A broad overview of U.S. military action in Venezuela, Iran, and Russia reveals a U.S. plan to disable its competitors and corner the oil market, says a new film by Richard Medhurst, who joins CN Live! Watch the replay.
Is the war on Iran just one part of a much broader U.S. strategy involving Venezuela, Greenland, Russia Qatar Iran and Hormuz, all to corner the oil market so that the world, and especially China, becomes dependent on U.S. oil?
British journalist Richard Medhurst thinks so. He has just produced a 34-minute documentary film laying out this scenario. If he is right a lot of analysts – who have declared the U.S. the big loser in its war of aggression against Iran – may have jumped the gun.
Could the U.S. in the long-run come out on top, not with a collapsed empire but one with renewed reach and vigor? Can Trump and his advisers actually be a lot smarter than they look?
After airing the full The Pirate State documentary, Richie Medhurst joins CN Live! to discuss it.
Guest: Richard Medhurst. Interviewer: Joe Lauria. Producer: Cathy Vogan.
Critics of Prof Michael Hudson may say he is overly pessimistic about the US neoliberal economic system.
hxxps://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2026/04/21/private-credit-financial-crisis-us-economy-michael-hudson
I say Michael is far too cautious and circumspect in his evaluations as to the speed and severity of the impending financial/economic CATASTROPHE which will make 2008/9 look like a cakewalk.
This is an ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE discussion panel.
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoI3qnG8FKE
Larry Johnson uses an apt metaphor of a Tsunami: we now observe the curious deceptively calm phenomenon of receding coastal water, just as the neoliberal shysters are trying to calm the stockmarket and keep prices of oil futures down. Very soon however the horrific catastrophe of mountain high waves will come crashing down upon us and only those who have fled to high ground will avoid dying or avoid their bodies being smashed to a pulp.
Just as Israel is dependent on the US for its settler colonial massacres against the indigenous population, So the US government is dependent on Israel and its financial and political allies to justify its global hegemony. In the US our Congress relies on Israeli approval and the mythology of apocalypse embedded in the so called Christian Zionism which is the last bastion of grass roots imperialism. The entire plan Richard outlines has a major weakness in that it depends on the compliance or serious weakening of China and Russia .
While we are weakening ourselves militarily China is patiently preparing and considering measured but effective countermeasures.
Along with being an imperial war which still has some dependence on voter support( either war party will do) it is an oligarchy driven economic war in which zionists, war profiteers and imperialists control banks and both classic and digital media. If a serious anti-Israel anti-war anti oligarch movement catches fire among voters, the empire dies, war crime trials are held, . I give very serious credit to Medhurst’s analysis and his feistiness against Zionism and the war machine. It is important to look at the long term coordination and intent of our wars. It is equally important to take account of how revolutions start, and what we intend to do about Fossil fuel based eco-destruction.
Just today Iran again closes The Straight due to “US Piracy. Also a key election in Bulgaria where a new agreement to build the Vertical Gas Corridor to accept 10 billion cubic meters of US LNG, replacing Russian gas is a key component of the election. It looks like Richard Medhurst has hit the nail squarely on the head in this piece.
While I think the core idea of Richard Medhurst’s thesis—that there is a broad, deep-seated plan to attack Russia/China and in essence BRICS—is correct, I think there are some problems with the details. Any holes in the narrative are in part due to incomplete information and also perhaps rushing this a bit too much and not considering key facts.
First, if what he describes is even only partially correct we are most certainly in WW III. Let me preface this by stating that I do not see WW III and global thermonuclear war as being synonymous. It could go that way, but it could also be fought conventionally with the threat of nuclear attack hanging over everyone’s heads, much in the same way that gas was largely not used during WW II even though the technology existed. Returning to my point, an attack on a cargo ship in international waters is an act of war. So, if what Richard is saying is true, then the US is involved in acts of war that are likely going to result in retaliation at some point—or better yet should have already had that effect. I would say that such a response is inevitable. The fact that this has not happened yet definitely requires much more digging and thought. Naval blockades, by the way, are also an act of war.
While the idea that the US had enjoyed an advantage by fighting its wars on the soil of far away lands, keeping US industrial capability from being targeted in various conflicts, a war with Russia or China would bring it right home. Both countries have the ballistic missile capability to send sophisticated conventional warheads right into the US. Likely some of the first targets hit will be domestic oil production and refining capability. If you are going to use stand-off munitions like intercontinental ballistic missiles, hitting energy would provide maximal effect. This would not be in Chevron’s best interest.
The physical destruction of the oil production infrastructure in the Middle East would be catastrophic to economies around the globe. The US simply does not have the production capacity—even with Venezuela—to supply what it required to keep economies afloat. And even if it has plans to expand its own domestic production, and Venezuela’s, this would take years, far too long to address a sudden-onset energy shock that could happen soon. With such a production loss, a global depression would be inevitable. While we had the Great Depression of 1929-1939, the new depression would likely be worthy of a title like “Grand Depression.” It would be unprecedented. The US is still hugely dependent on international trade. When the economic systems of its partners begin falling like dominoes, the US will take a major hit even if it is insulated from the initial energy shock. Companies with plans to move to the US could easily fail before they even get there. This would seriously hit the Wall Street bottom line. Note that part of the complexity of the Great Depression, and one of the reasons why it lasted so long, had to do with issues around international banking and trade. This is not something new.
While China is the world’s largest oil importer, they are also an oil producer. Indeed, they have reached new highs this year upwards of 4.6 million barrels a day, and they are actively investing in this industry, expanding production rates—this is part of the new 5-year plan. While the loss of imports would undoubtedly be a big issue for the Chinese economy, the fact that they have domestic production gives them strength that, using an example of mentioned in the documentary, Japan lacked in the decade before entering WW II, in part spurred on by the US oil embargo. In a wartime situation, China could restructure its economy, reduce oil consumption and focus the black gold where it is needed. For example, the days when most people rode bicycles to get around were not that long ago—certainly within the memory of people alive today—and I would suspect that something akin to this could return in a crisis, backed by China’s extensive mass transit systems. Plus they have the added advantage of being a world leader in electrifying their economy—this, too, is an added strength.
Just a few of many thoughts that came to mind when watching this interview.
By war’s end, over 124,000 tons of chemical agents had been produced and used by all major belligerents (Germany, France, Britain, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and the U.S. after 1917).
Casualties: Estimates vary, but chemical weapons caused approximately 1.3 million casualties (including wounded and gassed), with 80,000–100,000 deaths directly attributed to gas.
One cannot expect the release of such a film to be held up until a negative is proven, if it can be — why Russia hasn’t done something rather than why they have.
Thank you, Earthbound, for this fine counterpoint argument. Medhurst’s argument is worthy, but certainly not the final answer. The complexities of humans wielding their various powers in cooperation and competition, along with the responses of biophysical events, are too much for any one theory. The human animal has just extended action beyond understanding; detailing the events of our floundering overwhelms.
This is not an all-encompassing theory of human behavior but a national strategy that may or may not succeed.
The mere act of writing as transportational human evolution.
Speaking of “there (being) some problems with the details, and holes in the narrative, in part due to incomplete information and also perhaps rushing this a bit too much and not considering key facts”!
Speculating retrospectively; in the long distant past, conflicts about mind constructs – concepts of reality, must have been resolved with “sticks and stones”. That must have been the ‘conventional’ way back then of resolving both material and materiel conflicts – prehistory (roughly 3.3 million years ago).
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”. A straightforward, simple thought from an infinite mind named, Albert Einstein.
When previously has purported civilizational “human evolution” – referring to discredited 19th-century theories—such as unilineal evolution and social Darwinism; asserting that all societies pass through the same stages, falsely proclaiming that all societies progress linearly from “primitive” to “civilized” states; typically equating Western culture with the pinnacle of human development. This is the same distorted socio-cultural narrative still being applied across-the-board to justify colonialism and ‘hierarchies’ – ever reverted to more simple methods of human destruction?
What more proof than that which ‘we’ the global populace, through open access to reading of merely the recent history of the past century; and are bearing full-blown witness to today, is required to recognize that self-delusion, among the elites runs rampant, and running amok?
Thanks for this Richard. Excellent reporting. The EU countries and my own – Canada – clearly suffer from Stockholm syndrome. We are so far up Washington’s butt, GPS can’t get us out of this mess. We are part of the mob.
Brian Berletic has been connecting these dots for years. I would love to see a debate between Medhurst/Berletic and Mearsheimer/Blumenthal. In my mind, Blaming the Israel lobby doesn’t explain what’s happening. It’s a far deeper and longer game by the MICIMATT, deep state, oligarch capitalist blob than what Mearsheimer is saying all over independent media.
I agree, and we have the convergent interests of BigOil, MICIMATT, BigFinance, BigTech. as well as the Israel Lobby. Bessent has made it clear that US policy is aimed at China. (We can add Ali Abunimah, Michael Hudson, Norman Finkelstein, and Col Lawrence Wilkerson to Medhurst/Berletic side of the debate as well.
While it is almost certain that Mossad/CIA have serious dirt on our perverted, deranged emperor, it does not explain the larger picture, nor the consistency and continuity of US foreign policy since WWII. It does indeed provide a salacious and lurid, tabloid like sideshow to the main attraction.
Glad to see Brian being mentioned. The other analyst on a par with Brian is Ben Norton and, to a degree, Mark Sleboda. As you point out, Ally, Brian has been saying this for years and as he points out himself, the big picture is laid out in excruciating detail in numerous policy papers – the aim is not just oil, but world primacy, the hegemon without rivals. Mearsheimer and Blumenthal are good on minutiae, but not so much on cool, dispassionate analyses the focuses on broader processes that go back many decades. The Israeli lobby clearly plays a role and has influence, but the evidence so far points to Israel continuing to be a proxy, all be it a willing one.
Medhurst is talking about what has been happening in just the past few weeks and what is happening now, not years ago. Surely that gives this film a special value.
I like Ben Norton a lot. He actually lives in the places he writes about, currently China. He and Brian are my serious go-to guys, although I like Richard Medhurst as well. His perspective is interesting considering his background. Parents both diplomats, one of them Syrian.
I think that’s true. I love Brian Berletic and his consistent reporting. “Continuity of Agenda” means the U.S. will not stop its idiotic ways until someone forces it to stop. The powers that can do that are Russia and China. Even the North Pole is moving east.
Mr. Medhurst’s extraordinary theory makes perfect sense, and in the process turns the entire ongoing international discussion about the Iran War on its head, in this writer’s humble opinion.
Taking into account major news events in recent months and years, most notably since American President Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term, each instance of significance relative to Trump’s actions and words align with, confirm and/or bolster/strengthen Medhurst’s keen analysis and startling conclusions.
The true target is China. The USA has been quite open about this until recently. The want to blame the unpleasant side effects of worldwide impoverishment on Israel.