" So is America over? A long time ago we "lost" China, we've lost Southeast Asia, we've lost South America. Maybe we'll lose the Middle East and North African countries. Is America over? It's a kind of paranoia, but it's the paranoia of the superrich and superpowerful. If you don't have everything, it's a disaster. "

― Noam Chomsky , Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire