Yet much like with Afghanistan, Gerasimov believed there was something more sinister at work. The United States was perfecting its military capabilities to, in his words, “eliminate the statehood of unwanted countries, to undermine sovereignty, and to change lawfully elected bodies of state power” in ways that benefited the United States.22 Gerasimov saw the war as being much bigger than Iraq—or even the Middle East. It was another example, Gerasimov concluded, of the “U.S. aspiration toward global domination.”23
