Post #422

The World We Live In [ Global ] 🌟 These days many people like to talk about a "global rebalancing", the end of the US-led world order, and other things that sound very abstract and detached — until one evening the president of your country is kidnapped by Americans, as has just happened to Venezuela’s Maduro. That is precisely the kind of thing that signals the arrival of a brave new world, whether we like it or not. ▶️ The US attack on Venezuela is something genuinely new, even compared to Iraq and Afghanistan. Back then, many also said the US was looking for oil although Washington never actually made net oil profits from Iraq, and Afghanistan had nothing to do with oil at all. In both cases, the reasons were ideological: the need to impose “democracy”, and perceptual: the US saw itself as a global policeman and sought to live up to that role. 🛢 Now Trump isopenly saying that he'll take Venezuela’s oil — although oil is only part of the issue. In total it seems that he wants not just oil, but de facto obedience from Caracas and any other country that Washington decides to fold into its sphere of influence. 🔥This kind of behavior is a direct result of the gradual erosion of the US status as a global hegemon. As China gains ever more weight in the economy and in our beloved minerals, Washington will act ever more aggressively — not through competition, but through force — so as to preserve its positions and economic assets. ✈️ This applies to us no less than to anyone else. True, the US is not as close to, say, West Africa as it is to Venezuela. But are you really sure that if your president tomorrow denies Washington preferential access to resources, or strikes a deal with someone the White House does not like, he would be any more protected than Maduro? #Global ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow