Oh no, certainly not the country; I was thinking of [essentially] on a city-level.
The thing that they really want is precedence for official [and socially accepted] tyranny.
The might of the western world can't control Afghanistan. Forget flyover America, where guys like me have lathes and milling machines.
Absolutely right — but there's a huge tendency to hand-wave/ignore "flyover country".
Not for long, anyway.
/johnny