Let me state this immediately. I have no sympathy for Maduro. On the contrary, I believe that a beautiful and intelligent people like Venezuela deserve a much more honest, meritocratic, visionary government that works for the welfare of its people.
I am familiar with the details of Maduro’s involvement in numerous crimes and with Venezuela in general. During my 14 years as Honorary Consul of Costa Rica, my assistant Ninoska, who was the backbone of our Honorary Consulate and managed affairs, kept me informed about her country, Venezuela.
I believe Maduro deserves what is happening. And from now on, I wish for a government that will provide the Venezuelan people with a healthy and happy life, as they deserve. What really bothers me here is the Trump show we’re witnessing with Maduro’s takeover.
The US and UK have a poor track record.
In my opinion, a personality like Trump doesn’t deserve to govern a country like the US, which is a superpower in economic and military terms. Trump, with his characteristic style, doesn’t hesitate to exhibit behaviors that diminish the prestige and respectability of this superpower, always and everywhere.
We have witnessed the US and the UK repeatedly overthrowing other governments for their own economic interests and replacing them with presidents who would serve their own interests (They did this in a very dirty way throughout history. See: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTOOAoSFvgu/?igsh=dWFxMDR2a3A0ZWl0) .
Even worse is the Trump administration’s use of US power for its own self-interest. The idealistic head of state model has ended with Trump. What is even more alarming is that instead of correcting the mistakes the US has made economically, politically, militarily, and socially, it is deepening them and rapidly dragging the country towards an irreversible point.
I won’t go into detail in this article; I will likely continue to write detailed analyses on geopolitics in the future. For now, I will only share a striking analysis published by American geopolitical analyst Way Yuhl, who compares the current situation of the US to the waning period of the Ottoman Empire.
The USA and the 4 mistakes of the Ottoman Empire.
You can watch this analysis, titled “The US is Repeating the 4 Mistakes of the Ottoman Empire,” at this link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DScO48tCm9B/?igsh=bWtnMWh1YTRjYmNr
Let’s check out what Yuhl’s four fatal mistakes are:
1) They rejected modernization: Europe underwent an industrial revolution. They modernized their weapons. The Ottomans, however, skipped this revolution. They remained stuck in the past. This backwardness resulted in the collapse of the empire.
The US is hurdling along the same path. The Trump Administration is ignoring technologies required by critical sectors of the new era, such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, and energy storage. They are also lagging behind China in areas such as AI and 5G. Trump and his associates have once again embraced fossil fuels. Incredibly, they are prioritizing sectors that need to be phased out, such as oil, natural gas, and coal, over renewable energy. In reality, there is the fact that China dominates all critical sectors with penetration rates exceeding 90%. The Trump Administration is like the Ottoman sultans who missed the Industrial Revolution.
2) Corruption destroys trust: The Ottomans gave state jobs to those who offered the most money. Competence or merit was irrelevant. The empire rotted from within and eventually collapsed.
The same thing is happening in the Trump Era. There is a serious meritocracy problem among the politicians and federal agents in his inner circle. The corruption behind closed doors is immeasurable. Using the power of the US, they are securing billions of dollars in benefits for themselves and their close circle from other countries’ governments. That’s how empires collapse.
3) Taking on debt they can’t repay: The Ottomans borrowed so much from Europeans that the Europeans took control of the Ottoman national budgets. In short, they lost their sovereignty to their creditors.
The same thing is happening in the US. The US debt is increasing by trillions of dollars every year. Creditors who lent to the US are already looking to hedge their risks. This is the beginning of the end.
The US might boast, “I own the system, I set the rules of the game. Everything depends on my computer program,” and not worry about this debt at all. However, a time may come when, even if it seems fictitious to them, they can trigger an economic crisis worse than the deep depressions created in the past. They can pay off the trillions of dollars in debt they created by digitally creating money from their own system, but in the long run, the dollar’s weight will diminish, and after a while, you might find that the dollar has lost its crown, and countries have created other alternatives for trade among themselves.
Even though they own the dollar system, fiscal discipline is crucial. If they can control their debts through fiscal discipline, they can maintain dollar hegemony and bring order to their country’s governance. Otherwise, the use of the dollar will gradually decrease, and their economies will not be able to recover from the quagmire.
4) The Empire disintegrated: The Ottoman provinces eventually stopped pledging allegiance. They pursued their own interests, and the empire fragmented. The most striking example of this is how Egypt was founded. Muhammad Ali (4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849) was the Ottoman Albanian governor who was the de facto ruler of Egypt between 1805 – 1848, and is considered the founder of modern Egypt. Can you imagine, the governor of an empire saying to the Ottomans, “I am separating from you and establishing my own country”?
A similar situation exists in the US. US states are managing their own immigration policies and healthcare systems because the Trump Administration represents a failed government. Another striking example is what happened in Minnesota. A few days ago, in Minnesota, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a woman who was driving her car despite orders to get out. This tragic event caused widespread outrage throughout the state. Minnesota state officials harshly criticized the Trump administration and called for ICE officials to leave their state. If the level of anger in states like Minnesota continues to rise in this way, after the pot has boiled for a while longer, they may explode with anger and say, “We’re leaving.”
The US doesn’t have much time.
According to geopolitical analyst Yuhl, “The Ottomans saw the coming of collapse for 200 years and did nothing about it. They collapsed in 1922 (as we all know, the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923). The US doesn’t have that much time.”
In this article, I have identified the problem. In my next article, I’ll write about the US’s salvation plan. This issue is particularly important to me because a US administration that works with merit, honesty, and for a bright future for future generations concerns us all.
