[jollybean]

a) Nobody not even POTUS is in a position to even have such a 'Grand Plan' in this regard.

b) Yes, some 'Grand Planners' exist, and fully agree that they are often a mess.

c) There is no plan to destabilize Africa. Totally the opposite. The plan is definitely to bring stability, because everyone wins there. It's in that endeavour 'they fail' in 1000 different 'unforeseen' ways. Those systems are arguably inherently chaotic and will be for some time.

[blagie]

There were plenty of well-documented plans, mostly by oil companies, to destabilize African countries. The idea is to keep a level of corruption high enough to where you can get lucrative profits through bribes, but not high enough to have an open war zone and where contracts you made are enforced.

This isn't a conspiracy; it's well-documented.

Good book: Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil

[jollybean]

Nobody wants chaos, especially not corrupt people.

Saudi Arabia is effectively 'fully institutionalized corruption backed by the US Army' and it's almost 'model'.

The Oil Flows, the Leader does whatever he wants with his cut, as long as there is stability and order.

Instability leads to failed contracts, downfall of leaders knocks over dominoes, attracts attention, people are arrested and go public, war etc..

This idea that somehow 'an Oil Company' could actively keep something a bit broken but not fully broken gives way, way too much agency to them. They are not that smart or powerful.

They would all be happy just to pay 'The Guy' his cut in perpetuity.

Arguably, Russia is such a country. Putin et. al. take their cut, the plebes get some scraps, everything is cool.

Everyone was willing to look the other way at his minor intransigence.

Until he crossed the line, and now he has to be dealt with.

All he had to do was take his billions and literally not invade anywhere. He could do anything he wanted in his borders.

As you can see all of Europe is roiling as the result of chaos, nobody wants it - not Putin, not Europe, not any Oil Company.

[blagie]

Saudi is ideal, but a Nigeria is better than a Norway. You can't always get to a Saudi.