Richard Wolff & Michael Hudson: Trump Is FUMING After Iran, China & Russia’s MASSIVE Move

Richard Wolff frames current global conflicts as a consequence of the American empire's peaking and now declining influence. He argues that this decline provokes alternative anti-empire forces, such as Iran, Russia, and China, to make a stand. The US, in its perceived weakening state, is resorting to aggressive tactics, while its adversaries are forming stronger alliances.

Wolff details the US overthrow of Iran's elected government in 1953, installing the Shah, and how the subsequent Iranian revolution led to a search for allies against US domination, culminating in closer ties with Russia and China. He states, 'The empire as it declines provokes alternative anti-empire forces that now feel strong enough to make a stand.'

Michael Hudson elaborates on Iran's history of resisting foreign control, from British influence to the brutal US-backed Shah regime. This history, coupled with continuous US destabilization efforts post-1979, has forced Iran to develop self-sufficient military capabilities and seek strategic alliances to prepare for inevitable attacks, viewing it as a 'life or death struggle.'

Hudson explains the installation of the Shah's father by the British, the 1953 coup by the British and Americans, and the Shah's 'brutal military dictatorship' with CIA/MI6 guidance. He notes that Iran's post-1979 administration 'realized the United States and Britain are going to attack again' and has since built an 'enormously effective missile force and other weaponry.'

Both speakers assert that a primary US objective in the Middle East and against Russia is to control and weaponize the global oil trade. By targeting Iran's oil exports and Russia's refinery facilities, the US aims to create a choke point, cutting off access to oil for countries that do not align with its foreign policy, thereby maintaining economic leverage.

Hudson states, 'The United States wants to use the oil trade as a choke point to be able to cut off other countries from access to oil if they don't surrender to America's foreign policy.' He adds that the US wants to 'prevent Russia from exporting oil, so that this will leave the United States once again in control of the whole world's oil trade.'

Richard Wolff characterizes European governments and their leaders as 'willing slaves' to the United States, a dynamic established after World War II when the US rebuilt Europe's economy and political culture, including suppressing communist and socialist movements. This historical dependency prevents them from challenging US foreign policy, even when it is detrimental to their own interests.

Wolff explains that after WWII, Europe 'needed to turn to the United States for the money to rebuild... They took the loans of the Marshall Plan to buy from the United States the equipment.' He adds, 'They became willing slaves to the United States. All those politicians, Starmer, Mertz, Macron, they grew up in all of that. They can't think outside of bad Russia, good the United States.'

Russia, China, and Iran collectively perceive the continuous US and Western aggression as an existential threat to their national sovereignty and existence. This shared perception, rooted in historical interventions and ongoing destabilization efforts, solidifies their alliance and makes them unwilling to back down from provocations, preparing for a decisive conflict.

Wolff states, 'Russia, China, Iran have all the evidence one could imagine that their existence is what the Americans want in the end to undo.' Hudson adds that for Iran and Russia, this is an 'existential crisis,' and they 'recognize how serious the war will be and that it will be serious enough to require their participation to prevent America from actually achieving the wipeout of Iran and Russia together.'