By Jose Nino
The United States has long operated under a seductive strategic fantasy. Remove the leader of an adversary organization, whether a drug cartel, a terrorist group, or a sovereign state, and that organization will collapse, enabling American interests to fill the resulting vacuum.
However, decades of academic literature, hard empirical data from Mexico’s drug war, and the lived consequences of America’s post 9/11 targeted killing campaigns all tell a damning story many in the DC ruling class refuse to acknowledge. Decapitation strategies are, at best, tactically satisfying and strategically hollow. At worst, they escalate violence, radicalize successors, and produce precisely the instability they were designed to prevent.
The ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran represents the most ambitious test of this doctrine in history. The results so far are deeply troubling.
It seemed to work on Venezuela although I have not heard much news on that front since the US attacks. The apparent victory may have only been superficial.
Overall I suspect the US does not understand why many other people are opposed to it- it seems blind to its own arrogance and brutality.
When 9/11 happened many people globally did not sympathize with the US.
Many people thought 'you had that coming and it was much deserved'.
The Teleban still rule Afghanistan.
It is very true that the US attacks of alleged adversaries almost always makes to situation worse than before...making the culture or area that has been attacked even more reactionary and extreme than it was prior to the attack.
USA today seems like an empire near the final stages of decline.
Yes, Venezuela seems like a possible outlier. I think that might have been a case of the US cooperating with an internal coup though.
Arrogance and consequences that are not serious enough? Is there not a direct enough consequence of the actions? Polls often express the displeasure of the populace but clearly the incentives are either not strong enough to discourage the actions or the people don't really care that much.
Could it also be that liberal democracy is just a ruling elite that has fooled the masses by the illusion of choice.
When Trump was running this last cycle it was clear he was the man of a different crew of elites. We are always ruled by elites. The ideals of democracy have always been an illusion. I sometimes wonder what has to happen for the average man to see this. I actually think they never will.
That's not to say things will never change. They will. But I doubt it will come form the bottom up.
It is actually comical how most people think about politics. The left has been obsessed with Trump for ten years. The right in California have been opposed with Newsom. These men will exit the stage and our path will continue mostly unchanged. You can't just take out the man at the top when the world is run by elites. Same is true many places.
On this particular question, I don't think the decapitation strategy is intended for the same end people assume it is.
They know it won't topple the whole regime. They also know that it makes all the other heads of organizations aware of what can happen to them.
Yep, and I also am not in the head of the regime. Who knows what their intentions actually are or their goals. Goals also change.
Quote from the article-
'America must abandon the interventionist impulse and embrace strategic retrenchment and accept the harsh realities that not all countries want to be remade in Washington’s image.'
Very few if any of the US security partners in the middle east are functional democracies.
What US involvement usually seeks is compliance with US corporate resource hegemony.
Use the petrodollar or we attack you.
Allow US corporations to build pipelines and extract resources or we will attack you.
There is so much BS about 'bringing democracy' to other countries where the reality is US imperialism seeks to bulldoze subservience to the corporate sponsors and Zionist bankers who own the US government.
It is not about bringing democracy, liberty and freedom to other nations- it is about imposing US will over and above the right to self determination that other nations seek.
It seems like most US voters and citizens are woefully ignorant of how much of the rest of the world sees the US and its crude, blatant and bloody imperialism.
Japan's down for it.
Japan is monetarily and militarily subservient tribute state to the US.
Has been ever since Hiroshima.
Watch this and learn -
No they're not. The US isn't forcing Japan to invade Beijing. The PRC is provoking them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre
Oh boo hoo. "My gang needs more clay because of [insert atrocity here]." I'm not buying your Global South grievance logic.
Your inability to deal with the facts is not my problem.
Former US negotiator with Iran: Trump falling into Vietnam trap