Where USA went massive rogue was Libya. Afghan and Iraq had all the ‘legal’ bells and whistles, Congress voted on it, the AUMF was created for it, etc. It was a “legal” clustercluck by the rules of the international game…
Libya is the damage. Ghaddafi had done the game re-ingratiating with the West – he hid his money in Swiss banks, gave up all the WMD desk programs, put on good show in his tent in New Jersey visiting the UN, hired Beyonce to sing at his kid’s wedding…that guy did everything the ruling hegemon had said were the rules to get along. He played the game. And first convenient chance the hegemon shivved him…
USA can pretend that didn’t happen. But everyone saw it. FJB stealing Russia’s US dollar reserves was a “F Russia” byline in USA media – but it was last straw for world trusting USA enough to trust dollar much as it has…
WtR