United (Rogue) States of America

Back in June of last year, i recall some words of George Friedman:

"USA has no interest in having peace...conflicts are needed to maintain power balance...in the XXI century...there will be new destabilization actions both in the Balkan Peninsula as well as in the Middle East"

But even George Friedman, could not have foreseen Mr. Trump's readiness to deploy missiles in locations such as Persepolis—a disconcerting echo of the Taliban's actions on Buddha statues in Bamiyan so one of these days we will risk seeing a title in the media like the following one: "Persepolis, standing for 2500 years, succumbs to the stupidity of the Taliban-in-Chief, President of United Rogue States of America". 

Nonetheless, I believe attributing this issue solely to "Trump" oversimplifies the complexity of the matter. It's crucial to recognize a nation's indifference to the repeated occurrence of school massacres (US has had 57 times as many school shootings as the other major industrialized nations combined)  If genuine concern existed, the resolution to this issue would have been implemented long ago, adopting the successful strategies employed by other nations. Hence, it's sadly unsurprising that there is such a lack of regard for UNESCO's cultural heritage. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/114/

PS - Back in 2018 Robert Reich, a Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, provided a lucid diagnosis of the American problem, too many unbridled narcissists in positions of power shamelessly disregarding the common good. https://robertreich.org/post/171707813340