The machine grinding on

Firstly, a winner looks like one,
but now that even losers do, let us add that
secondly, the winner's beliefs are better-founded,
which makes it easier to eventually come around to them,
so, advocates of haste and drastic action
would have fools ride their own waves
and others chase their tails
in a distracting maelstrom
before the flood comes in.

Where a hammer comes down on an anvil,
what's in between is being forged.
Apart from drained oil reserves and pie in the sky
I wonder what has been:
Refineries to process sweet crude for diesel and kerosene?
and the heavy one from Canada and Venezuela?
A deepened protectorate in Arabia?,
where trade henceforth is taxed by the US?
The cliff to push the world economy over?
and the refuge for the US to retreat to?
The social catalyst to void the established wisdom?
and bring in the new guard?
Wouldn't someone already've asked the smith what he's doing,
if the world really was a global village?
It seems though it's more of a global metropolis,
where everyone goes his own way,
until, of course, there's reward in alliance.