Transcript archive

Game Theory #9: The US-Iran War

Source-synced transcript for the compressed reading. Spans keep the original chronology, timestamps, and audit trail behind the public interpretation.

Jiang

I hope everyone had a nice break, and welcome back to the end of the world. So as you know, World War 3 has started, the United States and Israel have started to attack Iran. And we are now in the fourth day of this war. And we can expect this war to last for many weeks, possibly also for many years. But I promise you that after this war is done, the world will never be the same again. So what we will do these next few weeks is use game theory and understand and analyze the geopolitical situation. And so I'm going to teach you the ideas, the theories, the techniques to understand the world around you and make predictions. And we can know if our analysis is correct. Because all this is happening in real time. And so we can test it against reality. Alright, so let's go over some basic facts about what's happened so far.

Jiang

So in the early morning of Saturday, in Tehran, the Israelis and Americans launched a decapitation strike against the Ayatollah Khamenei, who is the supreme leader of Iran. Now there are arguments and disputes about as to what happened. The Americans initially said that they had real intelligence about where the leader was. And so they sent airplanes to just bomb the crap out of the place. They also had a spy who was able to record the body of the dead Ayatollah. And then this was announced. At first, the Iranians denied this, and the Iranians insisted he was still alive. But eventually, state media admitted that he did die in the airstrike. But then what they also said is that the Ayatollah, he's 86 years old, and he chose to die. He could have gone to Moscow, but instead he chose to stay in Tehran and die for his people. But not only that, but he died along many of his relatives.

Jiang

He died along with his daughter, his son -in -law, his grandchildren. So the entire... So many of the family died in this assault. Also, there's been reporting that he had prostate cancer. Okay, so he was going to die fairly soon as well. So what you need to understand first about the war is that even though the Americans and the Israelis claim great success in decapitating the leadership of the Iranians, from the Iranian perspective, this is a martyrdom. Martyrdom. And so the religion of the Iranians is called Shia Muslim, and this is different from Sunni Muslim. So Sunnis are the majority, they're about 90 % of all Muslims in the world. The Shia have always been the minority, and as such, they've always been persecuted. So in the Shia faith, the core value, the force that binds everyone together and gives them purpose and meaning in life. That galvanizes them into action is the idea of martyrdom, which forces jihad.

Jiang

You sacrifice yourself for your religion, sacrifice yourself for the common good. So think of the death of Khamenei as a sacrifice, a self -sacrifice in order to motivate the Iranians in this war, okay? So that's the first thing you need to understand, that for the Iranians, this is not a typical war. This is not an economic war. This is not a war of resistance. This is a jihad, okay? It's a war against the great Satan to avenge their leader. They will fight to the death, all right? That's number one. Number two is this. Also that morning, when the Ayatollah was killed, the Israelis struck a school in the south of Tehran, killing about 150 school children. These are girls in primary school. And the reason they were killed was because of the war. And again, there's not a debate and argument as to what happened. The Israelis said that, first of all, the school was next to a military base.

Jiang

We're targeting the military base. And second of all, it wasn't us which struck the school. It was an air defense missile that went off course, okay? And the Arabians insisted no, the Israelis purposely attacked the school to kill the school children. And then you were like, why would the Israelis do that? Stress. Within these few years, we've seen what they've done in Gaza, in Palestine to the Palestinians. And it's pretty consistent what the Israelis have been doing. So this action against the Israelis, it's meant to show to themselves and the world that we are now all in. We've made the sacrifice. We are now committed to this war, to winning this war at all costs. And this action has also provoked the Iranian people to resist with their full might. So I want you to keep this in mind. And again, we don't have complete evidence that it's the Israelis who did this.

Jiang

But given past actions from the Israelis, this is fairly consistent with what they've done. So we can assume that this is something the Israelis did. Why they did this, what the purpose is, is something we will discuss as we move forward. It's very complicated. Next, I want to show you this. This is Dubai. And Dubai is considered one of the wealthiest, safest cities in the world. There are thousands, tens of thousands of Westerners who move to Dubai because it's clean. You don't pay any taxes. You make a lot of money. And there are great restaurants. And this is really the economic model of Dubai. It's one of the Gulf, the GCC countries. Okay. The Gulf, coastal countries. And for the longest time, Dubai had a really good deal. Because they were under the protection of the American military. So they didn't have to pay for defense.

Jiang

And then they were in the Middle East, which is the oil producing center of the world. And so they focused on aviation. They focused on logistics. They focused on finance, on tourism. They were extremely wealthy, right? I'm not sure if you've taken Emirates, one of the best airlines in the world. So their airport, Dubai airport, is the busiest in the world. And Dubai, for the longest time, was flourishing under American protection. And Dubai said to the world, listen, we're like Switzerland. We're neutral. We don't want any involvement in any wars. We're here just to take care of our citizens, to make sure everyone has a good time, to make money. And then right after the war started, the Iranians attacked the GCC. Okay? Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait. They attacked these places. And these places were like, what's going on? We're neutral, man. We're not involved in this war. And the airport was shut down in Dubai.

Jiang

At one point, the rich people in Dubai were willing to pay. They were willing to pay about $25,000 US dollars just to get on a plane and get out of there. Okay? So the reality is this. For the longest time, Dubai had a reputation for being safe. And that's why people moved their money there. Guess what, guys? After what the Iranians did, it's dead. Dubai as a city, in the long term, it is dead. Because you're a wealthy Westerner, you're not going to move to a place where it could be attacked any time by the Iranians. You might move to Singapore. You might move to Hong Kong, Japan, South America, but you're not moving to Dubai. Okay? So the big question for us is, why did the Iranians do this? It was the Israelis and Americans who attacked you. Why go after the GCC? All right? And not only that, but they're escalating the attacks against the GCC.

Jiang

So this is something that we will look at very closely today. Well, the short answer is because these places, even though they pretend to be neutral, they're not neutral. They house the American military. They allow the Israelis and Americans to use their airspace to attack Iran from. All right? So this is Bahrain. Now, Bahrain is interesting, okay? I want you guys to remember this. But Bahrain will probably be one of the major centers of this conflict because, first of all, this is the American Fifth Fleet. All right? This is their naval base in the Middle East. And as you can see, the Iranians are attacking it. With missiles. And it's being blown up. Bahrain is interesting because it has about 50 % or even more Shia, which is the religion of the Iranians. But the people in charge are the Sunnis. And so what makes this

Jiang

strike really important from our perspective is, first of all, not only are the Iranians attacking U.S. military assets. Not only are they destroying the economies of the GCC, but they're also trying to ignite a religious war. Right? Because if you're Shia, you're loyal to the Ayatollah. And if he's dead, then you must, as a religious obligation, now commit jihad against your enemies. And it's no different in other religions where, listen, if you want to kill the Pope, the Catholics would be really angry at you. And they would want to kill you. Right? So now you have the Shia who will probably eventually arise, creating a revolution in Bahrain. Okay? So I think Bahrain will be the first to fall. Dubai will probably go bankrupt. Okay? But in the long term, we can expect the entire GCC area, including Saudi Arabia, to eventually collapse. Okay? And this is something we will use game theory to understand.

Jiang

All right. Let's continue. So we will know how this war develops just based on geography. Okay? So this is a map. And this map, even if you don't really know the war, even if you don't know the participants, even if you don't know the weaponry, this map will tell you exactly how this war will progress. All right? So some certain things to keep in mind about this map. This is what we call this area. Okay? Really small. But it's 33 kilometers wide. Okay? People can swim across it. It's really, really narrow. This small area, guys, it's called the Chateau de Formousse. All right? And it's important because it's really the center of the world. This one area is the nexus, the pivot of the world. Let me explain why. First of all, from the GCC, you have 20 % of all the world's oil. Flowing through this narrow strait. Where does it go, guys?

Jiang

It goes to Asia, India, Pakistan, South Korea, China, Japan. India depends on 60 % of its oil from this area. China depends on 40%. Japan, 75%. Prime Minister Takeuchi of Japan has said that, listen, if the Chateau de Formousse closes, we'll run out of oil in about eight, nine months. The entire Japan. The entire Japanese economy would collapse in eight, nine months if the Chateau de Formousse were to close. And guess what? The Iranians have closed the Chateau de Formousse. Okay? So we can expect that the entire global economy will suffer greatly over the next few months. All right? So that's point number one. Point number two is, okay, so the GCC sends oil across the Chateau de Formousse and what do they get back in return? Food, guys. All right. So people don't appreciate the GCC, but it is really the linchpin of the American empire. Because what is the American empire? The American empire is the petrodollar.

Jiang

All right? The idea of the petrodollar is this. The U.S. dollar is worth nothing. It's only valuable if people want it. But the GCC says that if you want oil from us, you have to pay us in U.S. dollars. Okay? Then that is the basis of the value of the U.S. dollar. So if the GCC collapses, the American economy and the American empire both collapse at the same time. The problem, though, is the GCC is an artificial construct of empire. It does not exist naturally. Why? Because that's no food, that's no oil, no water. Okay, guys? No food, no water. So these cities are able to grow in the millions because of all these petrodollars flowing in. If you close off the Chateau de Formousse, there's no food coming in. Right? They're all going to starve. How much food does the GCC get from overseas? 80%.

Jiang

80 % of all the food it consumes comes from overseas that it imports. It doesn't grow by itself. It imports. All right? So the Chateau de Formousse is really key. And again, the Iranians will close it in order to strangle the global economy and therefore, bankrupt the American empire. All right? Second thing you will notice is these mountains. These mountains is what we call Iran. All right? This is Iran. This is GCC. Okay? This is not a fair matchup. Right? Because these are mountains. And what can you do in mountains? We can hide rocket bases. You can hide drone bases. You can hide missiles. And that's the entire Iranian offensive strategy. All right? From here, they can hide missiles and drones. From which to attack the GCC. And what are they attacking? They're attacking three things, right? They're attacking American military bases. American military bases. That's number one. Okay? Is it possible for the Americans to defend against these attacks?

Jiang

The answer is no. It's the silliest thing in the world. You have all these bases in the Middle East, but you cannot defend them against the Iranians. That's kind of strange. Okay? But that's number one. Number two is oil and energy. How hard is it to blow up an oil field with a drone? Not hard at all. Can you defend these oil fields? No, you cannot. All right? Number three, and this is most important, is water. Okay? You guys don't know this, but the GCC has little access to fresh water. So, the only way that it can produce water is what we call oil. Okay? So, oil comes from desalination plants. Okay? These factories that take salt water and then through an electrical chemical process, turn it into fresh water for the population to use. 60 % of the water supply in the GCC comes from desalination plants. Okay? 60%.

Jiang

Is it hard to blow up a desalination plant using a drone? The answer is it's very easy. You understand? Okay? So, you have this absurd situation where Iran is a mountain fortress, where it can hide its offensive capacity, and the GCC, it's just this desert, this flat desert, and it is exposed to attack, and there's nothing it can do about it. Okay? So, at any point in this war, the Iranians can choose to just destroy the entire GCC, and there's nothing that anyone can do about it. Okay? But, Iran also has a weakness. Okay? And this is fundamental. So, Iran also has a water problem. Okay? So, for the longest time, they suffered a drought issue. Okay? Just climate change. And so, what the plan of the Israelis and Americans is, is destroy the water supply of the Iranians. Because the fortress, it is a mountain fortress, but it can also be a mountain prison. Okay?

Jiang

but it can also be a mountain prison as well. Where people are trapped inside, with no access to water. Okay? So, what we're gonna see right now, we're already seeing attacks on civilian infrastructure, hospitals. In the future, you'll see attacks on water supply, on dams, on reservoirs, on power plants. The point, the idea, is to make Iran so inhabitable that the people will have to rebel against the people, or there'll be a refugee crisis. Okay? So, as you can see from this map, this war, it is the end of the world. Okay? Both sides have the potential to destroy each other. It's really a question of how far do they wanna go? All right? We can also say this is almost a game of chicken. Okay? We can blow each, we can blow each other up. How far do you wanna go? And, the problem is this. The problem is this. The problem is that the Iranians are Shia, which believes in martyrdom.

Jiang

And, you've killed the religious leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei. So, they're willing to go very, very far. The GCC countries are Muslim, but they're materialistic. They love money. And, also, most of the population are expatriates, foreigners. 90 % of Dubai are foreigners. Guess what's gonna happen if they suffer? They're all gonna run away. Okay? So, we have a fear matchup. The big question that people have is, first of all, are the Americans gonna use ground troops? Because the only way that you can defeat Iran is by using ground troops. Okay? That's a big question we'll look at over the next few weeks. Will America send its army? Half a million, two million soldiers to topple the government? Okay? That's question number one. Question number two, if you go to war, would you choose to use nuclear weapons? Okay? That's another big question that we have. Okay?

Jiang

Another big question that we have is, who gets involved? Because this situation is so dire that Europe, okay, specifically Germany, France, and Britain are talking about entering this war. And guess what? If that happens, it is possible that Russia and China will also enter this war on the side of the Iranians. This is World War III. Okay? Because of the importance of the moves, because of the importance of the Middle East, everyone has to get involved at some point. And we're gonna use game theory to really try to understand what's happening on the ground and where this could lead us. Okay? All right. You guys understand? All right. All right. Let's continue. Okay, so, again, there are American bases all over the Middle East. And, originally, these bases were established to protect them from basically their own people. Okay? These are monarchies that were imposed on these nations by the Anglo -American Empire. The British first and then the Americans came to support these monarchies.

Jiang

So, they were actually And so, they provide defense. But then you're like, wait a minute here. I mean, didn't we just say that these American bases can actually defend these people, that they're exposed? And the reason, and the answer is yes, that's true. But remember, that the American military was built during the Cold War. Okay? And the Cold War was a war between the Soviet Union and America. And so, the Cold War was defined by something called MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction, because both had nuclear weapons. Okay? So, they didn't really go to war against each other. And so, in other words, these bases aren't really meant to defend these nations from other enemies. They're really meant to impose American authority in the Middle East. Okay? And it's the idea of this. It's the idea that empire, it is really a image. It is a hallucination. It is an idea.

Jiang

Empire is the, it's an aura of invincibility and inviability. Okay? If you fear it, then you obey it. But, it's not really designed to fight a war. Okay? And so, that's why we have this absurd situation. And because there are so many bases in the GCC, that gives the Iranians the perfect pretext to attack them and destroy them. In order to destroy the GCC economy, which will destroy the American Empire. Alright? Alright. So, this is how the war is shipping out. Okay? So, the red is the Israelis and the Americans. The yellow are the Iranians. And as you can see, the Iranians are attacking everywhere. Primarily, Israel. Okay? But also, as you can see, a lot of focus on Bahrain and Qatar. So, the intention is to destabilize the economy and the government. Okay? It's to try to get as much instability as possible. Alright? Okay? And as you can see, the Americans and the Israelis are focused on Tehran.

Jiang

And so, the Americans and the Israelis use something we call shock and awe. And the very idea of shock and awe is you decapitate the enemy. You cut off the head, the body will fall down. Okay? The problem, though, is, again, the Iranians see this as a religious war. And so, the Iranians have announced total war. Okay? And so, what this means is that right now, command and control in Iran is decentralized. There's no one person telling everyone what to do. Every region has its own orders, has its own strategy. And so, if you knock out Tehran, everyone else keeps on going. So, if you take off the head, it doesn't change anything. Okay? But unfortunately, the Israelis and the Americans use this as a military doctrine. Military doctrine just means how you design your military for what purpose. And so, the even though the Americans seem like an

Jiang

invincible army, they are not equipped to fight a 21st century war against drones, against deserialization, against religious fanatics. Okay? They're just not. All right? But unfortunately, because of military doctrine, they're going to keep on attacking Tehran. Now, the great irony of all this is that the Iranians who would be most supportive of you, of regime change, are actually in the cities because they're educated, they're progressive. The people who are most fundamentally against you, will fight you to the death, are religious fanatics, the Shia militants, living in the rural areas. Okay? So, this is a really silly thing where you are actually destroying those who will most likely support you and you're leaving alone those who are most likely to commit jihad against you. All right? Any questions so far guys? Are you clear? All right. So, another idea that I want you guys to understand is the idea of asymmetry. Asymmetry. All right? So, what is asymmetry?

Jiang

Asymmetry means that the two sides are choosing to fight different wars using different techniques because one is much stronger than the other. Okay? America is a great empire. It has unlimited resources. It has the USD. It has, it controls the world. It has sanctions for the past 45 years. It's poor. Its technology is very limited. Okay? But, as we learn in this class, actually, those nations that are poor actually have more energy. They're more open and they're more cohesive. All right? So, let me give you an example. This is what we call the Shahad drones. Shahad drones. Each of these drones cost $50,000 at most. Okay? At most. It can go as cheap as $35,000. But, one of them is $50,000. As you can see, you can fit a lot of these drones to a truck that can go anywhere in Iran. And, you can hide anywhere. All right? So, the thing to understand is, first of all, these drones are cheap.

Jiang

They're easy to make. They make about $500 a day. Okay? And, estimates are about there's 80,000 right now that the Iranians have. So, they can go on for a long, long time. Okay? And, one of these drones, again, can knock out a desalination plant. It can knock out an oil field. It can knock out a hotel. It can do a lot of damage. Okay? And, it's easily transportable. You can hide it anywhere. You can use it from anywhere. Okay? And, that's what the Iranians are using as an offensive weapon. And, how do Americans defend against this? They use something called a FAD. All right? All right, guys. This is what they use. FAD. FAD stands for Thermal High Altitude Air Defense. And, they also have like Patriot systems. There's a lot. Okay? The thing that you will, that you need to know about the system is it's really expensive.

Jiang

This missile, guys, costs one million dollars. One million dollars. So, there's this $50,000 drone coming your way and you throw a million dollar missile at it. Okay? And, often these missiles miss so you have to throw two or three missiles at it. Okay? So, you used to be spending two to three million dollars on each $50,000 that the Iranians spent. That's kind of silly. Second thing you'll notice is that this thing is really big and really slow. And, therefore, you can't really move it around. Therefore, it's pretty easy for the Iranians to spot where this is and attack it. And, when these things blow up, that's a lot of money, guys. Okay? Then, you're like, but this makes no sense. You know the Iranians have drones. They've had drones for like 10 years. You've also seen drones used in the Russia -Ukraine war to devastating effect.

Jiang

Why don't the Americans know this? Why didn't they prepare? Okay, and again, it has to do with military doctrine. Because military doctrine determines how you fight a war. It determines on your bureaucracy and it determines how you spend your resources. Okay? And, unfortunately, the Americans are used to fighting something called the Cold War. Right? And the Cold War, you can't actually fight the war. You can't kill each other because then people will use nuclear weapons. The Cold War was about flexing. Flexing. Okay? You see how big and powerful I am? Me! Okay? That's all it was. These weapon systems are designed to scare the crap out of you. They are designed to impress you. And, as a result, they cost a lot of money and they don't do anything. Alright? So, that's the entire American military. It costs a lot and it doesn't really do anything. And it's not resilient. It's not innovative. It's not open.

Jiang

Alright? Also, the other thing I have to say this, okay, is if you look at the American military, it's corrupt. So, this is really about corruption. So, the Americans don't really care about winning a war. What they care about is spending as much money as possible because then they get a cut. It doesn't make sense. The Americans aren't in the situation as they are. Alright, let's continue. Alright. So, something that people don't really talk about, but you need to understand, it's the water issue in the GCC, in the Middle East, in Iran. Alright? So, this is a map of the world. And if you are light blue, Brazil, Canada, you have nothing to worry about because you have a lot of water, a lot of fresh water, very little population. Alright? So, 100 % just means, 100 % water stress just means that you drink as much water as the environment produces. Okay?

Jiang

So, you want to be below 100 % to be sustainable. Ideally, you want to be at 10%. Okay? If it goes above 100%, it means that you are drinking more water, using more water than the environment actually produces. Okay? So, you're putting stress on the environment. So, 20 % is really bad, right? Because you're using twice as much water as the environment produces. Guess what, guys? Look at the Middle East. Okay? Egypt, 6,420%. Saudi Arabia, 883%. Alright? Bahrain, almost 4,000%. Dubai, 17,000%. Alright? So, water is a huge issue. Again, it doesn't matter if Iran kills American soldiers, destroys American military. It doesn't have to do that. All it has to do is destroy the desalination plants and then the GCC is destroyed. Okay? But, it's also true that Iran has water issues. 72 % is pretty bad. Okay? So, even though the Iranians could destroy the GCC much faster than the Americans could destroy Iran, Iran is still in trouble.

Jiang

So, let me give you an example of this. This is like, I'm sorry, sorry. So, this is another map that shows you the issue of water scarcity. Okay? It's just basically the Middle East. Okay? The biggest issue in the future is water. Okay? And that's where the geopolitical tensions will arise in the future over water. India is also affected as well. All right. All right. So, let's look at the map, guys. This is called Lake Urmia in Northern Iran. It's the sixth largest saltwater lake in the world or it used to be. Okay? This is what it was in 1984. This is the shallow. This is the deep. Okay? You guys see that? It's really big. Right? 20 years later, guys, this is what it looks like. There's no more water here. You can walk from here over to there. Okay? There's some water over here but it's shallow now.

Jiang

This is how serious the water issue is in Iran. And that's the weak point that the Americans in this release will attack. All right? They want to make sure that Iran has no access to fresh water which will cause devastation in their nation. Okay? That's strategy number one. Strategy number two is this. This is a map of the different ethnic minorities in Iran. As you can see, it's a very diverse place. In the center are the Persians but you also have 10 other groups as well. And in the borderlands, it's basically a different country. These are basically different countries. And so, these places have more common areas with their neighbors than they do with Iran. Okay? So the second weakness of Iran. The first is the water. The second is the ethnic makeup of the country. So the strategy of the Americans and the Israelis moving forward is to destroy Iran as a coherent nation -state divided into ethnic enclaves and have them fight over water.

Jiang

That is the grand plan of the Israelis and the Americans. Okay? All right? This is, this is, this is the vision where Persia is limited and then all these other places are sponsored by the Americans and the Israelis. They're given money, they're given weapons, they're given political support and then this war will wage over water forever. Okay? And this is how you destroy Iran and make sure Iran is no longer a viable threat to you. That is the plan of the Americans. Okay? As, as you can see it's quite an evil plan and that's why they have not announced it. Right? Because if you announce it you're like, why are you doing this? What did the Persians, what did the Iranians ever do to you to warrant you coming and destroying their civilization? And the answer is nothing. Right?

Jiang

So the Americans, the Israelis will never admit they're doing this but if you look at the map of war supply of ethnic tensions for them to use against Iran it doesn't make sense. This is a long term plan that they have in place and it's all moving towards this plan. But now the question then is how can the Iranians respond to this? And the answer is this. This is a map of the Muslim world. Okay? So the um light green are the Sunni people. Of the entire Muslim population of about 2 billion people. Okay? Then you have in dark green the Shia. So as you can see the main place of the Shia is Iran. Okay? Iran is one of the few Shia nations in the world. But you can also see from this map that Shia are spread throughout the world. Okay? And so the first thing that the Iranians want to do is create a Jihad to unite all the Shia against the American Empire.

Jiang

Alright? So what they want to do is create an uprising. And it's already happening guys. Um the Shia in Pakistan stormed the American Embassy in Pakistan and the Americans killed a lot of people. Okay? The Shia have have attacked the American Embassy in uh Iraq. The American Embassy uh are being attacked in a lot of places. Alright? So the first strategy is to create a international global Jihad of the Shia against the American Empire. And it's already happening. It will continue for a long long term long time because the Americans have killed the um Khamenei. Okay? And that requires vengeance. So is that it can unify the Muslim world. Okay? If you look at this map most of the Muslim world is actually run by dictatorships that are not popular at all. Okay? And they're allowed to exist because of the American Empire. Right?

Jiang

You go to Saudi Arabia Egypt

Participant

uh

Jiang

Algeria uh these places they're all Right? So if you rally the people who hate their governments and you overthrow them then that makes Iran the leader of the the Islamic world. Not just the Shia world but the Islamic world. And this creates something called Pax Islamica. That is the end goal guys. Okay? If you do that then you don't have to worry about the Americans and the Israelis anymore. Alright? So the Israeli game plan the American game plan is to fracture Iran into and they'll fight over water for the rest of their lives and they'll all die. The Iranian game plan is to create a religious war a crusade that unifies the Shia people that overthrows the American Empire and establishes something called the Pax Islamica. Alright? Alright. So again the key is the GCC. Alright? So the game plan is this you have to destroy the GCC. Why? Because the GCC is the linchpin of the American Empire.

Jiang

So what the GCC does is it sells oil sells oil and then for US dollars. What does it put US dollars? It puts US dollars into the American stock market. Alright? So this is investments of the UAE. Okay? Saudi Arabia and Kuwait into the US financial markets. As you can see from 2012 up to today it's been exploding. Alright? Because the US financial market is one of the safest places where you can put your money. The intention is this. The intention is hey if I cut off oil and these countries no longer have access to US dollars they're forced to spend whatever resources they have on protecting themselves. Okay? And then guess what happens? The stock market collapses. The stock market collapses. The stock market is the real growth engine of the US economy. The entire US economy collapses with it. Alright? There are about maybe seven companies in America that accounts for about a quarter of stock market growth.

Jiang

Okay? These seven countries these seven companies of course are all AI companies. Nvidia. Microsoft. Google. Apple. Okay? These are the companies and then these companies are heavily invested in by the GCC nations. So if these nations are no longer able to invest in the stock market these companies will collapse in value. And with that that would lead to economic depression in America. It doesn't make sense. Alright. So that is the situation for today. Today was just an overview guys. Okay? I know we covered a lot. I know there's a lot to take in. But over the next few weeks we will explore each issue in depth and really understand what's really going on. Okay? Alright. So any questions guys? Any questions about what we've just learned? Okay.

Participant question

If other countries such as Italy, France, China, or Russia they have also joined this war like what's the cause of they joined the war because of oil or those resources? Okay.

Jiang answer

That's a good question. Okay? So I don't want to spend too much time on this question because we will explore this question as we move along. Okay? So the question is what brings the world into this conflict? And the easy answer is just oil access. Energy access. Okay? They need to protect their energy supplies because remember it's a very complicated situation because Europe is now fighting Russia. So Europe is not buying any oil resources, energy resources from Russia. Therefore it depends a lot on the GCC. So the GCC is not providing them energy then Europe will go bankrupt. Okay? So Europe needs to enter this war on behalf of Americans. Okay? And then you have Russia which cannot allow Iran to fall because if Iran falls then they'll come after Russia next. All right? China is actually neutral. So we're going to explore this question as we move along. But it's a very complicated issue.

Jiang answer

All right? Okay? And each nation will have its own different strategic interests to consider. All right? And what we need to know, what we need to figure out is that this war in the Middle East is actually connected to the Ukraine war. And as we move along I'll show you how these two things connect together. Okay? Any other questions guys? Okay great. So we'll continue this discussion on Thursday. Okay?