The U.S. and Europe are emerging from the Ukraine-Russia War weaker than when it began, and Russia and China are stronger. It would not be surprising if the same result came out of a Middle East war. Those who are disparaging Russian, Chinese, and Iranian “weakness” are reminded of two things: the Israeli-Iran war is only three days old, and notwithstanding a plethora of confident predictions, nobody in the West really knows what goes on behind the scenes in Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran. From Ben Bartee at armageddonprose.com:
Until the 20th century, one could have advanced the argument that war was mostly a bilateral affair, occurring more or less in a vacuum.
The First World War went a long way to shatter that paradigm: the assassination of an aristocrat in the Balkans at the hands of a rival domestic dissident lit the match that kicked off a global war in earnest.
And, in 2025, the world is remarkably more interconnected than it was even in 1914, particularly in the oil-rich Middle East, where geopolitical interests collide.
Via Iran International, January 2024 (emphasis added):
“Iran officially became a member of the China-led BRICS economic organization on Monday, as it seeks to overcome the impact of US sanctions and overcome it isolation.
In its policy of finding shelter under Chinese and Russian-dominated international organizations, Iran achieved full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in July 2022 and concurrently pursued entry into the BRICS group. Following an official invitation, Iran announced its acceptance into BRICS on August 24, 2023, with the official membership commencing on January 1, 2024.”
