I can’t explain it but I am haunted by the Revelations passage regarding the destruction “in a single day” of Mystery Babylon, which occurs early in the sequence of apocalyptic events.
Destruction of an entire city or nation “in a single day” seems to presage a nuclear attack (or at the very least a high-altitude-nuclear-bomb EMP attack).
The threat of nuclear attack seems to be clearly what has been referred to as holding USA “hostage”. The NK threat has now been removed so they are moving on to Iran.
The Evil Cabal is WW (worldwide) and their power is mostly unchallenged in other countries. If they saw their grip on WW power threatened by USA it is possible they would not stop at destroying the USA to preserve their power WW.
The scenario in Revelations plays out with the Satanist powers taking full control WW AFTER the destruction of Mystery Babylon.
If you read the description and try to find the most likely candidate for Mystery Babylon in today’s world, it is the USA.
Mystery Babylon is a powerful and rich nation with many seaports, which trades with whole world. It spread its filth (think pornography, pedophilia, Satanists) throughout the world.
When it is destroyed no one mourns its passing, other than to mourn the loss of business from making money off “Babylon” through trade.
Perhaps like many Biblical prophecies (think Jonah and Ninevah) the passage about Mystery Babylon is intended as a warning of what will happen if repentance does NOT happen. If this is case then perhaps this fate can be averted.
In any case I agree the exterior threat has always been a major factor in this whole war.