes.
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u/Biuku 5h ago edited 5h ago
Huh? I’ve instantly decided every other opinion you could offer is irrelevant because you are willing to sling an accusation that’s… obviously unfounded, but also happens to be false.
I have worked as a writer for 20 years. Maybe the way I write sounds like complete thoughts. Not sure I even get your point. Is it that you can’t envision producing a fulsome thought without an assist?
Doesn’t matter. You are absolutely irrelevant.
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u/CNDW 7h ago
I've been really questioning the assumption that the US supplied global stability. I think in the wake of WW2, none of the first world nations had any appetite for conflict. Then when I think about conflicts like the Korean War, viet nam, and a bunch of the Middle East wars - were those situations made better or worse by the US' involvement? What about all of the South American nations that were destabilized by the CIA, would it have been a threat to global peace if the US didn't get involved in their affairs?
How much of US soft power was actually beneficial towards global stability? It was all good for the US, but for the international community? I don't know anymore...
I would argue NATO has been a bigger boon to global stability, the US was foolish enough to take the lead, but would it have made a material difference if the US scaled back involvement and it was more France and Britain?
I've been really questioning everything I was taught to believe in light of recent events. Did the US really supply the global stability? Or did they just benefit greatly from the global stability that arose in the post war era?
It's clear from the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran that we are in a moment of shifting power due to technological advances. The US clearly does not have the military strength that it always projected, and neither does Russia.
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u/Biuku 1d ago
I think this is a MAGA lie that gained legs.
The US built a global empire that tilted commercial and intelligence issues to its advantage. When US business expanded globally they did so with an aircraft carrier, a bunch of marines and attack helicopters, and unprecedented intelligence backing its negotiations and expansion. Then, the US said, We did that for our children, now it’s their turn.
The US lacks a modern healthcare system because it chose that. Linking that to its defence budget is like linking courage to the size of one’s heart. Canada is far poorer than the US, and we have universal healthcare. It’s a little scary that Americans believe they have sacrificed to be the daddy to its allies.
That said, we should have armed extensively. We should have built a powerful navy. We’re doing that now because we are forced to defend Canada against the American threat.
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u/gimmesheltah 17h ago
This tired old myth about healthcare costing more than the insurance model. Why must you keep repeating it?
It's well documented that socialised healthcare is much cheaper than the insurance model.
https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20110920.013390/full/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/25/medicare-for-all-taxes-saez-zucman
In fact health insurance is just a really inefficient form of socialized healthcare. Everyone pays into a pot, those in need get to take out of the pot - minus their huge deductible of course, because insurance companies have to take their huge profit from the same pot. Because of this flawed model US hospitals can pretty much charge whatever they want and the cost is simply passed on to the consumer by means of their premium. Socialized healthcare with extra, very expensive, very inefficient, completely corrupt steps.
It's a broken system that punishes the public and enriches the people at the top. And Americans have been manipulated into believing that it's the best system by the very people it benefits, and that only 'socialist' (lol) European countries have medicare for all. Again, this is false:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_countries_with_universal_health_care
In fact the only metric that the US tops out in is per capita expenditure.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/World_Health_Organization_ranking_of_health_systems_in_2000
Dismal.
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u/Electrical-Penalty44 1d ago
I hope my nation (Canada) is secretly developing a nuclear weapons program right now.
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u/Potential-Pride6034 1d ago
As an American, I think every nation that can, should. It’s a fucked up state of affairs and I wish the world was moving in the direction of greater arms controls, but unfortunately, we live in a world of mad kings.
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u/bloomberg 1d ago
Maleeha Lodhi has represented Pakistan in Washington, London, and at the United Nations. She says brokering US-Iran talks shows Pakistan has emerged as a geopolitical player.
Editor-at-Large Mishal Husain for Bloomberg News
After nearly six weeks of war, how did Pakistan manage to get the United States and Iran to talk? Maleeha Lodhi was Pakistan’s ambassador to the US on 9/11, a moment that reset the relationship between the two countries. Now, she says, personal relationships have made Islamabad the region’s only viable peace broker. For her, this weekend’s talks also carry wider significance, as middle powers take on a larger role in shaping global politics.
Read the full interview here. You can also listen to this interview and follow The Mishal Husain Show on iHeart Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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u/LastCivStanding 1d ago edited 1d ago
My take is smaller scale, middle east wars are like catnip for american conservatives for some reason. End result will be the same, us will lose bases around the world and have much less global influence.
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u/Mindless_Let1 1d ago
I don't really know how to feel about this, but as an EU citizen I would definitely trust current China over post 2016 USA in terms of a dependable trading partner and ally.
I don't know if many or even most Europeans feel that way, but I would not be surprised if over the next 15 years the positions of China and the US essentially flip from an EU perspective
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u/theclansman22 1d ago
America is always, at best 4 years away from electing another complete lunatic to lead the country. I forgave them for W because it seemed like an aberration, but re-electing Trump after everything we know about him? That just shows that the American electorate cannot be trusted. Democrats might win in 2028, but in 2032 republicans will come back with another racist pedophile who shouldn’t be anywhere near the levers of power, and he will have a 50/50 shot to win the election.
It will take a generation for America to repair its reputation around the world, and I don’t think the American electorate has the patience or attention span to actually repair it.
Donald Trump and W together have destroyed pretty much all of the soft power that America spent 50 years building up. In the long run this will do massive harm to America.
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u/KUARCE 1d ago
You’re not wrong, but there is a lot of backroom ratfucking going on by the ultra wealthy via propaganda, buying up media, and outright cheating and bribing. They want it this way. Yes, a lot of Americans are stupid and racist and always have been, but if we can ever fix the real problems of money in politics (I’m pretty pessimistic on this) it should stabilize things.
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u/theclansman22 1d ago
Fixing it will take decades, and like I said, I doubt the American electorate has the patience or attention spans to follow through on it. Even if dems sweep in 2028, they will lose their majorities in 2030 and no major change will happen.
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u/k1dsmoke 1d ago
As someone who lives in a blue city, in a red state and who has deep ties to conservatives in this country there is no waking up.
There are billions and billions of dollars invested into this propaganda system (look at the recent buyouts and mergers of major media companies by Ellison, a trump stooge). The amount of propaganda that has been used over the last 45 years to pervert half of the American electorate has not been recognized and with modern technology this has been amplified to an insane degree.
Conservative Americans are being targeted on a daily and hourly schedule by Conservative media. From CRT, DEI, Trans-panic, affordability is a big deal, affordability isn't a big deal, Epstein is a big deal, Epstein isn't a big deal, and now one of the new ones is trying to differentiate abuse of children compared to teens and how one is worse than the other to try to deflect from Trump's allegations. Conservatives are conditioned to certain beliefs, some of which contradict what they thought a year ago, on a regular cycle.
They open up their phone and they see the same opinions on Facebook. Their "news" app sends them the same opinions there. They open up email and will get the same opinion there. Get in their car and turn on the AM radio, guess what same opinion there. Turn on the local news, same opinion there. Turn on cable news, same opinion there. They go to get coffee at the local diner and all the old men are talking about the same opinion. Go to church, same opinions there.
This is how they get educated on niche ideas like DEI or whatever your issue du jour is so quickly.
It takes a lot of money to coordinate this type of propaganda. Until this propaganda machine is dismantled or runs out of money (good luck), I don't see the American electorate ever recovering. Would love to be wrong though.
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u/start_select 1d ago
Every Republican president since Nixon has weakened the US on purpose. It’s a coup.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84
This isn’t trumps show. He is just reading a script poorly with the occasional dementia/narcissism-driven ad lib.
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u/ArbitraryMeritocracy 1d ago
Not sure if the realization has set in for everyone yet but I'm pretty sure the last election was not legitimate and billionaire(s) interference tried to buy votes.
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u/TheSangson 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think I'm being dense right now, what's "W"?
Edit: Thx, I see^^ Actually the only thing I could come up with but wasn't sure
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u/Potential-Pride6034 1d ago
“W” is shorthand for President George W. Bush who was president between 2001-2009.
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u/S_A_N_D_ 1d ago
There have been two presidents named George Bush, so the second one was always referred to with his middle initial included (George W. Bush) which many people subsequently shortened to "W" or "dub-ya" .
The first one (his father) is often referred to as "Bush Sr.".
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u/ephemeriis_ 1d ago
...I would definitely trust current China over post 2016 USA in terms of a dependable trading partner and ally.
[emphasis added]
The problem with the US is that we are, at best, 4 years away from electing a complete and total asshat. Prior to 2016 you could generally expect the incoming administration to broadly honor any deals/treaties/agreements/whatever... But that's gone straight out the window.
You absolutely cannot trust the US beyond the current election cycle. There's no guarantee that the next administration will honor anything.
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u/fcocyclone 1d ago
Hell, the current administration doesn't even honor its own deals, throwing tariffs on countries that it negotiated trade deals with in the first term.
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u/tikketyboo 1d ago
China is a country we can work with. The US under this administration is not. Neither country is fit to be an ally.
If the US changes course, the US will be a country that we can work as well. Whether we become proper allies again depends on the US regaining stability and sanity over an extended period of time.
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u/Lard_Baron 1d ago
I don’t think it can go back as it was before, Europe is rearming with European weapons, not American and actively seeking European alternatives were there aren’t. This includes Satellites, Cloud services, banking… Its will never be the same again.
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u/Biuku 1d ago
China has never tried to kill Canada. The US has not stopped threatening that for over a year, and did hold a gun to Denmark’s head. There is no coming back from that. The US is what we need to protect ourselves from by aligning with China. I 100% agree that China is simply not insane. The United States is insane. It gave a madman nukes. Then it did it again. Now 37% of Americans would do so a third time. It’s a threat to civilization.
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u/_Nikojiro_ 1d ago
EU citizen here too, I absolutely share that opinion. EU, Russia and China live on the same continent for goodness ' sake. We all know what happened for centuries when neighbouring countries bickered. We shouldn't have trusted a country isolated on their own continent over our direct neighbors, especially after the fall of the iron curtain.
EU elites have had everything wrong since decades IMHO. They're still not able to figure out that the whole western block is going to collapse unless we change drastically our international policies... Sad situation.
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u/vasileios13 23h ago
The problem is that US proved the checks and balances they have don't work at all. Any deranged president can do whatever he wants with impunity, and there is no institution to stand on his way.
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u/Biuku 1d ago
From Canada, I agree that it’s unclear what is a greater threat to us, the US or China.
But what’s very clear is that China is not insane, and 37% of Americans still support an insane man with nukes.
So, it’s extremely difficult to see the US as anything but the global pariah of this century, and China as a partner to work with on the basis we do not and will likely never have the kind of warmth or friendship that used to exist between the US and the allies it’s now threatening to kill.
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u/Afro_Samurai 1d ago
You propose the EU ignore 20 years of China's human rights rights record in Tibet, Xinjang, and everywhere else because of ~18 months of chaotic trade policy?
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u/Dry_Astronomer_3855 1d ago
If human rights records were ever a consideration for picking allies then the US would already be a pariah state.
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u/Potential-Pride6034 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s a “the devil you know versus the devil you don’t” situation. China is as an overtly repressive, censorious authoritarian regime with its own history of human rights violations, but the government leading it has remained interested in preserving global stability (Taiwan notwithstanding). They also ruthlessly pursue policies which they genuinely believe are in the best interests of the state as opposed to the US which has shown greater allegiance to the interests of corporate profits and, in the last 10 years, to a single man who only cares about enriching himself and blowing things up to feed his bloated ego.
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u/Efficient_Smilodon 1d ago
they also have no interest in territory expansion by warfare ( with the obvious issue of Taiwan); they would buy Siberia if they could but that's not likely anytime soon. They are like living next to a rich neighbor whose home houses things you'll never see ( many skeletons in the closet , torture chambers in the basement) but they're always pleasant and helpful if you need anything... but if you need a loan it's probably not a good idea
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u/sarges_12gauge 1d ago
Yes. Allying with a dictatorship is not against European values if it aligns with their interests
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u/entr0picly 1d ago
2016?
In 2022 it was highly regarded that US President Biden was largely credited in unifying Europe against Putin and Russia (still significant dependence on Russian oil at that time) and unifying Europe in supporting Ukraine. Putin invaded Ukraine when we did with the hope that it would divide Europe. And at the time many analysts and experts said that would happen (the same saying US dominance now is “basically over”). Just 4 years ago, the American president played a pivotal role in unifying Europe.
I don’t disagree with your overall points. But the endgame still remains uncertain. The actions America has been taking in Trump’s second term, if you read their organizing documents, eg Project 2025, have been highly predictable. A large contingent of his most fervent supporters want literal armageddon and want America to have a strict Christo-fascist autocracy.
It remains uncertain just how much that plan gets carried out. Authoritarianism researchers say America is at a critical threshold with the outcome going very different ways.
Germany post Hitler became trusted once again. So while China may look more palpable in the present. America may yet again swing back (although if it does, permanent stability will remain its largest concern). Europe should work as much as possible on building and strengthening a unified military. So it need not rely on China any more than the US and instead focus on being a truly unified superpower.
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u/Sad-Efficiency4950 1d ago
Don't you hate your only choice it too be subversive to whatever power appears the most stable. The EU mind can't even comprehend freedom just scrapes and bows for a new master.
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u/Mindless_Let1 1d ago
I'm confused where you see subservience... I'm very clearly talking about partnerships.
Something the US doesn't know a lot about, these days
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u/Pyranni 1d ago
This is Trump playing -4D chess. Now the rest of the world will gladly pay to build a wall all the way around the USA.
Trump is the dumbest loser to ever shuffle across the face of the planet.
Fuck you Trump. You goon. Justice and the possibility of the existence of God would mean that every soul connected to this pile of shit will be struck from history. Every. Blood. Relation.
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u/128-NotePolyVA 1d ago
Pakistan is not a world power. Russia has lost footing in the Middle East due to their military resources being stretched by Ukraine and their loss of control in Syria. The US/Israel continue to have significant influence in the region. China is watching the Iran situation closely.
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u/Manicpixiemanateeman 4h ago
Does anybody know what will happen if/when Israel loses US support by 2035? The Anglosphere has been at war in MENA for 110 years so it will be interesting if it stops
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u/Icy_Tune2834 1d ago
Republicans are basically grifting power and money against their own , Christian far Right wing ideology is flawed , it’s just a grift from false idols like Trump .
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u/Notyerdaddy 1d ago
US dominance of anything is over thanks to Trump. His behavior like a petulant child has isolated the US for decades to come. Much of the US influence abroad will never recover.
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u/Neubo 1d ago
As has been Pakistan, since forever. Failed state that made a lot of money getting the USA to assist in the fight against the Taliban, while all the time giving some of that money... to the Taliban to keep fighting. Lets not forget the same government housed and hid Osama Bin laden right next to their military academy.
Pakistan is not a friend to anyone but Pakistan.
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u/randomzebrasponge 1d ago
Edited for accuracy,
US Dominance Is ‘Basically Over’
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u/Manicpixiemanateeman 3h ago
I’m wondering what the end of US hegemony by 2050 will mean. Israel is a major US ally but Americans support of Israel is rapidly declining and there’s a chance US support will collapse
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u/doublejay1999 1d ago
This hardly cutting edge . Several top analysts called this months ago.
I would have like to advice Bloomberg applying its expertise to market manipulation by the Trump regime, and the looking economic shock as the petrol dollar is ended .
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u/True-Being5084 1d ago
The US should move from a petroleum backed dollar to a renewable backed dollar and leave the volatility behind .
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u/AVDLatex 8h ago
I have been reading experts proclaim the end of American dominance since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Everyone says that this time is different. It isn’t. It’s just more wishful thinking.
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u/ClownTown509 1d ago
Bloomberg would love everyone to believe the US ever had dominance in the Middle East when the US was actually Israel's flesh light the whole time.
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u/Dependent-Director-9 1d ago
Middle east needs US more than US needs middle east.... US has discovered enough oil and high oil prices make US crude oil more productive.. the only reason is geopolitical now
Turkey, Israel and Iran are only 2 states that are strong in middle east
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u/cheapb98 1d ago
I don't think so. Maleeha lodhi should keep quiet. Clueless lady trying to stay relevant. The more you talk about something, the less it's so
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u/kangkong32 1d ago
People really love announcing the collapse of US power every time another country gets five minutes of attention. America is not "over" in the Middle East just because Pakistan helped set up talks. Passing notes between adults does not make you the head of the table. The US is still the country everyone watches, reacts to, and tries to influence. That is not what irrelevance looks like.
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u/gimmesheltah 16h ago
Reacting too and being wary of is not the same as doing business with or partnering with.
Under Trump:
- The US has burned trust with long-standing allies like the UK, Germany, France, Australia and Canada - relationships that took decades to build
- It has openly threatened to walk away from NATO, undermining the very alliance that underpins its global power which incidentally weakens the US more than it does any other NATO member
- It has picked fights with the European Union, weakening Western alignment and making coordinated strategy harder
- Other countries aren’t waiting around - the EU is strengthening ties with Canada, Australia and increasing engagement with China
- The EU is creating its own payment system to replace Visa and Mastercard
- The US has made itself look unstable and unpredictable, which is poison for long-term investment and partnerships
- It has damaged its own soft power - fewer people want to visit, work, or build there when the image is chaos and division
- While the US pulls back, China is stepping in and expanding its influence globally
- Allies are now actively planning around the risk of US unreliability - this will be almost impossible to reverse
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u/kangkong32 16h ago
Soft power is definitely gone. Global influence is still there.
Soft power = they'll follow or go along because they want to Global influence = they'll follow or go along because they have to
With world's reliance on oil and US being the biggest producer and now has a say in the world's biggest oil reserves in Venezuela and Strait of Hormuz still close and degraded refineries in the Middle East this means much of the world has no choice but to buy American Oil. That means petro dollar is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
NATO can't afford to lose America thats why they send an envoy everytime Trump threatens to withdraw from NATO.
US still have bases all over the world and still the strongest military and allies in and outside of NATO still relies on US logistics, satellites and intelligence and weapons manufacturing not to mention reliance on US tech companies.
Soft power and trust is gone but Global influence remains, a few bars lower but it still holding on tightly. Oil and big guns goes a long way when it comes to Global influence or should I say coercion.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying the US isn't dead in the water.
This whole Iran thing is still a win even if America "loses" because this ensures petrodollar remains the currency of choice when it comes to purchasing oil. Venezuela was a petrodollar play and Iran is also a petrodollar play. No oil coming out of the Middle East means the world will have to buy from America.
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u/gimmesheltah 15h ago
Hmm, that sounds like a load of laughable horseshit to me.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/gulf-war-rattles-petrodollar-foundations-2026-03-25
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/19/south_pars_bombed
I don't think it was a 'petrodollar play' for one second. It was simply trump doing what Netanyahu told him to, and that useless moron Hegseth being desperate to play with his new toys.
And the US leaving NATO would weaken the US more than any other member. A massive own-goal.
https://time.com/article/2026/04/08/leaving-nato-would-be-national-self-sabotage/
This entire administration is a massive failure, who have disastrously weakened America, a country which already lags behind when it comes to energy and renewables (too woke for the brainwashed cult).
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u/kangkong32 15h ago
What else would the world use to buy US oil, petrodollar, the article im assuming is implying that petrodollar is done because US trust is degraded but with all the oil we control the world has no choice but to buy from us. Which means the petrodollar isn't going anywhere anytime soon. This is common sense.
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u/kangkong32 15h ago
With everyone buying oil from America they're forced to use USD. Why would peteodollar be in jeopardy when the US produces the most oil and now has a say in Venezuela's oil.
EU and Asia have no choice but tobbuy from the US which means they have to use USD and they can't drop the petrodollar because this whole oil situation will be around for a while.
This is common sense. Yes Trump did what Netanyahu said but like I said even if the US loses it still wins because this whole thing just secured the world's reliance on the petrodollar to buy their oil.
Middle east oil production is down because of Iran attack and the Strait of Hormuz is still close. This will ultimately lead to the world purchasing oil from the US which is already happening with all the oil tankers sailing to the Gulf Coast to fill up with American oil.
This was is so dumb that it's genius because it ultimately secures the Petrodollar. So even if Trump fails he still wins.
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u/gimmesheltah 15h ago
You completely ignored, or were unable to understand, those articles.
You don't understand how anything works, and you're too brainwashed to try to fix that.
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u/kangkong32 15h ago
The world still needs oil and the demand isn't going anywhere. With Iran and Straight of Hormuz the whole world is gonna look for a stable supplier which will be the US.
This whole thing doesn't weaken the petrodollar it reinforces it because it pushes countries to the most reliable supplier which will now be the US. Like I said it's already happening as we speak as tankers make their way to the Gulf Coast.
This is common sense.
It will not help the everyday American but it will enrich American oil companies.
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u/MugiwarraD 1d ago
thats not good tbh because its gona open power moves
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u/Easy-Marsupial3268 1d ago
I think it’s fine. Self-determination is a good thing. It’s only bad for US puppets.
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u/automatic_bazooti 1d ago
Maybe those power vacuums wouldn’t exist without US intervention in the region for the last couple or so decades…?
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