Power without Principles and Ambitions without Abilities

The week ended on January 23, 2026, interesting news items to look at from the past two weeks are:

1. Power without Principles and Ambitions without Abilities: It is only three weeks into 2026 and my head is already spinning from all the Geo-political adventures that the US is maneuvering either as counter punches to China or to consolidate her power base to remain as the apex predator in an increasingly chaotic world. It would be wrong to assume US has made a strategic retreat based on the old “Monroe doctrine” - the “Donroe Doctrine”. My thesis is US is experiencing “Desperate Times” and therefore engages in “Desperate Moves”. Canadian PM Mark Carney said in Davos this week that we are looking at “a rupture in the world order, the end of a present fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality where geopolitics, where the large main power geopolitics is submitted to no limits, no constraints.” Allow me to present a map showing the US intentions already expressed and evaluate the possible fall-outs. (Fig. 1).

(i) Venezuela - The most stunning revelation from the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro isn’t just the audacity of the January 3rd raid—it’s what made it possible. New reporting confirms that Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s feared interior minister and Maduro’s supposed enforcer, had been secretly communicating with the Trump administration for months before American forces swooped into Caracas and extracted the socialist strongman. (Fig. 2).

So it wasn’t the might of the Navy SEALS and Delta Force but an inside job that shuts down the air defense system, stood down resistance and opened the gates to the barbarians.

From the UK News Media Guardian “Andrés Izarra, a former government minister who now lives in exile, believes Maduro’s abduction has undermined Cabello and that he will bow to the US. “Diosdado is a walking zombie,” Izarra said. “He’s been left with his pants down.” The failure of Venezuela’s security apparatus to protect Maduro leaves Cabello little choice but to follow the lead of Rodríguez, and her brother, Jorge, the head of the national assembly, who have cooperated with the Trump administration, said Izarra. “He just was totally overrun. I mean, he is the security minister. And they took away the head of state under his nose. I mean, what the fuck? He has no agency. He has no power.” 

Without boots on the ground as enforcers and US oil majors opined that Venezuela’s oil is “univestable”, I suppose US can still play some role using the US Navy as “Pirates of the Caribbean” and siphon off proceeds of the pirated oil shipments to bank accounts in Qatar. (Fig. 3).

Why Qatar? Well money owned by Venezuela are subject to a number of claims including IMF, China and US and foreign creditors and so by Presidential Executive Order Trump annulled all creditors claims against the oil proceeds and then parked in Qatar and to bypass Congressional supervision. (Fig. 4).

But just guess who bought the pirated Venezuela at a deep discount. (Fig. 5).

The roughly $250 million sale (first reported as having a value of $500 million) of Venezuelan crude went to Vitol, a Geneva-based energy and commodity trading firm whose US arm is headquartered in Houston. The Financial Times reported late last week that John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol, was involved in his company’s efforts to secure the deal. Addison, who attended a recent White House meeting with other top oil executives, donated $6 million total to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign via several super PACs, including $5 million to MAGA Inc. US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), noted on social media that Vitol has a “criminal history of bribing foreign governments” and called the Venezuelan oil deal “fundamentally corrupt.”

In the meantime, Chinese Oil Enterprises is said to continue its operations in Venezuela (Fig. 6).

(ii) Greenland - Another name of US resource grab without compensation or consent in the guise of global security. But why a sudden U turn and a withdrawal of military and tariff coercion? Details are scant at this stage but EU as a creditor to US of $10.4 trillion in Equities and Debt, a financial retaliation can be lethal. (Fig. 7).

(iii) Canada - Just 10 days after US aggression on Venezuela, Canada PM shook hands with China in a State visit to Beijing to openly trade coveted oil, natural gas and uranium exports with previously China banned canola oil, agricultural and livestock products, lobsters and seafood. Correspondingly, Canada has relaxed import restrictions on Chinese electric vehicles, reducing the tariff from 100 percent to 6.1 percent. However, the current limit is 49,000 Chinese-made EVs per year, with the quota expected to grow annually.  Thanks to Trump, Canadians found so quickly the enemy of my enemy is my friend. (Fig. 8).

Breaking it down, Carney’s China visit included the signing of a memorandum for a third-phase bilateral central bank swap. The exact amount to be exchanged is not yet known. …. In trade settlements, the countries can use the swap notes as payment, bypassing the U.S. dollar. This is a concrete step toward internationalizing the renminbi, with far-reaching benefits beyond the balance sheet. 

(iv) Iran - The Iranian experience is a classic playbook of CIA engineered regime change and have gone through all the developmental stages of (a) Demoralization - the classic psy-war of demonizing an opponent, (b) Destabilization - severe trade and economic sanctions to weaken a country’s financial and economic well being and hardened public rebellion, (c) Crisis -  implant armed agent provocateur to incite violence and create excuse for military attack.

What remains is a kinetic war. Trump has twice backtracked on an attack. The first was when a number of US Gulf allies refused to lend their territories as an air strike staging platform. I suppose credit for that should go to China on the historic reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March 2023. The second set back was when agent provocateurs were taken out after Musk’s starlink were nullified as a communication tool between agent provocateurs. (Fig. 9)

Instead, through a deployment of Chinese black technology and drone swam, Iran was able to track starlink satellite terminals, disrupt its messages and identified the locations of the agent provocateurs. Iran is a big country and without intelligence on the ground, it will be a monumental task for the US military to score a surgical strike.

In the meantime the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is sailing towards Iran. (Fig. 11).

However Iran is not Venezuela and a single Carrier trike Group already proved inadequate to take out even the Houthis. Military analysts believe it will take 3 Carrier Strike Groups to confront Iran. Let’s pray that common sense will prevail over what may be an escalation into WWIII.

2. Follow the Money: We have moved from Psy-wars, Trade Wars, Tech Wars, Proxy Wars, Currency Wars, Capital Wars and now unto Resource Wars. Large legacy powers  lie, cheat, print, pirate and kill for resources or choke their opponents from resources because slogans and empty promises have gone beyond their used by date. Allow me to present the Chart below (Fig. 12), there are 5 commodities that the brave new world have secured and one legacy resource which the bygone powers desperately is grasping in the hope to frame forever her past glory.

From December 31, 2024 to January 23 2026, their performance were as follows: Silver (+257.02%); Uranium (+114.76%); Gold (+91.40%); Lithium (+79.45%); Copper (+45.65%), Hang Seng Index (+33.47%); S&P500(+16.64%); Euro (+13.64%); JPY (+0.78%); Bitcoin (-3.38%); USD Index (-9.83%) and Brent Oil (-11.67%).

My friends be guided and keep well.

Proverbs 20:18  Plans are established by counsel; By wise counsel wage war.