Since the Empire's failure to overturn the government of Syria and other evidence, there has been wide speculation that US weapons supplied in abundance by the US military industry has turned the Empire into a largely "paper tiger". Pieraccini evidently holds this view which is supported by considerable evidence. He writes:
Pentagon planners have no intention of revealing their military vulnerabilities in a war with Iran. The loss of US military prestige would also show to countries hitherto under Washington’s thumb that this dog has more bark than bite, making it all the more difficult for the US to browbeat countries with the threat of military force in the future.In spite of Trump's love affair with Israel and Saudi Arabia, I wonder if the Deep State, a virtual board of directors of the US capitalist circles and influentials in British and others in the ruling classes of the US/Anglo, Zionist Empire are aware of this theoretical reality and argument. Just wondering.
What Trump seems to find difficult to understand is that his foreign policy is slowly eroding the superpower status of the US. The free pass Trump has given to the neocons and the pro-Israel and pro-Saudi lobbies have only served to bring the US the the brink of a new war with Venezuela, the DPRK, Iran or Syria. With Trump not really committed to any war himself, this will only lead to a humiliating backdown.