I can't remember it ever happening. Dictators can fly around the world with impunity but they'll contrive to ground the plane of a democratically elected president and search it, for some guy who published a bunch of powerpoint presentations?
And they did all this... with all the consequences it's going to have and they didn't even get Snowden!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_c...
Sometimes I think the powers that be are poking an enormous sleeping dog with a stick just for giggles.
"We had to destroy the [village] in order to save it" doesn't really apply if you consider, say, New York City.
As https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002 (and, of course, successful terrorist acts over the last decade) demonstrated, low tech is still Good Enough for a lot of purposes.
The US gets away with much of what it does because of the enormous US market. But at some point other countries will realize that the cost of that market has gotten too high and then a large chunk of the the US' power will dissolve.
I would behave so much better than when faced with an apathetic one.
To me this is like the argument that "prostitution avoids rape", it's blackmail.
It's not vulnerable, it's more dangerous.
It's just that more people are finally see the men behind the curtains and realizing that they are just as petty and human as the rest of us, but have insane amounts of power. And are not willing to give up any of that power or even display any true global leadership or responsibility.
Realize that "these people" have absolute power. And as time goes on, don't need as much as the population around to maintain their status or luxuries. What would you do in their place if faced with a angry populous?