Good evening, everyone. It's your host, Danny Haifang. As you can see, I am joined by Professor Zhang Sui -Ching. He is the host of Predictive History. Professor Zhang, good to be back with you today. Thanks, Danny. Yeah, it's really great to be with you. Now, let's get started. I wanted to talk about there is this escalation that the Trump administration is growing. It is an escalation against Venezuela. There's imminent attack strikes coming. Here's what Donald Trump had to say to the press about announcing land strikes on Venezuela. But 96 % of the drugs coming in by water, every one of those boats you see get shot down.
WW3 in 2026? Trump’s Venezuela Trap & Game Theory | Prof Jiang Xueqin
Source-synced transcript for the compressed reading. Spans keep the original chronology, timestamps, and audit trail behind the public interpretation.
You just saved 25,000 American lives. But we knocked out 96 % of the drugs coming in by water. And now we're starting by land. And by land is a lot easier. And that's going to start. And we're not going to have people destroying our youth, destroying our family.
So it's a lot easier. Well, I guess we'll have to see about this. But here is some of what is happening on the ground as we speak. Professor Zhang, two EA -18G Growler electronic warfare jets are now joining a pair of F -A -18 fighter jets, which are Super Hornets, they're called, and an aircraft operating off the Venezuelan coast. And here you can see the flight radar tracking that. Professor Zhang, maybe you can do, because during the Iran conflict, you did game theory on that war. Maybe you can apply this now to what's happening with Venezuela as we head into another war under the Trump administration.
Sure. So let's do some game theory analysis. So some questions that you need to ask is, what is it that... Trump and America want from Venezuela? Second question is, how will Maduro and the Venezuelans respond to Trump's aggressions? And the third question we will look at is, what is the optimal strategy of both players, of both Trump and Maduro? So for Trump, what he wants is, it's pretty obvious. Everyone agrees that Trump wants access to Venezuela's oil. It is the world's... largest proven oil reserves. At the same time, Trump has hinted that there are other motivations. So for example, he wants to stop drug trafficking into America. He also says that Venezuela is close allies of Russia, China and Iran. And he wants these countries to stop interfering in the Western Hemisphere, because the Western Hemisphere is under the control of America, the Monroe Doctrine. thing that he said um is that he wants to
open up for business he wants to make venezuela much more democratic because maduro stole the last election in 2024. um so as you know maria uh karina machado who is an opportunity opposition leader in venezuela she was she just won a noble peace prize and right now she's in oslo um she's safe in oslo she was hiding for 11 months in venezuela um and then she was award the nobel peace prize and then her daughter went to oslo to accept the prize on her behalf and now she is in oslo and she is very clear about her intentions uh she can she wants to replace maduro she'll be the vice president and i'm not sure who will be the president and she says that her priority will be to open venezuela for business okay so these are the motivations of america to take over venezuela's oil reserves as well as other resources uh to stop
drug trafficking to severe the close ties between venezuela and iran russia and china and to open um to privatize the venezuelan economy okay so that's the goal of uh trump so from game theory perspective how what is his optimal strategy well he doesn't want to invade venezuela and the reason why is first of all venezuela it's very hard to occupy venezuela it's a combination of mountains and jungles and america does not fight well in mountains and jungles so go back and think about vietnam uh american soldiers really really struggled in the jungle because it's an ideal setting for guerrilla warfare which is what the maduro regime will uh plan if america actually invades uh venezuela also um trump cannot cannot fight venezuela but if they get aggressive with the venezuelan army can't attack venezuela we have to think about how other south american latin american countries will respond so cuba and nicaragua are close allies
of venezuela iran russia russia china also close allies of venezuela brazil argentina other nations in south america would be extremely annoyed exaggerated with an american attack on venezuela um so so if you invade venezuela you just So a game theory perspective, the optimal strategy is to use a military strikes, military land strikes and economic embargo as a means to negotiate a treaty. Okay. And so, so what I, I don't think Trump is intent on regime change because the costs would be too great and there will be a lot of unknowns, what I think he wants is negotiate a settlement with Maduro or basically Maduro agrees to open up the Venezuelan economy to American private interests and Maduro agrees to maybe put in Machado as his vice president and basically Venezuela agrees to be an economic colony of the United States and this is important because if Trump manages to negotiate this deal, then he, then
he has a way to negotiate with other Latin American and South American countries like Cuba and Nicaragua. So if you look at the national security. Uh, strategy that is Trump's intent. Trump talks about, uh, creating allies in Latin America and South America that are amendable to American interests and then expand their power, expand their interests, uh, throughout South America. So from a Trump perspective, you will use military strikes in a very precise, uh, very calculated manner in order to force Maduro to negotiate in table. Okay. So that's Trump's. Um, strategy moving forward now, look, now let's look at Maduro. Okay. So does Maduro want to negotiate a deal with the United States? Yes, he does. Okay. Issues with this. The first issue is that he doesn't know if he can trust Trump. Right. So it's possible that he has his deal with Trump and then the Americans backstab him, which is extremely likely given, uh, Trump's past behavior, just given the American attitude towards him.
Okay. That's number one. Number two is. Um, he has constituencies in Venezuela, um, that are anti -American. And if you were to bring in American private interests, then that would, um, undermine his constituents, constituencies. Um, uh, he has, he has a lot of vested interests who, uh, rely on his political patronage in, uh, in Venezuela. So he's not, he's not sure how his domestic allies would respond. And then, um, the third thing is. He has these allies, uh, that have sworn to protect him, like Cuba, you know, his security detail is mainly Cuban. Um, Russia has sent in some military attaches as well as the Wagner group. Um, China is a very important economic ally. So he's not really sure how his allies would, uh, respond. Um, and the third, uh, thing is, um, it's, it's a face issue. I mean, if he seems as though he's going to cower to the American.
He's just going to take whatever deal the Americans, uh, take him. He looks like a coward. He looks like a fool. Um, so from, from a door perspective, you want to negotiate a deal with America because that's, that's what guarantees long -term economic viability and political stability in Venezuela. By the same time, you have to do in a way that shows that you have some leverage or you save some phase and in a way that your allies can countenance. Okay. So from a door perspective, he's. You're going to drag this out and create a situation in which people recognize that the best case scenario is, um, peace between Venezuela and America. And that's why I think that from a game for third perspective, most outlet, most likely outcome, the most likely scenario we'll see in the next six months to a year is a contained, um, limited war between Venezuela and America, where America is disrupting, uh, the Venezuelan economy by.
Bargain ships and America is conducting limited airstrikes against Venezuela to force Maduro to negotiating table. So that that's what I think will happen. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. You're muted. You're muted.
Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry about that. Everyone. Uh, that was very compelling for sir. John, I wanted to ask you about what, what, how does this factor in there's this. Uh, dynamic is development of the U S is in the Trump administration supporting very particular kinds of people. Uh, you mentioned Maria Karina Machado, she was just on a CBS and her perspective is very maximalist, uh, compared to what you just said in terms of how, uh, one would look at this, uh, rationally through the game theory perspective. Here's what she said.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that military strikes inside Venezuela could happen soon as he puts pressure on the dictator, Nicholas Maduro in an exclusive interview with Margaret Brennan today, Maria Karina Machado, Venezuelan. Opposition. Leader and Nobel peace prize winner weighed in on the possibility of U S land operations.
Would you welcome U S military action? I will welcome more and more pressure. So Maduro understands that he has to go, that his time is over. And I will insist something that I've said several times before. This is not conventional regime change.
So she wants professor John, uh, Maduro out that it's over and that these military strikes. They're going to accomplish this. How does this factor in this, uh, dynamic of the United States is supporting, uh, a particular opposition, which is the most extreme and does want, uh, essentially the most chaotic, uh, result of U S military intervention.
Right. So, uh, from a game theory perspective, um, Trump, when it comes to Venezuela, he's looking at a spectrum of options. The most ideal is that, uh, Machado comes into power. And it opens up the entire vessel economy to American poverty interest. Basically these American corporations come into Venezuela and divvy up the wealth and they just steal all the wealth from, uh, uh, Venezuela. That's the ideal, that's ideal scenario. And he, and he's a business person. So he knows he's, he doesn't get it. Right. So basically I know we're saying this is that Michelle, she is basically a chess piece and she's, um, um, um, articulating the Max's position in order to force Maduro into a. A position that Trump can accept. Right. So there's a spectrum of options. Maduro, uh, um, Maduro wants, wants an option where he stays in power. He doesn't have to give up any wealth. And Machado represents the other
side of the spectrum, which is he gives up all the power and he loses all the wealth.
Hmm.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, professor John, then, you know, with the situation that's brewing in Venezuela, uh, how is it going to look when. Uh, the us, uh, finally does pull the trigger because, uh, the land strikes are supposedly announced. There's been rumors about a campaign happening starting before Christmas. Uh, how did, how will this look?
Yeah. So, um, I don't think America will, will actually issue a declaration of war. It will not undertake a shock on all, um, strategy as it did in Iraq, 2003. Uh, first of all, to declare war, you need congressional approval and there's no way Trump's going to get, uh, congressional approval. Because, um, the opposition towards any sort of war would be, uh, fierce among the American public. So it will not be a declaration of war. It will not even seem like a war. What, what it will be is basically, uh, Trump applying pressure points wherever he can. Okay. So what we're seeing already are, um, strikes against these boats, uh, across the Caribbean, uh, just recently in an escalation. American, uh, the American Navy. We bought it in an embargo, uh, Venezuela oil tanker, and then Trump's announcing that we'll do limited land strikes. Okay. But these limited land strikes may not even be in, uh, Venezuela.
He, he's hinted that these land strikes may be throughout the entire region. So he might strike at some Mexican cartels might strike at Columbia. So it will seem sporadic. It will seem erratic. It will seem very confusing, but that's just part of the negotiating strategy where Trump cannot be seen as declaring a full scale war. On, uh, Venezuela, because once you do that, first of all, you ferment domestic opposition, uh, Congress, the Democrats, the public will be up in arms, uh, but also at the same time, you limit your negotiating space, right? I mean, he wants to negotiate settlement with Maduro, so he wants to apply as many pressure points as possible. The military is one tool, but remember, there are also CIA operatives working in Venezuela as well to format, uh, domestic unrest. Um, you're going to have an increase in economic sanctions. Also, Trump's going to start negotiating with Russia, Iran, and China to apply more pressure on Venezuela.
So it's going to be a full spectrum, um, strategy. And I think that Trump will not declare war.
What's your reaction to the tanker? This, you know, the, the U S, uh, stole, uh, essentially a tanker, a Venezuelan tanker that, uh, was headed to Cuba. But, uh, there's also talks about. How it was involved in the subversion of sanctions against Iran. And actually, I think that's the justification of the Trump administration is using, I think it was 60 plus million dollars worth of oil. What was your reaction to this? Where does this fit into the overall, uh, chessboard, the overall strategy of, of war on Venezuela?
Yeah. So, um, for the longest time, and we've had conversations about this, I actually thought that Trump was bluffing on Venezuela because a military action against Venezuela would make no sense. Um, it would open a Pandora's box. Um, the app, the military doesn't have the death, the strategic death in order to, in order to, um, uh, undertake a massive military operation against Venezuela. And I really thought that there were some, maybe, maybe like a grand strategy that we didn't know behind the scenes and that, um, uh, oil tanker where, uh, that oil tanker was, as you say, stolen. Um, it basically changed my mind and it convinced me that Trump is very serious about. Uh, Venezuela and he's using Venezuela as maybe a test case for how he will, uh, handle all of South America. We have to remember that right now, South America is very independent. Uh, South America supplies China with one third of China's food supply.
China is spending 30 plus ports in South America. So if you look at national security strategy, Trump is very clear, uh, the Western hemisphere belongs to America. And if Russia, Iran. China want to come to South, South America and conduct any military, political or economic affairs. It must. So it must do so with, um, America, American permission. Uh, basically America will enforce the memorable doctrine. And, uh, that all tanker is a sign that Trump is very serious.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And, and there's a huge debate about the, um, strength of. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, yeah, yeah. And, and there's a huge debate about the, um, strength of Trump. You know, I think there's a lot of U.S. exceptionalism going around with Venezuela. Venezuela looks like the weaker country. The United States is like a big superpower that's just going to drop all these bombs and it's going to wipe away the leadership of Venezuela. And yet, as you just stated, there's a lot of factors to consider here. Let's factor in now the strength of Venezuela. You mentioned the people, the military, maybe the society, the cohesion as a whole. Maybe you could talk about this. What factors does the U
.S. actually have to consider here on a reality basis that we may not be hearing when we are seeing MAGA supporters and people, the neocons, everyone?
To understand how the United States military perceives Venezuela, let's look at some certain wars and how America got into these wars and how America fought these wars. So if you look at Vietnam, America went into Vietnam in order to prop up the government, right? Because the South Vietnamese regime was extremely corrupt. And so... American advisers were sent in order to prop up the regime to train troops and slowly became mission creep in that they were forced to commit more and more resources to prop up an extremely corrupt and failing regime. So that's Vietnam. Then you look at Iraq, 2003. Well, we have to remember that before the Americans invaded, America imposed 15 years of sanctions on Iraq that depleted the economy, that depleted the will of the people. That severely weakened the regime. Also, remember that in Iraq, there were the Kurds, and so there was local opposition towards the regime.
By the time America invaded in 2003, Iraq didn't have any air defenses. America imposed air supremacy from day one, and it was able to just roll across the country in less than two weeks. And you have situations like Panama and Granada, where these were extremely small. Regimes, and so you could, in like a few days, force a surrender, okay? And so Vietnam shows us that America enters war because of mission creep, because they slowly get themselves entangled into the internal fears of another nation. Iraq shows us that America will also intervene if a nation is severely weakened by economic sanctions. When it does... When it no longer has the capacity to defend itself. And then you look at Panama and Granada, and America will also intervene if the military option has a high probability of success, and the military option is very limited and contained. None of these three sinceros apply to Venezuela, okay? So the Venezuelan regime, it's pretty cohesive.
It's pretty popular. Regardless of what the Americans say, Maduro is still the Democratic elected president. He's the elected leader of Venezuela. And his regime continued the Hugo Chavez policies of supporting the poor, and so he has pretty popular support within Venezuela. Also, remember that his regime has been in place for a long, long time, so his power base is pretty entrenched. Also, Venezuela is a huge, huge country that is geographically diverse. It'll be very hard for America... to invade Venezuela and to control Venezuela. They'll probably need about 2 million troops at max to really take over Venezuela and to occupy it. And the Venezuelan economy, yeah, it's been hindered by American sanctions. But remember, China, Russia, and Iran have been supporting Venezuela as well. So, you know, I just don't see the possibility of an American full -scale invasion. Of Venezuela, given the reality of Venezuela. I could be wrong. I mean, I was wrong about Trump being intent on regime change in Venezuela.
It seems like he is intent on regime change in Venezuela. But, you know, a military option against Venezuela would just be complete suicide for America. America doesn't have the manufacturing capacity, doesn't have the strategic depth to launch a full -scale invasion of Venezuela. China, their response, you cannot... you cannot figure out, right? It's possible that if Trump occupies himself in Venezuela... if the American military is bogged down in Venezuela, it's possible that Russia attacks Odessa. It's possible that Iran closes off the Strait of Hormuz. It's very hard to figure out how your enemies will respond. And so you need to... you need to look at the entire chessboard. And so I have a hard time believing that Trump will launch a full -scale invasion.
of Venezuela. Yeah, I mean, those are all very important factors. And, you know, when we talk about the United States in particular, too, there's this element of, well, how are you going to sell this war? And how is that going to how will the overall world situation, including in the United States, be impacted by a full scale war on what you claim is your backyard? Well, if it's your backyard, of course, I oppose all of that. But if it is, if you're saying it is, it's very close to you. That means the reverberations, the repercussions could come even that much quicker than, let's say, if the U.S. flies B -52 bombers over Iran. And then I want to say, Professor John, if you could react to this, I see Venezuela as far closer to an Iran. situation in the sense that Iran, despite not having the same maybe military infrastructure that Iran does, missiles, et cetera, it does have that cohesion, that stability.
There's been sanctions on Venezuela for a long time, and it does not have the elements of, let's say, a Syria, which we saw how internally decrepit and rotting it was when it fell in December. But it was very quiet for a long time, wasn't supporting the axis of resistance, all of this. What do you make of this comparison of where Venezuela is in relation to other players that the United States has tried to take out?
Yeah, so look, regime change in Venezuela, it is not a new Trump policy. America has been trying to implement regime change in Venezuela ever since the days of Hugo Chavez. You know, the CIA, I mean, I mean, the CIA is not there, like us as of like the past two, three months, when Trump ordered CIA to go covertly into Venezuela. The CIA has always been there. The CIA has always been fomenting Venezuela opposition. And look, I mean, like for the past 20 years, the Venezuelan middle class, the Venezuela opposition has been trying to unite and try to overthrow the regime covertly. And at the same time, the regime has held. So I think that this regime is much more cohesive. Much more resilient, and much more energetic than Americans believe. Americans are specialized in color revolution. If the regime was that weak, then then a color revolution will have over formed the regime a long, long time ago.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there have been attempts. I don't know if you remember, Professor Jung Maduro, there was an assassination attempt on him, I believe it was 2019. And then there were these massive, I guess you could say, massively violent, violent attempts for the opposition, the most extreme elements of the opposition, like Machado, to take power. And none of that worked. And I don't even see there's CIA covert ops going on right now. And maybe you can speak on this before we move on. The CIA has has been announced to be conducting covert ops in Venezuela. But it's obviously taking a while. And that makes me wonder, well, what's going on? I'm curious on your thoughts about this.
Right? Well, covert ops, we know exactly what what their intentions are. I mean, the first is to try to organize as many opposition groups as possible, trying to infiltrate as many opposition groups as possible, and to stir them into action. Number two, to infiltrate the Maduro regime and look for possible weaknesses, in order to plan assassination attempts, to look look to like, try to look for any opportunities. for sabotage against the Maduro regime. The third is to attempt to control the media and to control how people perceive the regime. Basically try to support as many NGOs as possible, trying to support as many grassroots media as possible. Number four would be to arm and train possible revolutionaries, arm cells, and then to create a political system So, look, Saudi political, it's pretty obvious, and they've been doing this for the past 20 years. The fact that the Maduro regime has stood the test of time, it tells us that these strategies aren't really working.
Yeah, well, let's get into, you know, there's this element, Professor Jung, of the United States' own precarious situation. And how I see the U.S. being, especially its empire, being in a precarious state, in a precarious state in Israel, even in a conflict like this. I don't know if you've caught, you know, Israel Hayom, one of Israel's most extreme and widely read publications, interviewed Marina Kurina Machado about Venezuela. And she talked directly about Iran and Russia. And it made me believe the comments that were made in this article, Professor Jung, that Israel has something to do with the U .S.'s attempt to overthrow Maduro right now. It says, Since Hugo Chavez's rise to power, Venezuela has become one of the most hostile countries to Israel and Zionism in Latin America. Chavez, who saw himself as Fidel Castro's ideological heir and an ally of leftist regimes, severed diplomatic relations with Israel during Operation Castle in 2009, accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinian people, comparing it to a Nazi conduct.
And then when they asked her, will diplomatic relations with Israel and establish Venezuela's location in Jerusalem happen, she will say, certainly Venezuela will be Israel's closest ally in Latin America. We rely on Israel's support in dismantling Maduro's crime regime in the transition to democracy. Comment on what you, you know, Israel here always seems to creep up when it comes to U .S. foreign policy.
Right. So the first thing that's important to keep in mind is that there is a sizable Palestinian minority within Venezuela. I forget the actual number. Maybe it's like five to 10%. But obviously they'd be very anti -Zionist and they would be very strong supporters of Maduro because Maduro is seen as very anti -American and the Palestinians do blame America for supporting the Zionist regime in Israel. So that's a factor. The reason why I think Machado refers to Israel is she's basically trying to create as many reasons as possible for why America should support her political play in Venezuela. I'm not really sure what the Israel connection is. From an Israel perspective, it wants to isolate Iran as much as possible. And Venezuela is a close ally of, of Iran. But you know, I don't know how concrete, how strong these connections are. There are connections, but I think it's more of a perception, more of trying to isolate Iran in terms of soft power.
And so I'm not really sure if there is regime change in Venezuela, how that would impact the conflict between Israel and Iran. Certainly it would lower morale in, in Iran. But I think that Iran right now is facing a lot of other issues as well. There's a drought going on in Iran that is sapping a lot of resources, sapping a lot, a lot of morale. So I, I think this is a tendential marginal issue.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, there were accusations by Israel that Hezbollah was being trained in, in Venezuela as well, of course, without any evidence. But maybe if you could comment on the fact that every time the United States is seeking regime change somewhere, like in Venezuela, Israel always, regardless, who knows, you know, despite its, what its role actually is here, is looking to capitalize. What does that say about the relationship? And maybe you can get in depth about how Israel actually is influencing U.S. foreign policy, given that they're always there. They're always right there whenever the United States is seeking to conduct a regime change or some kind of war.
Okay. So I think it's very important that we look at the national security strategy, which just came out this week. And if you read the national security strategy, it's very clear that America is transitioning from a empire based on multilateral liberal cooperation that promotes democratic values around the world to an empire based on good force, on using its power. And there are three vectors to American power, right? So first, the first power is financial, where America controls the world's reserve currency and the entire financial infrastructure of the world. The second vector is America's control over maritime trade. And the third vector is America's control over critical IT infrastructure of the world. America controls the world's GPS satellites. It controls the world's underwater fiber optic networks that power the world's telecommunications networks. Okay. So those are the three sources of American power, the three bases of American empire. What the national security strategy says very clearly is, let's take advantage of this.
Let's use the resources that we have to promote our interests around the world. And if you read the national security strategy, I mean, it's a real public argument. I mean, it could be written by Machiavelli. And the entire idea is that America will now start to leverage its allies, the resources of its allies, the Europeans, the Koreans, the South Koreans, the Japanese, in order to promote American private interests. Basically, America's going to treat the wealth, the resources of its allies as their own in order to resolve a lot of American issues. Like the $38 trillion debt. If you read the national security strategy, Israel isn't really a factor. What America says about the Middle East is that it doesn't really see the Middle East as pivotal as before. Because before, the Middle East was a source of your energy. The Middle East was a source of geopolitical tensions. The Middle East was a source of terrorism.
And what the national security strategy says is that under Trump's tremendous leadership, his vision, the Middle East is no longer a source of major conflict because America is now an exporter of energy and not an importer of energy. So it doesn't really need energy from the Middle East. The Abraham Accords have settled a lot of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Operation Midnight Hammer decapitated Iran's nuclear capacity as well as military projection force. So Iran's not really a factor anymore. So America will, in the future, pivot away from the Middle East. And that puts Israel in a bind because for the longest time, Israel was able to rely on American muscle to get its way around the Middle East. Basically, American taxpayers subsidized the Israeli welfare state. Israeli citizens got free healthcare, all paid for by the American taxpayer. So Israel is decreasing in relevance in the American political psyche.
There's growing anti -Zionist settlement throughout the American population, especially among the young. And so Israel really fears being abandoned by America. So Israel is trying to inject as much as they can into any conversation. So this war against Venezuela that America has undertaken, it doesn't really involve Israel, but Israel wants to inject itself into the conversation. So I think that's what's happening here.
Yeah, and speaking of this national security strategy and shifting away from the Middle East, not even several weeks after that publication came out, now we have U.S. forces, U.S. military forces being attacked in Syria this time. This is the spokesperson of the Pentagon. Saying that two United States Army soldiers and one civilian interpreter were killed in Palmyra, or in Palmyra, Syria. The attack occurred as soldiers were conducting a key leader engagement. Their mission was in support of ongoing so -called counter -ISIS terrorism operations. And you mentioned that Israel might be a bit afraid about becoming irrelevant. Well, there also is talk about 2026 in the theme of perhaps World War III starting in 2026. There is talk of perhaps Israel preparing for another war with Iran, despite the relative quiet we have seen. At a recent closed -door session of Israel's Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, IDF officials delivered a detailed briefing on the country's readiness for a potential new round of conflict with Iran.
This was reported by Mariv, an Israeli outlet. And army representatives told lawmakers that Iran has significantly expanded its prediction of ballistic missiles in an effort to fully rebuild its strike capabilities, meaning war could be coming very soon. Professor Chang, your comment.
So Israel is committed to the Greater Israel Project. It believes that God promised them all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates. That's the entire Middle East. And Israel has achieved most of this territory. Egypt is still a factor, but the Egyptian regime is pretty weak. So Israel can negotiate with the Egyptian military. And if negotiations fail, then they can start attacking Egypt. We can expect conflict between Egypt and Israel pretty soon. But the main problem to achieving the Greater Israel Project is, of course, Iran. Iran is still a formidable opponent in the Middle East. And we know this because of that 12 -day war between Israel and Iran. Israel really believed that it could decapitate the Iranian regime. So the Israelis used a combination of airborne bombardment sabotage, economic sabotage, as well as decapitation strikes where they were targeting certain high officials of the Iranian regime. And the Israelis were taken aback by
the resilience of the regime, how quickly the regime was able to replace these officials, how cohesive the population was. The population did not take the opportunity to foment unrest, to rally against the regime as Israelis expected. And they were also surprised by the military counterattack where these Iranian ballistic missiles were raining on Israel. And, you know, all this vaunted Israeli air defense, the Iron Dome, the Sling of David, did nothing to protect Israel from the barrage of attacks from Iran. So Israel was sort of taken aback by how strong the Iranian regime is. But the Israelis are fanatical. They've been planning this for a long, long time, you know, and they feel as though the Great Israel Project, it's only one step away. All they do is to take down Iran, but they themselves know they can't take down Iran by themselves. So they need to drag America into war with Iran. And the Israeli operandi, what they've always done are false flag operations.
So if you just look at the history of Israel, they have a long history of false flag operations. And the most famous, of course, is the 1967 attack on the USS Liberty. And so we can expect a series of false flag attacks against American interests in the Middle East to force America to stay in the Middle East and ultimately to force a conflict between Iran and America. And that's what 2026 will look like.
Yeah, I mean, it seemingly could have just happened in Syria with the killing of these Pentagon forces in Palmyra. It follows that exact script that you just laid out. You know, Professor Jiang, with this, then, is Israel's calculation, you know, there's something called, I don't know if you've seen this, friends at DD Geopolitics have written about the Isaac Accords, which is a new initiative launched in 2025. It's a project designed to formalize political and economic insecurity between Israel and Latin American states. And of course, Javier Millet of Argentina is one of the big champions of it, given his undying love for Israel. But this mirrors the Abraham Accords. And therefore, it begs the question, the US and Israel seem pretty aligned with similar visions. What is this vision? And why does Israel care so much about Latin America?
Yeah, so I sort of disagree. I think that Latin America and Trump has stated this very clearly. Latin America is the US and Trump's sphere of influence. So I think the Isaac Accords suggest something else. I think that there are, like America is a dying empire. Pax Americana is a dying empire. It's over -extended. The domestic population isn't happy with the empire. It needs to retrench itself. Israel wants to create the new empire, which is Pax Judaica. And Pax Judaica is just as ambitious as Pax Americana. It wants to span the world and facilitate global trade. And what underpins Pax Judaica is, first of all, Israeli technology. Israel has the best surveillance technology in the world. And that's because the Israelis spy on their neighbors. They've been spying on their neighbors for the past few decades. So, Israel technology. Second is the Jewish diaspora, where you have a lot of Jewish business people all around the world.
And they can help facilitate Pax Judaica. And the third is Mossad. Israel really has the world's best intelligence agency. So, I think what we'll see in the next few years is growing competition between Israel and America, where America is a dying empire and Israel is the emerging empire. What I think will happen over the next couple of years is growing investment in Israel. So, we know about Israel. We know about Trump's ambitions in Gaza, where Trump is trying to rebuild Gaza as the very area of the Middle East. But then you look at Libya, Syria, Iraq, right? These places are all primed for real estate development, for reconstruction. And Israel definitely wants to be the leader in that. And you also look at Ukraine. So, I think what's going to happen in 2026, which is going to surprise everyone, is increasing economic relations between Russia and Israel, because Israel wants to participate in the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Also, I don't think people really appreciate this, but if you actually look at the history of Israel, most Israelis are actually Ashkenazi Jews. And where do Ashkenazi Jews originate from? They originate from Ukraine. So, that's actually another homeland for the Jews. So, I think that will surprise everyone. It's growing competition between America and Israel that will wrap up in 2026.
Well, what's interesting with that, Professor Jiang, is I've been saying it for a while that Israel is indeed looking to become an empire. But there's a dynamic that Israel is very, very, very... It does, I mean, look, we have to... It's horrific, the war crime, the pager attacks. We know, though, that Israel has a deep network, this very advanced surveillance network. But in almost every other element, it really does rely on an area. It really does rely on the United States, especially for its military support. How does this work then? Because the United States, it's a dying empire, but it will want to see its empire preserved. And no matter how slavishly it seems like it is bending the knee to Israel, it certainly wants to maintain the image of hegemony. Even in the National Security Strategy document, the language is still, even though we're not, you know, there's not going to be rules -based order, interventionism like that, it's still U.S.
is on top. So, how does this square?
Right. So, I think that in the future, global conflict will be less and less likely. And the reason why is nuclear weapons, right? So, if Europe and Russia were to go to full -scale war, you have the risk of nuclear weapons. So, I think that in the future, war on a scale like World War I, World War II will be unlikely because you can't really control the escalation ladder and you always have a risk of nuclear weapons. So, if you don't go to war, then you have another problem, which is how do you control and contain your population? So, we know that historically speaking, eventually, all governments become so corrupt that the people choose to rebel against them. So, after the Napoleonic Wars, which killed millions of people in Europe, there's a concept of Europe where the Europeans agreed to never fight each other again. And this led to something called the 1848 Revolutions, when
it seemed like every single regime in Europe was about to be overthrown by the emerging bourgeoisie aligned with the proletariat and the peasant class. And then after that, the Europeans were like, you know what, screw this, if we don't go to war, our peasants are going to rebel against us anyway, so let's just go to war. And that's why you had the Crimean War, and then you had the Franco -Parsian War, and then you ultimately culminated in World War I and World War II. But now with nuclear weapons, you really can't send young people to die, in order to relieve social tension. So your only solution is to create an AI surveillance state. And this is what we're seeing throughout the world. In America, you know, you have these companies, six companies, seven companies, building these massive AI data centers throughout America. That's consuming a lot of resources. OpenAI has a revenue in 2025 of like $13 billion.
They're asking for like $1.4 trillion in order to build data centers throughout America. Why would anyone give OpenAI any money? Well, it's because they know that what's coming in America and everywhere else in the world is an AI surveillance state where everyone will be given a digital ID and digital currency, and their behavior will be tracked and monitored to prevent popular unrest. And this is how the regime will maintain power in all major nation states, including America, including China, including Japan, including Europe. So AI is the future, but in a dystopian way. It's not going to make our lives better. It's going to make our lives worse. It's going to cause massive unemployment. It's going to create this massive surveillance state apparatus. So another question then is, who will control AI? And I would make the argument that the Israelis are more equipped than others to control AI infrastructure in a nefarious, subtle way, which is what they're really good at.
So the Israeli military has something called Unit 8200. And if you go there for a few years, you come out as an entrepreneur who can make billions of dollars. So the Israelis have all this technology that will ultimately undergird the AI surveillance state. If that's the case, if they're able to piggyback on existing AI surveillance systems, then they basically control the world. And I'll give an example where I'm not sure if you use VPN. A lot of people do use VPN in order to circumvent the surveillance state. But guess who controls the VPN system? It's the Israelis who control the VPNs. If you go into these VPN companies and figure out who owns these companies, it's mainly Israelis. If you actually go to America and you look at the national security apparatus, if you look at organizations like the NSA, you'll find a lot of Israeli spies embedded within these organizations.
So the petrodic judica doesn't happen in an overt empire. It can be a hidden, nefarious empire controlling AI technology around the world.
Would you say it's almost like Israel will be riding the coattails of a dying empire and benefiting from it while the U.S. dies? Because you just spelled out a scenario with AI in particular, where the United States, through this supposed boon of technology, actually itself is eroding and Israel is going to be the one to benefit. Is that how you see it? That there's this kind of big benefit that Israel is getting from the U.S. being a dying empire?
Why would they do this? That's how you become a new empire, by being a person on the old empire. If the old empire is being stupid and being insular and arrogant, then take advantage of that. So what Israel is doing is, it's this basic game theory. Any other nation in Israel's position would do the same thing. It's not about morality. It's just like, you know, the empire is stupid. It's complacent. It's corrupt. It's decadent. It's lazy. It's self -indulgent. It's selfish. It's stupid. Take advantage of that.
Can you elaborate, too, on the connections between Israel and AI in this scenario? Because it's a big... We've seen it with major monopolies like Palantir, et cetera. But how deep is it? And can you give a few examples?
Right. So this AI surveillance state was really first pioneered by the Israelis. Why? Well, because they had the Palestinians to deal with, right? So the Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza were under surveillance all the time. The Israelis had the technology to monitor the movement of every Palestinian in Gaza. They knew exactly, like, where they were, GPS tracking. They knew exactly who they were speaking to, metadata from phone information. They could eavesdrop on anyone's computer, even if the battery was dead. They used all this technology because they had no choice in the matter. They had this extremely violent, unhappy population that they had to keep under control, the Palestinians. So that's number one. Number two is Israel is a small, desert nation with no resources, surrounded by all these huge enemies, including Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Libya. And how do you deal with that? Well, you deal with that by infiltrating their regimes, right?
So you blackmail their leaders. You listen on their conversations. So Israel, for its own survival, had to develop the most sophisticated, eavesdropping technology that then was transferred to the NSA. And quite honestly, there were many, many Israeli spies within the National Security Apparatus in Washington, D.C., who were especially happy to hand over America's most sophisticated technology to Israel. And the difference between Israel and America is the American technology is speculative. It's something that is nice. But the Israelis had to use this technology to survive. So they could constantly refine and fine -tune this technology in real -world scenarios. And that's a huge, huge advantage. So look at this war in Ukraine, where because Russia has to fight this war, it has to refine drone technology, drone warfare. So it is the most dominant military nation in the world. So even though on paper, NATO looks stronger, America looks stronger, but it's the Russians who are much stronger because the Russians have like real -world experience.
And that's the same thing with the Israeli AI surveillance technology. It's a real -world experience that they're dealing with. So it's very refined, extremely sophisticated, and very targeted.
Yeah, yeah. Well, maybe we can ask a few questions. The audience had a few questions. Maybe we can ask some of these. Here is an audience member. He says, Can you ask the professor how he thinks Venezuela will and should respond to an airstrike campaign, attacking carriers, its pros and cons, and could escalate? Professor Jeong, your thoughts.
Right. So if we go back to Operation Midnight Hammer, there's speculation that before Trump launched the attacks, he forewarned the Iranians. And there's actually even a negotiation as to how the Iranians will respond to the airstrike. And that's why after Operation Midnight Hammer, the Iranians lobbed some missiles at empty American bases in the Middle East. And so I think that's what's going to happen in Venezuela as well. Remember, Trump can afford a war with Venezuela. If something accidental happens where there's an airstrike against Venezuela, and Venezuela responds and it shoots down American aircraft, now you've got a full -scale war on your hands, right? Or maybe Venezuela retaliates and hits some American ships, right? Now Americans are going to call for blood. So whatever happens, these airstrikes will have to be orchestrated, it will have to be theatrical, and it will have to be planned in advance, if that makes sense.
And we have another question here asking, why is he ignoring money flow and investments? It is not Israel funding AI. Does he know who is making these investments? It's easy to find. What's your response to this?
Okay. I mean, you can make the argument that, look, the people in power are those who control the money. And, you know, I actually listened to a podcast by Simon Dixon, who's very good. And his entire theory of the case is that it's a GCC, Qatar, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, who control the world because they control all the money flows. And therefore, they're able to sit on the boards like BlackRock, and therefore manipulate the political machinings, the political machine. And from my perspective, it's not really about money flow. It's really about who's willing to do the work, who is going to do the nuts and bolts, okay? So the example is, Dick Cheney was the most powerful man in Washington, D.C. for a long time. And he started out as the chief of staff in the White House. And what he did that was different from others was that while others were engaged in high
-level policymaking, he was concerned about did the toilet flush properly? Are janitors getting paid properly? So he's really worried about the logistics, the mechanics, the organization, the nuts and bolts. And so if you focus on those things, then what happens is that you amass all the power because if you want anything done, you have to go through Dick Cheney. And so Dick Cheney knew exactly where all the bodies were buried and exactly how to get things done, right? So it's Dick Cheney who orchestrated the Iraq War, the war on terror, because he knew exactly how to get things done within the apparatus. So money is important, but ultimately it's really who's willing to do the work, who's willing to do the legwork that has all the power.
Yeah, I mean, what's so interesting about this and when we talk about money flows and investments is that I'm curious on your thoughts about when it comes to Israel's position and its role, while it has all kinds of money flowing into it from the United States militarily, and of course that's going to some, I mean, you made the point about Israel and how it's able to divide and develop surveillance technology. It's very centralized within its military apparatus. That's kind of how the United States started out as a military, as a technological force as well as it was all invested in the military and then it branched out. So with this reality though, how we know that capital money dominates within an empire like the United States is, but how are these countries and these other forces then, Israel's role and other factors, really putting a strain on the U.S. Empire, making it difficult for its pursuit of its own kind of dominance to continue?
Right. So something that we don't really talk about a lot is the idea of eschatology, religious worldview. And I think people underestimate the impact and influence of these Christian Zionists in America. So John Hagee runs something called Christians Unite for Israel. And it's just one of many Christian Zionist organizations in the United States. And they have seven million members. And John Hagee is able to immediately mobilize these seven million members to vote for a certain congressional candidate who is pro -Israel. He's able to get these members, congregationalists, to phone members of Congress if the member of Congress is not supporting Israel in a certain way. You know, Israel flew in 10,000 American pastors into Israel to rally them to spread the gospel of Zionism. So, I mean, we talk about money, we talk about military, but something that we really don't talk about a lot and we should talk more about is religion. You know, people are serious about their religion.
And for Christian Zionists and for Zionists, Israel is really the end of the age. Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. And so what we'll see in 2026, and that's going to surprise a lot of people, is possibly the destruction of Al -Azhar Mosque. That, I think, is going to be one of the great shocks of 2026, where Israel destroys the Al -Azhar Mosque and starts to build the Third Temple because it is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. And if you look at these secret societies, the Freemasons, the Mormons, the Jesuits, the 17 Frankish, all these secret societies, they're all intent on building the Third Temple, which is going to enrage the entire Islamic world. So that's a factor that people don't really think about and it's really going to surprise people when it happens.
Well, it will definitely be a surprise, but maybe it shouldn't be because this is what it is, with what Israel is doing to Palestine, to the region. But the ramifications to that would be war, wouldn't it, Professor John? Because if we're talking about World War III and game theory, the destruction of the Al -Azhar Mosque is, wow, we're talking about making a move that would change everything. That would be an explosion. Can Israel even handle that? I mean, your thoughts.
Look, if Israel destroys the Al -Azhar Mosque, there's very little the Muslim world can do about this. The only Islamic country in the world that has nuclear weapons is Pakistan. It doesn't have that many. And Pakistan is not going to risk its own existence based on a war with Israel. What it's going to reveal is the corruption, the incompetence, the mafia within the Islamic elite. And what we'll see after the Al -Azhar Mosque is these Islamic leaders in Turkey, in Saudi Arabia, in Pakistan, in Indonesia. They will insult Israel. They will scream at Israel. They will call for an individual religious jihad against Israel. But they will do nothing militarily. And this will reveal the extent of the corruption in the Islamic world where these states, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, they're all just vassal states of the American empire and soon to be Israeli empire. And this is going to cause massive political turmoil throughout the Islamic world.
And you'll see a lot of regimes being thrown. And that's good for Israel because now these regimes need more of Israeli AI surveillance technology. Right? So that's what I see happening.
But couldn't that then unleash a different kind of firestorm? Because you're exactly right. When it comes to Qatar, Bahrain, we can go down the line. Saudi, right? They are not, Pakistan even, they're not equipped to, we've seen it already. They haven't confronted Israel one bit. What makes us think they're going to confront Israel over something as dire and devastating as the Al -Aqsa Mosque being destroyed. But then there's this other element though. Wouldn't this ignite? Do you find the, you know, in the West Bank, in Palestine, there's always every so often intifada, as they call them, right? These huge uprisings. And then could this, also revive the axis of resistance in terms of spirit, energy, reason, to sacrifice beyond what has already been sacrificed, which has been grave, whether it's Hezbollah, Iran, even. What do you say to this?
Well, you know, let's go back and talk about the October 7th attack, right? Hamas called their operation the Al -Aqsa Flood. Right? The Al -Aqsa Flood. Why? Because they believed they had to take action because Israel had brought in this red heifer from Texas, and they would sacrifice these red heifers, and this would prepare the ground for the rebuilding of the Temple, Solomon's Temple, the Third Temple. And that's why they had to take preemptive action. They called it the Al -Aqsa Flood because they anticipated that eventually Israel would destroy the Al -Aqsa Mosque. So you're absolutely right in that if Israel were to do this, then Iran would be forced to take action, and Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, would be compelled to take action as well. Even these extreme Islamic factions like ISIS and al -Qaeda might be forced to take action as well. But the thing is that the Israelis believe that if they are to create their Pax Judaica, it has to be through a baptism of fire.
It has to be through complete chaos, terror, and destruction. And what they need to do is, before they destroy the Al -Aqsa Mosque, ensure that America will stand with them against this fierce Axis of Resistance counterattack. And I think that America will. And that's why I think that eventually America will go to war with Iran.
Which is, this is all a gamble though, right? I mean, we're talking about, if we look at it from a game theory perspective, if we're looking at the trajectory of the U.S. empire being downward, what state, even now, I mean, you talked earlier about Venezuela, not having the strategic depth to topple and dominate. You know, we heard Jesse Waters on Fox News say, oh, we're going to dominate Latin America. Well, how many years has it been, as we discussed earlier, they've been trying to dominate Venezuela. This is a huge gamble, a roll of the dice, to be the United States in a position where Israel is doing something like it just did and is continuing to do. I mean, let's be honest, Palestinians are still dying. They're still conducting war crimes in general. They're still doing genocide there. But over the last two plus years, and then this is just, I mean, that is,
it's what Alistair Crook comes on my show and talks about how just absolutely important the Al -Aqsa Mosque is to the entirety of the 1 billion Muslims in the world, but this region in particular.
Look, the reality is this. Personnel is policy. If you look at the Trump administration, it is jam -packed with Zionists, as was the case with the Biden administration, as was the case with the Obama administration, as was the case with the Bush administration, as was the case with the Clinton administration. The Zionists control the national security apparatus in the United States. I'm not about Jews. I'm talking about Christian Zionists as well. I'm talking about the Mormons. All these secret societies, all these religious groups, they want to see Israel achieve the Pact of Judaica because they believe that the Pact of Judaica will lead to fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The Jews believe that, sorry, not the Jews, but Zionist Jews believe that building the Third Temple, rebuilding Solomon's Temple will usher in the Messiah, the Messiah Age. The Christians believe the Jewish Messiah is the Antichrist, and so Jesus will have to return to battle the Antichrist.
So they're all insane, but at the end of the day, personnel is policy. So you look at Trump, the Trump White House, right? Well, the Trump White House is the chief of staff, is Susie Wiles. Marco Rubio is in there. A lot of Trump allies, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff. A lot of them are Zionists. Mike Huckabee, the American ambassador to Israel, he is a fanatical Zionist. So, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's all insane, but at the end of the day, personnel is policy. And because you have this, this overwhelming group of Zionists within the national security apparatus, and they control the levers of power, because they are intent on fulfilling liberal prophecy, then it's hard to avoid what's about to come.
Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, it gets to this very deep question of the tensions economically with the declining U.S. empire and how its main, I mean, Israel is the United States' most critical so -called ally. I don't know if we can call it an ally, though, but that's what the U.S. calls everyone, that either it subordinates or needs direly to support its empire. And we see, you mentioned the $38 trillion in debt for the United States. We also see Europe itself stealing Russian assets. They just permanently froze them as some kind of big win here. Talk about the financial side of this huge dip we are seeing. We're seeing a real decline for the U.S. as an empire. It's even talking about pulling back, even though I don't believe it really wants to pull back, but it's talking about it. There's debates about it. What's the financial side of this, the economic side of this?
Look, I mean, if you look at the national security strategy, it's very simple. What Trump and his administration say is, look, for the past 50, 70 years, ever since the end of World War II, America has been bankrolling the European nanny state, the European welfare state, providing security to the Europeans so that they can vacation all the time. America has been providing economic security to East Asia so that it could grow economically and amass these tremendous trade deficits with America. Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore all got rich by exploiting the American market, right? Sending all these cheap goods to American consumers. And then all this trade is being protected by the American Navy. And America is sick and tired of this crap. Why does the average American taxpayer have to finance Europe and finance East Asia? It's time these guys pay the bills. It's time that they pick up the slack. And that's what the national security strategy is about.
It's time that the Europeans paid for their own defense. It's time for the Europeans to obey American orders because America controls the seaways. And America could at any time bankrupt Europe. It's time that South Korea and Japan start paying their dues. So if you just read the national security strategy, it's a tone of aggression. It's a tone of aspiration. And I mean, America is just sick and tired of this crap. That's a message from the national security strategy. Now, is this going to solve America's fiscal crisis? Is it going to resolve the $38 trillion in debt? No, it's not. Because the entire point of all this is to ensure that the American oligarchs get rich. So when America spends more money, sorry, when the Europeans spend more money on defense, when the South Koreans and the Japanese are forced to buy more U.S. treasuries, this is not going to make the lives of the average American taxpayer better.
Their lives are just going to get worse and worse. What's going to happen is that all this money is going to go to private interests, these American oligarchs. It's going to fund the military industrial complex. It's going to fund the AI surveillance state. It's going to boost the bottom line of American private corporations. And that's the entire strategy moving forward.
Yeah, well, what's so wild about this to me, Professor Jung, is I think you articulated perfectly what the spirit of the document, what it says. But what's so interesting is the reality of the situation, the history of what we've seen, right? This idea of America sick and tired of the East Asian countries exploiting them. It's like, well, U.S. monopolies and financial institutions made an absolute killing through the investments they made in the cheap labor there. And then, of course, we can say the same thing about Europe. The U.S. monopolies and banks have made a killing off of... And that's the strategy, too. Isn't it? Right? To continue to push Europe down more and more and suck it of its life force even more. So what's so interesting is that this framing, we get this framing of America the victim, when in reality, this seems to be the United States reorienting itself so it can get out of its own...
I mean, it created this. It benefited mightily for a time. And now it's in a big... It's in deep shit, really. And it's trying to reframe or rebrand it in a way that will work, hopefully, better for it. But your thoughts on this, I mean, does it actually work?
Look, you're absolutely right, okay? Listen, if you're an American baby boomer who's white, okay, and who's male, if you're born in the 50s, 60s, 70s, just to like an average white family, and you could have been a mechanic or a waiter, you had the best life possible. Your wife could just stay at home and raise your three kids. You had two vacations a year. You could have two cars. You had your own house. You could travel around the world and live like a king. Your kids could go to college and you could retire and have maybe a cabin in Montana. I mean, like... And it's all thanks to the American empire. And you know what? While this average white guy who's a mechanic or a factory worker is living like a king in America, you go around everywhere else in the world, like Africa, East Asia, and people are living in slums. People don't have enough to eat.
People don't have even access to, like, clean water. And that's what the empire is. So for America to say, you know, we're the ones who... And the exact phrase is America was like Atlas, and it shouldered the world for the past few decades. You know, it had the weight of the world on its shoulders. That's just complete hypocrisy. It's complete nonsense. And because America is not able to diagnose the situation properly, the solution that they have will be counterproductive. The solution is, well, you know, we were responsible for bankrolling the world before. Now we're going to force the world to bankroll us in our retirement. And it's going to backfire on them. It's going to cause massive discontent in Europe and in Southeast Asia. The Japanese themselves are facing a lot of demographic issues. They themselves have a huge aging population. And to expect the Japanese to continue to finance the decadence, the waste of the American consumer is just absolutely ridiculous.
South Korea will ultimately rebel as well. So, look, at the end of the day, all of Trump's policies, his aggression, it's going to blow up in America's face. The empire is dying, and it's trying to cannibalize its allies. And ultimately, its allies are going to rebel against it. So, if you're... So, I mean, Henry Kissinger said it best, right? To be an enemy to America is dangerous. To be a friend to America is fatal. And that's exactly what we're seeing today, where America is going to try to steal off Japan's resources, South Korea resources, European resources. And the allies are going to be forced to rebel.
Yeah, and maybe as we begin to finish up here, you could talk about your analysis of the United States as the anti -civilization state, because what's so interesting about what you're talking about with the U.S.'s golden age, which Trump hearkens to a lot, the world was not necessarily benefiting from that, even though there was a particular segment of the U.S. population that was. There was also populations in the United States that weren't benefiting from that at all, too. And so, what's so interesting about this is it makes me start thinking about this analysis you have of the United States. Talk about that and how that factors into this overall decline that we were talking about.
Yeah, America is not a real civilization. It is almost... I mean, like, it was set up for the interest of private oligarchs, right? I mean, its entire system of government, it's to serve oligarchs. And this has always been the case. And the main glue to America is money. It's not Republican ideals. It's not love democracy. It's not any sort of cultural civilization. It's just love of money. And that was always the intention. And you've reached a point where you've got too much money floating in the system. There's too much inequality. The oligarchs have all the money, so they can do whatever they want. So you've got, like, Larry Ellison, who's, like, literally buying up all of America's media companies. And there's really no opportunity for anyone else. So if you're anti -civilization and you can't provide basic opportunities, economic opportunities to your people, then your people start to stagnate. They become corrupt. They become decadent.
So what we're seeing is this massive trend among young people in gambling, right? Cryptocurrency. A lot of young people are investing in cryptocurrency. That's just gambling. That's just pure financial speculation. They take whatever money they have and throw it onto gambling sites, put it into markets, cryptocurrency. And they don't want to have kids because they don't think there's a future. So America is really dying as a... as a nation. And there's very little that America can do about it because in this sort of situation, what you want to do is maybe identify an external threat. And before, America was like, you know, like, let's just bully China. And the American people didn't buy that. They were like, you know, China is, like, across the Pacific Ocean. What does China have to do with us? And then America was like, you know, let's go bully Russia. And then the American people were like, Russia is pretty far away.
Russia has nuclear weapons, man. And we hate our oligarchs more than we hate Putin or China or, you know, whatever. And now, you know, the American deep state, you may have seen this, but they're talking about, like, aliens. You've got all these CIA operatives who are, like, going out and telling us, like, I used to work in this secret intelligence operation and we had access to aliens. And so I'm here to tell you the truth, which is, like, aliens are coming and there are aliens among us. There are others who are saying, no, no, no, no. There are demons among us. No, no, no. The demons are going to come and conquer us. And then there are others like, no, no, no. It's artificial intelligence. Artificial is going to destroy us. There's all these manufactured threats. And the American people are just sick and disgusted of all this gaslighting from the elite. And they know exactly what's up.
So I don't see how America can get out of this situation.
Yeah. And then it's almost like first full circle. We started with Venezuela. And, you know, when we think about this whole shift to a more Monroe Doctrine -like policy, the ironic thing about destabilizing Venezuela will be the fact that one of the main components of Trump's so -called American revival policy is to, quote unquote, stop migration. But the destabilization of Venezuela, if the sanctions weren't enough to have already facilitated a lot of migration, then the full destabilization or regime change of any kind, which will result in what you talked about earlier, right, privatization. What does that always do? We've seen it so many times in history. Every time the U.S. has come in, coups, liberalization, quote unquote neoliberalization, there's massive migration or chaos or a mixture of both. So your final thoughts on that.
Look, I hate to say this, but America's headed towards civil war. There's very little that the Americans can do to prevent political collapse, revolution, civil war. The oligarchs live in their bubbles. Their solution to the coming political crises that's obvious to everyone is to build bunkers, right, just to hide underground until whatever wave of political revolution washes over. But it's not going to save them. And... And so, I mean, it's... We're headed towards years and years of just complete chaos where the economy collapses, where the political divide gets stronger and stronger. And I mean, like, what is really frustrating is just how the politicians don't seem to care. They don't care. The oligarchs don't care. They're just trying to steal as much as they can before the entire system collapses. And that's why we... And that's why America is doing what it's doing.
Yeah. Well, I think that's a great place. I think that's a great conclusion to end this stream on because it really gets to the crux of the big problem here. Professor Jong, now, I want everyone... You know, there was a lot of generosity today here, so I'm going to put up everyone's Super Chat, except for those who asked questions, because yours already went up. And while I do so, I want to make sure everyone knows to hit the Like button, because if you... If you want people to hear this conversation beyond our... beyond this hour and a half or so that we've spent into the YouTube sphere, the algorithm, hitting the Like button helps immensely with that because it will continue to be pushed. Also, I want to make sure everyone knows that Professor Jong's YouTube channel, Predictive History, that link is in the video description. Is there anything else you'd like to promote and get out there?
Before we head out of here?
No, I mean, if you're interested in my geopolitical analysis, the best place to find my work is my Substack, Good Deal of History. That is where I do my geopolitical analysis. So I have a recent essay that just came out yesterday on my understanding of the national security strategy. I went through some of the details today, but if you're interested in more information, then you can definitely read my Substack.
Great. Yeah, and I put that link now in the video description so everyone can get there. I'm just finishing up the Super Chats. Thanks, everyone, for giving these, especially on a Saturday night. It is Sunday morning where Professor Jong is. So great for all of you to come out on this evening morning. Without further ado, everybody, though, we are going to head out, all right? So hit the Like button before you go. All the places to support this channel as well are in the video description. And until next time, I'll see you actually tomorrow with Mark Sloboda around 1 p.m. Eastern. I'll be public with that probably a little bit later. All right, hit the Like button. See you all tomorrow.