@Chevalier
George Friedman is lying. It was all about maintaining the US as the sole superpower and containing China. The neocons in the US had plans to fight China since the early 2000s at least.
They were supposed to have a revolution in military affairs where their new weapons systems would leave everyone else in the dust.
Well most of their new naval systems failed in varying degrees, and the air force sank everything into the F-35 which is a boondoggle.
The war in the Middle East would enable them to control oil and thus the global economy. Iraq and Iran. A war against North Korea would get them a foothold right next to China.
Except China is moving its civilian economy away from oil and what China needs it can get from Russia.
Their Middle Eastern wars took way longer than expected. Iraq got Saudi and Iranian funded insurgents fighting there both against US troops and against each other. So it was no proper stable platform to invade Iran. The resources sent to Afghanistan could not be used in North Korea.
China's military also developed much faster technologically than they expected. So now it turns out what advantage they had was eroded. Instead of increasing the gap further. Now they are behind in lots of sectors.
They are just pulling back, and will try to detach and contain China.
Remember the Art of War. First you destroy the enemy's alliances. Hence the operation near Venezuela, the strikes on Iran, or the war with Russia.