https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57750.htm
You Can’t Project Power When the World Knows You Are Weak
Every empire falls and the fantasy of American exceptionalism doesn't exempt the U.S. from inevitable decline. Yet the failing hegemon behaves as though it still controls events, and in so doing creates dangers for the whole world.
"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
Karl Rove, advisor to George W. Bush – 2004
By most accounts, Karl Rove was correct about the United States empire. Nineteen years ago, the U.S. had the strongest military in the world, but the economy was showing signs of weakness. Back in March of 2000, the stock market bubble burst, resulting in the NASDAQ or “dot com bubble” crash. Still at that time, most of the country believed Reagan as he referred to the country as, “…the shining city upon a hill…” Due to its military might the U.S. was able to project its power and impose its will upon the world.
Rove’s arrogant assertion that “…when we act, we create our own reality…” is a major part of the problem that the U.S. empire is facing today. What gets lost in this assessment is the historic reality that all empires run their course. An examination of the European, Greek, Roman and British empires tell the stories of tragic endings. A common and significant factor in their demise was arrogance. Instead of recognizing the changing of global dynamics, the geopolitical landscape and making the requisite adjustments, they believed they could manage the world by sheer force, power projection and will.
The United States is blinded by its arrogance and cannot properly assess the realities before it, still believing it is the unitary hegemon and many of its recent actions are exacerbating its demise. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush announced a "new world order" that he believed would replace the bipolar politics of the Cold War era with a US driven unipolar order. While still Governor of Texas but running for president, George W. Bush outlined the foreign policy principles that would guide his presidency, promising a "distinctly American internationalism", again, not so subtle code language for a unipolar order. Recently, Secretary of State Blinken and other Biden administration officials continue to discuss a “rules-based order.” They seem to be the only ones who know what the rules are.
This country continues to assert itself as a unitary power in what is emerging as a multipolar world. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway’s Bill Gorton asks Mike Campbell, “How did you go bankrupt?” Mike replies, “Two ways…Gradually and then suddenly.” The unipolar hegemonic dominance of the U.S. is bankrupt and coming to an end.
In October of 2020 I published a piece entitled “The Non-Aligned Nations Realign ” wherein I wrote, “As the US has emerged from the post-Cold War era as the unitary global hegemon, it became increasingly more difficult for countries to maintain their sovereignty and battle the inequities of the “new world” economic order imposed upon them by the United States. The U.S. “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions and regime change has been applied as a weapon of economic warfare against US “enemies” such as China, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela. Except for China, these tactics have crippled economies and wreaked havoc on societies.”
We can see the demise of the U.S. Empire happening in real time. According to Alexander Mercouris, host of The Duran , “the great period of danger in any international system is when the overarching empire declines, when it starts to lose control. Whether they (the leaders of the empire) understand that their empire is in decline and try to manage that decline in a way that preserves the international system or whether alternatively they try to go for broke and they try to preserve their position by managing conflicts that they believe that they can win.”
Even though the empire is in decline, it is far from over. It is important to understand that America is a nuclear power and still maintains military dominance over most of the world. According to The Soldiers Project , the U.S. has roughly 750 US foreign military bases spread across 80 nations. Russia (a nuclear power) has about 3 dozen bases, and China (a nuclear threat) has just five. This implies that the U.S has three times as many bases as all other countries combined. One of the major challenges facing the US is nuclear deterrence and the concept of mutually assured destruction. A nuclear attack by one superpower would be met with an overwhelming nuclear counterattack such that both the attacker and the defender would be annihilated.
With that reality being understood the issue shifts to one of economics. Until recently, the US has been able to assert its will via its economic leverage and a sanctions regime combined with the threat of military action. That’s not working any more. The non-aligned nations have realigned.
In response to the US sanctions regime, China and Russia were forced to reassess their interests and differences. They came to understand that US hegemony and imperialism was a common threat. The US proxy war in Ukraine has proven to be a major threat to Russia and the US involvement in Taiwan threatens to start a war with China. Russia and China now enjoy the best relations they have had since the late 1950s. There is a “new world order” on the horizon but it's not the same order Bush 41 spoke about.
There are other examples of global realignment. On March 10, 2023 Saudi Arabia and Iran announced a normalization of ties which was brokered by China. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has invited 67 country leaders and 20 representatives of international organizations to the upcoming BRICS summit . Even though it’s not on the immediate agenda, BRICS is moving towards a new currency that will be based on a basket of the currencies of the initial five-nation bloc. Kenyan President, William Ruto, has called on African nations to shift away from using the US dollar for intra-continental trade and opt for the use of local currencies. In response to US sanctions, the non-aligned nations are realigning, making it increasingly more difficult for the US to project its power as nations seek to assert more control over their country’s resources and governance.
It is important to realize that in spite of US sanctions, well-stocked Iranian supermarkets have opened in Venezuela and Iran is exporting oil to Venezuela. China and Iran have entered a 25-year strategic partnership in trade, politics, culture, and security. In spite of US pressure, a British Court of Appeal set aside a decision by the High Court giving President Maduro of Venezuela access to $2 billion of gold stored at the Bank of England.
Remember when President Biden told the world that US sanctions against Russia would cripple its economy? “As a result of these unprecedented sanctions, the ruble almost is immediately reduced to rubble…”, Biden infamously said. According to World Bank data , Russia was among the world’s five largest economies and the largest in Europe in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) as of the end of 2022, despite Western sanctions. China topped the list as the world’s biggest economy ($31 trillion), followed by the US, India, and Japan. So much for US sanctions.
Even as the US is trying to protect its drone base and France’s access to uranium by attempting to exert its power in Niger, the current leaders of that government would not take a meeting with America’s coup plotter extraordinaire, Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. They would also not allow her to meet with deposed President Mohamed Bazoum. They are ignoring the “rules-based order.” As Algeria, Mali and Burkina Faso continue to back the junta in Niger, the US’ ability to control the dynamics is in question. It becomes increasingly more difficult to project power when the world sees that you are weak and alternative alliances become available.
Americans see their country in the romantic context of Reagan’s “Shining City on a Hill” while the Global South sees the US as a monster, in which the taints, the sickness, colonialism/neo-colonialism and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions. The “non-aligned” nations are in realignment. The US should be as Killens says, about “free people” not “free enterprise.”
It is said that a dying mule can manage to engage in some kicks. These kicks may be dangerous, but they don't last long. Progressively, they become weaker and weaker until the mule finally gives up. We know the US empire won’t go quietly into the night. That’s when it is proving to be its most dangerous. As Antonio Gramsci wrote, “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”
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https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57752.htm
Anti-China Brainwashing Is the Fast-Track to War
The United States has to have an enemy. For the last seven years, the enemy has been Russia. Now the focus has shifted to China. Take a look at these headlines on Google News and you’ll see what I mean:
- Has America been too slow to wake up to the China threat? Washington Examiner
- Why is China a threat to the United States? Quora
- Is the US ready to address China’s threats in time to make a difference? The Hill
- China and Russia are waging another Cold War — is the West up to the challenge? The Hill
- China secretly sends enough gear to Russia to equip an army, Politico
- Xi Jinping is Preparing China for War, Newsweek
Get the picture? China is a bigtime threat to the United States. Forget that the US regularly sends its warships into the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. Forget that the US has encircled China with military bases and missile systems. Forget that the US has sent multiple delegations to Taipei in violation of the “one-China” policy. Forget that the US arms and trains military personnel in the Taiwanese Army. Forget that the US imposes unilateral tariffs on Chinese goods and sanctions Chinese businessmen. Forget that the US has implemented the most draconian blockade on advanced semiconductors in history. Forget that the US is building anti-China coalitions across the region. Forget all of these things because—according to the geniuses in the mainstream media—China is the problem, China is the threat, and China is the country that is pushing the world towards war.
Does anyone believe this nonsense? Here’s how columnist Bradley Blankenship summed it up in an article at RT:
The US national security state has exploited deep ideological biases in the media and is bankrolling countless think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and academic programs to churn out constant anti-China propaganda. Self-Reinforcing Propaganda, RT
In other words, the USG is working with its allies in the media to saturate the airwaves with anti-China blather in order to convince Americans that China is the source of the problem. That’s how the government shapes public perception and lays the groundwork for war. Check out this excerpt from an article at The Diplomat:
A key feature of mainstream Western media today is the relentless China-bashing. It is off the charts and tiring, often involving regurgitated trivia or fabricated stories with no evidence to support callous statements about the country, demonstrating a deep lack of understanding. But such stories continue to be churned out with no end in sight.
Countering this in international media by offering more balanced views for a global audience is near impossible as censorship is rife. There almost seems to be a global compact to control the narrative, a propaganda war powered by today’s digital technology….
Typically, the negative stories adhere to three core ideas, which inform the unspoken guidelines within these press rooms when it comes to reporting on China.
First is the belief that China is a threat to the world and that this belief must be relentlessly reinforced at every available opportunity. How and why China is a threat is never explored; such is the deep-rooted and almost religious nature of the belief. Sound arguments do not matter. The basic tenets of good journalism are ignored when it comes to a China story. There is no need to explain or give evidence of why China is a global threat. Anti-China Rhetoric Is Off the Charts in Western Media, The Diplomat
China poses no threat to the West, in fact, China has never invaded another country in its 70 year-long history. Compare that to Washington’s unbroken record of violence around the world. Here’s a brief recap
The United States launched at least 251 military interventions between 1991 and 2022. This is according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, a US government institution that compiles information on behalf of Congress. The report documented another 218 US military interventions from 1798 to 1990.
That makes for a total of 469 US military interventions since 1798 that have been acknowledged by the Congress…. The list of countries targeted by the US military includes the vast majority of the nations on Earth, including almost every single country in Latin America and the Caribbean and most of the African continent.
The Military Intervention Project at Tufts University’s Center for Strategic Studies has documented even more foreign meddling.
“The US has undertaken over 500 international military interventions since 1776, with nearly 60% undertaken between 1950 and 2017,” the project wrote. “What’s more, over one-third of these missions occurred after 1999.”
The Military Intervention Project added: “With the end of the Cold War era, we would expect the US to decrease its military interventions abroad, assuming lower threats and interests at stake. But these patterns reveal the opposite – the US has increased its military involvements abroad.”
US launched 251 military interventions since 1991, and 469 since 1798, Geopolitical Economy
And which country is the “greatest threat to world peace”? China?
Not even close. Take a look:
The U.S. emerged as the greatest threat to world peace, followed by Pakistan and China, in the End of Year global survey conducted by WIN/Gallup International across 65 countries in the world.
Of more than 66,000 people surveyed the world over, 24% of respondents believed that the U.S. was the greatest threat to world peace. Pakistan and China got eight and six percent of the votes respectively while Iran, Israel, North Korea and Afghanistan tied for fourth place with four percent of the votes.
The U.S. Is The Biggest Threat To World Peace, Buzzfeed
So, maybe, China is not the biggest threat, after all? Is that what we’re saying?
Indeed, China is not a threat to the United States, in fact, China’s highest ideal is “peaceful development.” Think about that for a minute: Development without war. Is it even possible?
It is possible, and the US and China should work together to make it happen. There’s no reason why the world’s two biggest economies cannot work together on the shared goals of economic integration, state-of-the-art infrastructure and poverty reduction. We need leaders who will embrace collaboration and cooperation not exacerbate divisions and confrontation. We need to strengthen relations with China not look for ways vilify, coerce or bully them.
Unfortunately—as we all know—the western “rules-based order” is controlled by billionaire oligarchs who bitterly oppose nationalistic leaders who cherish their own sovereign independence and act in the interests of their own people. They won’t allow that. Western elites believe that all material wealth and power should be in private hands (not public hands) which is why they are determined to provoke a war with China, so the matter can be resolved militarily. In short, the conflict with China is shaping-up to be a nuclear cage-match between “the globalists and the nationalists”.
The West’s greatest asset in this struggle is the media whose propaganda helps to garner the public support the elites need to drive the country to war. Regrettably, the plan appears to be working. For example, in 2018 a mere 4 in 10 Americans saw China’s rise as a threat to US vital interests. (The Chicago Council on Global Affairs) Compare those results to the recent survey at Gallup which showed that “66% of U.S. adults consider (China) to be a critical threat to the vital interests of the U.S”.
In just 4 years the media has persuaded a majority of Americans that China poses a clear threat to the United States. How can one explain these results other than pointing to the pernicious impact of state propaganda used to poison the minds of Americans against Washington’s biggest economic rival?
Here’s more from Gallup:
In addition to holding a largely unfavorable opinion of China, more Americans name China as the United States’ greatest enemy than any other nation by a wide margin. This view is closely linked to two other measures in the poll, which find that Americans broadly believe China’s military and economic powers represent a “critical threat” to the United States’ vital interests in the next decade. “Record-Low 15% of Americans View China Favorably, Gallup
“China’s military is a critical threat” to the US? Is that really what Americans think?
And where exactly has China’s military been deployed in the last 30 years: Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Iraq?
No, for the last 7 decades China’s military has remained in China. China has invaded no one and certainly has no intention to do so in the future. Americans have no reason to fear China. What they need to fear is the deranged neocons who send US warships into the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, 8,000 miles from the United States. That’s who they should fear, because that is a deliberate provocation aimed at triggering a war.
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center appeared to show that public opinion of China has dropped dramatically in 24 countries. But a closer look at the survey shows just the opposite, in fact, Pew helps to prove the point we have been trying to make here, which is, that the countries most dominated by the western media are more likely to have “unfavorable” views of China. It’s not a coincidence. Here’s how Blankenship summed it up:
The agency polled adults in 24 countries; there are 193 United Nations member states, which indicates that it does not show any serious global trend purely based on its methodology. There is also a strong selection bias for high-income countries and American allies. However, some middle-income and poorer countries were polled and the data reveals what many know to be true – the Global South largely has favorable views of China.
For example, the Pew survey found that countries such as Kenya (72%), Nigeria (80%) and Mexico (57%) hold favorable views of China... Since poorer countries are the beneficiaries of bilateral cooperation with China, including on the Beijing-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it is natural that they would have a higher opinion of Beijing. Pew, however, mostly did not select countries with high-level strategic cooperation with Beijing….
there has been a steady downward trend fully in line with American foreign policy, e.g., after 2012 with former President Barack Obama’s ‘Pivot to Asia’, the Trump trade war, and whatever it is that the current administration of President Joe Biden is doing. The US national security state has exploited deep ideological biases in the media and is bankrolling countless think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and academic programs to churn out constant anti-China propaganda….
There is a definitive and ongoing battle for hearts and minds between China and the US, and so-called ‘China experts’ are the Americans’ foot soldiers whether they realize it or not. And there are only bound to be more systemic incentives for China hawks in the future considering members of the US Congress keep introducing legislation, like the Senate ‘Countering Chinese Propaganda Act’ or the House ‘Countering the PRC Malign Influence Fund Authorization Act’, which would see hundreds of millions spent on negative news coverage against China. Both of these bills have been absorbed into the House and Senate’s versions of the America COMPETES Act, which have passed in both chambers but are awaiting minor changes before becoming law. Self-reinforcing propaganda: A new poll shows people dislike China, but there’s a catch, Bradley Blankenship, RT
So—even though a majority of Americans already believe that China is their enemy—Congress wants to spend “hundreds of millions more” to intensify the media’s indoctrination campaign to ensure that any critical thinking person who believes the US should pursue a policy of peaceful engagement with China will be denounced as a coward, a traitor and a puppet of Xi Jinping.
This is the scenario we’ll be facing if we don’t find a candidate who will break with the war-mongering concensus and craft a policy that focuses on a long-term accomodation with China that circumvents a catstrophic confrontation. Avoiding World War 3 should be our top priority.
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https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57788.htm
Always Opposing Past Wars But Never The Present One
A lot of empire sycophancy hides behind the fact that it’s always permissible to retrospectively oppose US wars that already happened, but not the current one. It’s permitted now to say the destruction of Vietnam and Iraq and Libya were mistakes, for example, but if you said it at the time people would treat you like a monster and call you all kinds of names.
And it’s important to understand that this is still happening today. One day it will be permissible to say in mainstream circles that it was wrong for the US empire to deliberately provoke the war in Ukraine and keep it going as long as possible to bleed Russia, but it’s taboo to say that now, because the empire hasn’t yet accomplished all its goals in Ukraine.
They always act like the most recent interventionist disaster was the final one. They always act like the hawks may have been wrong all those other times but they’re not wrong now. And then when they’ve killed everyone they wanted to kill and grabbed everything they wanted to grab and there’s no possibility of losing anything they gained, it will suddenly become permissible to make the present disaster the final one while they assure us the next one is completely righteous.
....By far the most dangerous disinformation published on online platforms is the mainstream war propaganda that’s paved the way to mountains of human corpses throughout the global south, and now in Ukraine. But rather than being censored, it’s being loudly algorithmically amplified.
....US empire managers keep saying they need to move more and more war machinery to “challenge” China in the South China Sea, because CHINA is behaving aggressively. Only a complete moron would believe this narrative.
....Imagine how shitty and soul-sucking it would feel to have to be a mainstream news pundit. Having to treat presidential races like they’re real things that actually matter. Talking about partisan feuds between Democrats and Republicans like they’re consequential and relevant. Talking about the United States like it’s just a normal country in a world full of similar normal countries, participating in world events just like any other country, passively witnessing terrible things happening in other countries like it didn’t actively cause those terrible things to happen.
Your whole life would be dedicated to co-authoring a fiction — but a really boring, vapid, stupid fiction that everyone around you is pretending is real life. But you’d know it’s not real. On some level you’d know. There are only so many years you can closely observe the kayfabe performance of electoral politics where nothing ever changes without noticing that that seems to be a feature not a bug in the system. There’s only so long you can closely observe geopolitics before you notice that the US and its client states play a role in every major international conflict, and notice who benefits from this dynamic. The awareness that you’re giving your life to a lie would creep in and sit in the periphery of your awareness like a terrible memory of something that definitely happened but you don’t want to think about.
And on some level you’d be aware that you don’t have to do this anymore. On some level you’d be aware that you could turn around and start talking about how America’s real government works, about how the empire works, about how power actually moves on the world stage. Real things that actually matter. And you’d be aware on some level of how right this would feel, how freeing it would feel, how expansive it would feel.
But you’d also be aware that it would cost you everything. Your job. Your friends. Your social standing. Your carefully cultivated relationships with all the right kind of people. Your expensive house. Your fancy car. Your spouse. Your kids’ Ivy League educations. The respect of everyone you know.
And you look at the two options, and you weigh them out, and every day you pick the easy way. Every day you choose your own cowardice over truth. Every day you choose fear and fraudulence over courage and authenticity.
And you have to live like that every day of the rest of your life. Imagine how awful that would be. How gross and unfulfilling life would feel, every waking minute of every day, year after year, until you die.
It’s not a fate I would wish on anybody.
....You wanna know how fucking stupid Australians are? Australians are so fucking stupid they think the US empire is filling their country up with war machinery because it loves them and wants to protect them from the Chinese, that’s how fucking stupid Australians are.
....So much empire apologia today is just people pretending not to understand what the word “provoked” means.
“Oh, so you’re saying the west’s actions JUSTIFY Putin’s invasion?? You’re saying we MADE Russia invade? You’re saying we used Jedi mind control to FORCE Putin to invade??”
Shut up, wanker. You know what provoked means.
....The age of western domination has been defined by imperialism, colonialism, exploitation, narrative control, and dogshit mainstream culture manufactured in New York and Hollywood. Hopefully these things can be flushed out of human civilization along with western domination.
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