US Empire Is Breaking Apart — China and Iran Are Changing the World | Silk and Steel

**Jamarl Thomas** (0:00)
I want to hit that. In fact, I'm going to see if Carl wants to get down with that. I see him in the background. I'm gonna let him get himself straight, get his pruning done, before we bring him on. And I am going to bring him on now.
What's happening?

**Carl Zha** (0:19)
Hey, how are you Jamar? Good, how are you?

**Jamarl Thomas** (0:24)
Just, I am moving slow this morning. In fact, in general, things, we just have vision difficulties. It didn't happen before. And when I was back in the States before, I could basically do all of this stuff in like two hours, like five o'clock, be finished by six, send out the links and everything else. And now it's like, I can't see, read aloud. Everything just takes a while.

**Carl Zha** (0:52)
It's an age. I'm there with you, brother. I'm there with you.
We are about the same age. I'm going to be 50 this month. Not this month, in two months. So I think I'm a little bit older than you.

**Jamarl Thomas** (1:07)
You are a year older. I'm going to be 49

**Carl Zha** (1:10)
Okay.

**Jamarl Thomas** (1:10)
Yeah.

**Carl Zha** (1:11)
You can call me big brother, big brother Carl.

**Jamarl Thomas** (1:15)
Yeah. Yeah. Nobody told me that this is what getting old meant.
Just to give my guess that as we used to say in chess, when a person gets a queen, it was like put a head on or put a head on. Carl Zha, he's host of Silk and Steel Podcasts focused on China and surrounding regions in their history, culture, politics. You can follow Carl on Twitter at Carl Zha. You can follow his podcast on Twitter at SteelSilkIn and subscribe and support his podcast on patreon.com/silk and Steel. Carl, I always wow at what you do. I mean, the audience may not know what I say all the time, but just in case somebody's getting here for the first time, Carl goes through Chinese history.
It's that year at a time. It's like it's not year at a time. It is year.

**Carl Zha** (2:07)
Right now, I go about year by year, yeah.

**Jamarl Thomas** (2:12)
5,000 years.
You will have a job forever. You will have a job forever. That's badass, by the way.

**Carl Zha** (2:20)
Yes.

**Jamarl Thomas** (2:20)
That's badass. But I'm glad that you could join me, Carl. There's a lot of stuff that's taking place. South Korea is an issue where South Korean president seems to be trying to move further away from the United States. Apparently, a comment was made about the military, about Trump and the military, and South Korea president made the point of saying, well, we're building up our military capability with a kind of a hint, hint to get to the point where we don't need you here.
We will take care of our own military affairs. Okay, that's a big deal, especially with him, overtures coming out of South Korea, effectively saying, wanting to make amends with North Korea in the Korean War.
I'm curious, from your point of view, do you think, and this is momentous, the audience may not realize this, the United States effectively controls the South Korean military. If the United States goes to war or if there's a war, the United States assumes control of the South Korean military and military operations. South Korea is not a sovereign nation in the way that we would think of a sovereign nation. First, do you agree with that? Two, do you think that would come to pass? Like, Minhee, do you think that, put it this way, do you think the United States will stand in the way of any kind of overture for South Korea to end the Korean War?

**Carl Zha** (3:38)
Well, it's not in US interest. Or let's say it's not in the interest of the US. Empire or is there a Korean unification or Chinese unification? Because that leaves no room for the United States. In fact, the whole latest dispute between South Korea and the United States arose because Donald Trump was upset that South Korea did not offer help in the Strait of Hormuz. The Trump says, well, okay, well, if you don't help us, we're not going to help you. So I'm going to call a pause to this U.S.-South Korean military exercise. Now, this joint exercise are important because, as you say, US won't assume the joint command of Korean and US military in times of war. So this is why they have to keep on practicing together to make sure there's interoperability in times of war. So the units will work together, equipment will work together.