The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy marks a shift away from prioritizing major power competition with Russia and China.
The US foreign movies targets [regime change] to easier nations:Venezuela & Iran.
Both nations are in economic crisis and civil unrest.
Just a little shove is needed.
Not long after Mr Maduro was elected for the first time in 2011, global oil prices plummeted and Venezuela - which relies almost entirely on oil revenue for its income - went into a seven-year recession. Inflation skyrocketed and shortages of basic goods became widespread.
Waves of anti-government protests in 2014 and 2017 fizzled out after a police crackdown.
Millions of Venezuelans left the country to escape economic hardship and political repression. Amid growing discontent, Mr Maduro was re-elected in 2018 in a presidential election widely dismissed as neither free nor fair.
A wave of protests is sweeping across Iran, which is mired in a deep economic crisis marked by an unprecedented drop in the value of the rial and surging inflation.
But the demonstrations, which began with a merchants’ strike in Tehran on December 28 and have grown as students joined the movement, go beyond the country’s economic woes.
“In such a setting, when living costs rise, but incomes and job security don’t keep pace, livelihood grievances quickly turn into dissatisfaction,” Qaredaghi told DW.
“This economic crisis is unfolding in a context where public trust in the government’s ability to control inflation and create stability has eroded,” he added.
Iran’s government has been accused of widespread corruption, while protesters also allege authorities are prioritizing support for proxies abroad — like Palestinian militants Hamas and Lebanese group Hezbollah — over domestic welfare, as well as suppressing freedoms.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/world/middleeast/iran-currency-collapse-rial-inflation-protests.html
Surge of Economic Pain Pushes Iranians to the Streets
High inflation and a currency collapse have squeezed Iranians’ budgets, challenging the country’s leaders.
The currency plunged to a record low this past weekend against the U.S. dollar and the annual inflation rate rose to 42.2 percent in December.
Have Bibi and the president reach an agreement?
During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump said that he will allow Israel to attack Iran once again to strike its ballistic missiles.
But what exactly does that mean? Will the U.S. be involved in the actual strikes? Will it “limit” its involvement to shooting down Iran’s retaliatory missiles?
If the former, Trump is not just “allowing” Israel to strike; the U.S. will actually be at war with Iran.
A win-win? End of Iranian funding of State Sponsored Terrorism & creation of Greater Israel that will include Gaza, West Bank & parts of Lebanon & Syria. Defensible border don’t ya know.