#3:

I'm now reading Trading with the Enemy (1983, Charles Wigham).

Standard Oil (now Exxon) provided oil (and other critical resources) to the Third Reich, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan during the Second World War using subsidiaries and neutral countries.

The Canary Islands (Spain) processed Standard Oil petroleum from South America which then immediately fueled the Kriegsmarine U-Boats.

The chief American oligarch who frustrated Hans Morgenthau, Howard Ickes, and D/FBI J. Edgar Hoover, and who got away with collaborating with the enemy while making tons of money for Exxon during the Holocaust, along with "the Fraternity" of Ivy League WASP industry magnates, Walter C Teagle.

And ironically, a U-Boat would sink M/V Walter C. Teagle during the war.

#7

Detestable India purposefully increased oil imports from Russia to fuel their carnage against the Ukrainian people.

And the Kremlin is happily supplying her allies China and North Korea with plenty of oil and natural gas-- no Strait of Hormuz problem for any of them.

The US attacking Iran on Israel's behalf was certainly a well-thought out plan by the historically ignorant and inept Trumpf junta that is bankrupting the US economy while all US and int'l oil companies are making obscene profits at our expense.

......... Natural gas pipelines ............................ Oil pipelines

# 8

Years ago I met a really good fellow who was one of the last Baghdadi Jews. I had met Iranian Jews before, but never an Iraqi one -- even in my deployments there.

"RI" looked more like a Circassian -- tall, big-boned, and pale -- and he was fluent in several languages and quick to smile.

One day "RI" told me that the Baghdadi colony suddenly became "Jews" after Saddam Hussein was toppled, not before.

#12

China's potential vulnerability as a superpower is similar to India's problem.

Unhappy elements within a large population pool.

India's caste system and poverty is a perennial problem and some analysts estimate that up to 25% of their territory is under Naxalite control or influence.

This is why both countries are "purifying" their nations, Sinification in China and Hinduization in India.

Poverty, corruption, and inequity are not long term formulae for success.

Look at all the corruption investigations underway in China.

China has suffered little casualtues since 2000, amassed weaponry, experience, and a fortune from all the stupid and reckless Western wars, like the Iranian quagmire we are in today thanks to Israel.

Moreover, Beijing has gained international experience and prestige as UN Peacekeepers and medical experts providing free healthcare to poor people in the Third World.

Dummkopf Trumpf dismantled USAID.

And the MSS is huge, posing tremendous problems for CIA, DIA, FBI, MI5, and MI6.

The greatest threat to China is internal dissent, not an international adversary, but they are quashing it mercilessly. See Hong Kong, Uighurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, visiting Taiwanese, and Manchus for more info.