It is recommended that friends who pay attention to international geopolitics, when they are not in a good mood, enter the keywords: Houthi armed forces, Red Sea, and read the news that they have searched for a while, and there is a high probability that they can be refreshed.
Because tensions in the Red Sea are evolving dramatically, U.S. maritime hegemony is rapidly being dismantled in a comedic fashion.
Since the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the situation in the Middle East has not developed in the direction that the United States wants, which eloquently shows that the United States' control over the Middle East has in fact lost control.
Regarding the situation in the Middle East, we wrote a series of articles after the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, including "The Pit Has Been Dug Well, the United States Has Ushered in a Life and Death Situation in Advance" and "Before the Official Beginning, the End Is Basically Doomed", putting forward the following views:
There is a great possibility that US hegemony will be buried in the Middle East ahead of schedule this time.
The changes in the Middle East have just begun, and the outcome is basically doomed.
At the time, some readers felt that the article was too optimistic, but now we are not optimistic enough. While there is nothing wrong with judging the direction, the pace of evolution is faster than we estimated.
Now that Iran has not officially taken action, Russia has not begun to act, and the unstoppable maritime hegemony of the United States with the United States' security dominance in the Middle East is about to be played by the Houthis, which shows that the decline of the United States is faster than we imagined, and after the test of this Red Sea tension, the decline of the United States is about to reach a critical point.
This critical point is that the global hegemony of the United States can no longer be maintained, and it is almost to the point where it can no longer be pretended.
The United States now has no initiative at all in the Middle East and is dealing with it passively. For example, the US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower left the Persian Gulf for the Red Sea in a hurry just a few days after entering the Persian Gulf. Originally, this aircraft carrier was going to the opposite side of Iran to deter Iran, but now it can only go to the Red Sea to play with the Houthis.
Of course, Iran did not take the US aircraft carrier seriously this time, so from the time it entered the Persian Gulf to the time it left the Persian Gulf, it did not dare to hit the aircraft carrier when it was swept overhead by Iranian drones to take pictures.
Because Iran understands that the United States is now a paper tiger that cannot fight. As long as there is no aestheophobia in your heart, you can see this clearly.
This is tantamount to Iran and the Houthis in the Middle East helping the world to cure Americanphobia, telling everyone: the United States is nothing more than that, everyone should not be afraid.
As long as the United States has the strength, it will never bear the burden of humiliation in this way. Because this is simply not in line with the way of thinking and acting of the United States as a global hegemon. We used to take the lion as an example. If the lion is seen by the hyena as no longer capable of fighting when it is old and weak, it means death. If the boss of the underworld is seen to be weak, it will be the beginning of a tragedy.
I know that there are still many people in China who look at the declining United States in their eyes, but in their hearts they are still the powerful United States in the past.
There are even some people who are trying to use public opinion to maintain the image of "the United States is invincible," just like what some people say: "Once China and the United States go to war, China has no chance of winning." ”
Why do they have such judgments? Because they have a phobia of aesthetics.
How did Americanophobia arise, and how is it so deep-rooted? There are several possibilities:
Some people fear the United States because they worship it, and they don't want the United States to really decline.
Some people have a serious national inferiority complex and feel that the United States is more powerful than themselves. This is the psychological mechanism of the capitulationists.
These people also have another commonality, they only talk about reform and do not talk about socialist principles, and they think that they are more clever than great men, and they think that great men are not good at this.
Iran and the Houthis face the US aircraft carrier formation, because there is no Americanphobic ideological stamp, they can directly challenge the US military power and uncover the image of the US paper tiger.
Therefore, I would like to suggest that the Chinese people pay more attention to the situation in the Middle East. If you have a phobia of the United States, take a look at it, it can be effectively alleviated. Those who do not have aestherophobia can find amusement in how the invincible United States has become well-behaved now.
If the United States wants to regain its self-confidence in the Middle East, it is impossible for Israel to rebuild the character of the "little bully of the Middle East" from the attack on Gaza.
For the United States and Israel, this time they are facing a crisis unprecedented in history.
Both the United States and Israel are slow or unwilling to accept the severe decline in their own power, so they have made strategic arrangements beyond their own strength. Israel has made enemies in the Middle East on all sides, and the United States is facing a two-front game between China and Russia.
When the United States sent two aircraft carriers to the Middle East, it still thought that as soon as the army arrived, the countries of the Middle East would immediately tremble and help Israel concentrate on dealing with Gaza. But the development of the situation slapped the Americans in the face. Ever since the US aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower came to the Persian Gulf in a majestic manner, this tone has not been smooth, and the embarrassment has not stopped. Because the Houthis teach it lessons almost every day and teach it how to behave.
Now the United States can no longer care about deterring Iran, because the Houthis have cut off Israel's Red Sea shipping lanes and imposed a maritime embargo and economic sanctions on Israel; moreover, the Houthis have established an image of doing what they say they will do in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, so four of the world's five major shipping companies have announced that they will suspend shipping on the Red Sea route and detour the Cape of Good Hope instead.
This is a fatal blow to US maritime hegemony, and it shows that even the four major shipping companies in the US camp countries have lost confidence in the United States in safeguarding the security of the Suez Shipping Route, and this incident is tantamount to the United States having lost its ability to control the Suez Shipping Route.
The United States also lost control of the Strait of Holms, otherwise it would not have been repeatedly insulted by the Iranian army.
U.S. maritime hegemony is based on global military bases and control over the world's major shipping routes, without which there would be no maritime hegemony.
The foundations of US maritime hegemony are already creaking.
There are US troops stationed on the edge of the Strait of Malacca, because China is a kind of island in the South China Sea, and the US troops in the Strait of Malacca are also within the range of China's firepower, which is only a formality.
The current US maritime hegemony is already a lame duck.
What is the crisis of the empire? Moreover, in the game of the Sino-US-Russia triangle in the Middle East, Russia has begun to have spare strength to lay out the Middle East, and the eastern powers have not yet officially exerted their strength.
For China, the difficulty of this geopolitical game is nothing compared to ideological warfare and cultural warfare.
According to the three-dimensional warfare pattern of the United States, ideological warfare is at the highest level, followed by economic warfare, then geopolitics, and finally military warfare.
The U.S. military has become dove, and can only be used as an adjunct to other forms of warfare in the United States.
In terms of geopolitics, the United States has been passive since the formation of a two-line game with China and Russia, and now it is already in a comprehensive passivity in the third-line response, and it will be even more passive in the future.
The economic war, the trade war launched by the United States has failed, the science and technology war has basically failed, the financial war, the US dollar interest rate hike has not been increased, and the scale of China's foreign exchange reserves is still immovable, and the RMB exchange rate has begun to counterattack.
Now the United States has again begun to pin its main hopes on ideological warfare. Originally, Trump launched an economic war because the United States thought that the efficiency of ideological warfare was too slow, and China's strength was too fast, so it couldn't wait. Now, after the operation, it is found that the economic war has less and less hope to achieve the goal, and in turn, the ideological war has become the greatest hope of the United States.
The goal of the so-called ideological warfare is to induce the target country to make self-destructive policies, and in the economic aspect, the main ones are financial liberalization and economic privatization. Yellen recently openly said that the proportion of China's state-owned economy is too high, and some people in China have recently suggested that China should implement free currency convertibility on the grounds of the internationalization of the renminbi, and that "state-owned enterprises are a supplement to private enterprises" and "no longer distinguish between ownership systems" and other propositions that negate the basic economic system and the dominant position of public ownership as stipulated in the Constitution are all concrete manifestations of ideological warfare.
The United States has retreated its main hope from economic warfare to ideological warfare, that is, it has no confidence in China's containment capability and has no choice but to pin its hopes on the adversary's initiative to make mistakes.
Therefore, when we pay attention to the geopolitical game, it is best to pay attention to the specific forms of several other three-dimensional wars at the same time, so as to show a full picture of the Sino-US game.
The current situation has changed faster than expected, because the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has pressed the fast-forward button once, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has pressed it again, which is equivalent to stepping on the accelerator twice, the original speed was 50 to 60 per hour, and now the speed is 100 to 120 per hour. What used to be "20 years equals one day" may become "1 day equals 20 years".
Twenty years ago, when the United States faced the Taliban in Iraq and Afghanistan, it had no excuse and had to make excuses. Now in the face of Iran and the Houthis, being ridden by the neck, there is no way.
The situation is changing so fast, and the United States has become more and more inadequate.
Originally, the United States planned to unite the forces of its allies to take Russia at a rapid pace in the first half, and then mobilize all its forces to solve China in the second half.
Now that the first half has not yet ended, and the second half has not yet begun, the United States has to face the newly increased changes in the Middle East and fall into the quagmire of the Middle East. Moreover, the United States will have to face the Houthis first, and behind the Houthis is Iran, behind Iran is Russia, and behind Russia is the eastern powers.
It is not so easy for the United States to jump out of the quagmire of the Middle East. Pass the Houthis first, and then the next few levels.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced on the 18th that the United States will lead a "transnational escort operation" to protect the safety of navigation in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain are also participating in the operation.
The U.S. meant to "bring together a broad international effort to contain the Houthis." It seems that there are quite a few of them, but in fact, they still have to rely on the strength of the US military itself. The Navy is also not enough to see these countries on the list. Among them, Seychelles and Bahrain are obviously used to make up the numbers. As long as the United States has the ability to mobilize more countries to join, it will not be that there are few ships like Seychelles, and it still relies on countries donated by others to make soy sauce.
In fact, the United States wants to create an atmosphere in which the Houthis have angered the world and are isolated by the world. Looking at the team he has assembled, it is impossible to hide the fact that the United States and Israel have been the side that has been unprecedentedly isolated since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The Houthi maritime embargo against Israel has been explained as a humanitarian embargo against Israel and stands on the moral high ground. The Houthis have made such a big move, and there are not many voices of condemnation in the world.
Don't look at it, but use the so-called slipper army, but the political wisdom is not low.
There is a significant difference between the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, that is, the United States and the West still have a certain public opinion advantage in the public opinion war of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but on the issue of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the United States and the West do not even have a public opinion advantage. Israel has lost a terrible battle of public opinion against Hamas. The United States is now passive in the war of public opinion against the Houthis.
After the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Israel dragged the United States and lost politics. Militarily, it doesn't dare to fight now, and it can't do it if it doesn't, and it's extremely embarrassing to fight the main one.
You can't quit if you want to. Because the Houthis are now influencing not only Israel's Red Sea lanes, but also the US maritime hegemony and the security dominance of the Middle East, retreating would mean the rapid collapse of the US maritime hegemony and the security dominance of the Middle East. Moreover, as global shipping companies change routes, freight rates have skyrocketed, leading to inflationary pressures in Europe and the United States.
An important turning point in human history has never been so lightly plotted.
Britain replaced Spain, and the United States replaced Britain, both after large-scale military wars, and sometimes one did not work, and another had to be done.
This time, when the United States was needed to prove itself by means of war, he found that he was no longer capable.
The main opponent he faced was very different from the methods used to compete in Western countries.
In the past, it was Western thinking, but now the United States cannot understand the opponent's style of play with Western thinking. For example, this time, the changes in the Middle East are completely different from the previous five Middle East wars. The United States and Israel are at a loss when confronted directly with the Houthis and Hamas, which are informal forces.
When the United States looks at the Houthis, it always feels that it is not so simple behind it.
The Red Sea crisis is a big test for the United States, and it will be up to us to see if the United States can pass the test. If we can't get past this, the global hegemony of the United States and even the petrodollar will be buried in the Middle East ahead of schedule.
(The author is a researcher at the Kunlun Ce Research Institute; source: Kunlun Ce Network [author's authorization], reproduced from "Mingren Mingcha")