America will defend its empire to its dying breath rather than retreat, fighting everyone in the world through allies as proxies and cannon fodder, having dropped the rules-based-order facade once its hypocrisy was exposed, and because it is the most powerful empire in history its death will not be a quiet whimper but a 'big bang'—a conflict raging worldwide for the next 10-20 years with no return to the pre-2020 world.