The U.S. is in competition with other nations, and with Russia and China in particular, for markets and resources. It is also trying to reduce Russia and China to the status of vassals, so they cannot threaten the U.S. drive for global domination. Russia especially is in the sights of the U.S., in part because it is the only country in a position to pose a direct military threat to the U.S. The key question for the nations involved is who will dominate Eurasia economically and politically – the U.S. and its European allies, or Russia and China?
The U.S. is not acting from a position of strength, but of weakness. As its position in the world declines in the face of the global destruction of capitalism and the rise of new economic powers, the U.S. is being reduced to using its technological and military might to try to maintain its dominance. Indeed, it has elevated to the level of strategy the practice of using subversion and violence to undermine and destabilize countries.
Gaining control of Eurasia is central to the U.S.’ goal of global domination. U.S. actions over the last 25 years in north and central Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and eastern Europe have been calculated to destabilize these regions, bring them under U.S. political and economic control, and interfere with Russian and Chinese access to markets and resources, especially oil.
U.S. actions have also served to position U.S. military forces where they can more directly threaten Russia. (A similar process has gone on in Asia in relation to surrounding China, though it is perhaps not as advanced or pronounced as what has happened on the Russian front.) It should be noted that the cost of these military adventures by the U.S. and NATO runs into the trillions, and this is being paid for through the “austerity” programs imposed in the U.S. and Europe.
Ukraine and U.S. Interests
The U.S.-sponsored coup in Ukraine is a direct threat to Russia. Since Ukraine is strategic to Russia, it cannot ignore this threat, yet if Russia responds militarily the U.S. will use this as a pretext for war. At the same time, according to Evgeny Fedorov, a member of the Russian parliament, a fifth column of foreign agents, NGOs, and western-leaning oligarchs, politicians and media outlets is working inside Russia to bring about a “color revolution” similar to what has occurred in other countries. (In the past, similar forces have been apparent in each of these so-called revolutions, claiming they seek a democratic government but taking advantage of the grievances of the people to put a U.S.-leaning government in power) Getting control of Russia is a strategic necessity for the U.S.. In his May 2014 speech Fedorov argued that if the U.S. loses its bid to dominate Russia it will lose its empire.
The U.S. is also trying to isolate Russia and China economically through its proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). China meanwhile is pursuing its New Silk Road project which is designed to integrate Eurasia economically and connect China to Western Europe and the Mediterranean by both land and sea through a network of roads, high-speed rail, pipelines and ports.
“China’s strategy is to create a network of interconnections among no less than five key regions: Russia (the key bridge between Asia and Europe), the Central Asian ‘stans,’ Southwest Asia (with major roles for Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey), the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe (including Belarus, Moldova, and depending upon its stability, Ukraine), Pepe Escobar writes in a September issue of TomDispatch.com. “And don’t forget Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, which could be thought of as Silk Road plus. Silk Road plus would involve connecting the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor to the China-Pakistan economic corridor, and could offer Beijing privileged access to the Indian Ocean. Once again, a total package – roads, high-speed rail, pipelines, and fiber optic networks – would link the region to China.”
Escobar also notes that while NATO was meeting in Wales in September of this year, “the expanding Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a possible Asian counterpart to NATO, met in Dushanbe, Tajikistan….There, China, Russia, and four Central Asian ‘stans’ agreed to add an impressive set of new members [to the (SCO)]: India, Pakistan, and Iran. The implications could be far-reaching.”
China is actively courting India economically, and both Russia and China are courting Germany. China has recently struck significant business deals with Germany, and Russia and Germany have long-standing economic ties. A Beijing-Moscow-Berlin economic alliance could push the U.S. out of Eurasia. Germany could well declare its independence of Washington one day.
U.S. Strategy in the Middle East
The long-planned U.S. actions in north Africa and the Middle East have both economic and strategic military aspects. The ultimate target in the Middle East is Iran, which is militarily and economically strategic for all the great powers because of its size, its location and its energy resources. The actions the U.S. and its proxy, Israel, have taken over the last 15 years or so have been calculated to divide and subjugate nations like Iraq and Syria, to “neutralize” them as threats to U.S. interests, and in the process, isolate and prepare the ground for war on Iran.
These actions have also been calculated to limit the regional “blowback” against the U.S. and Israel in the wake of an attack on Iran. The U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the assassination of Rafic Hariri, the Prime Minister of Lebanon in Beirut in 2005, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006 (aimed at Hezbollah) and the ongoing efforts to destabilize Lebanon, the Israeli assaults on Gaza in 2008 and 2014, the assault on Libya, the war on Pakistan, and now the war against Syria are all part of this process. Israel’s recent war on Gaza was in part aimed at Hamas, and in part designed to demonstrate its capabilities to conduct an air war on Iran.
Regarding Syria it should be clear by now that “ISIS” has been funded and set in motion by the U.S., and that U.S., British and French special forces have been on the ground in Syria from the beginning. Having secured its rear (from its view), the U.S. is now moving to mount the full-scale assault on Syria that it planned to do in 2013 and then had to delay. In the course of this action it is also completing the process of partitioning Iraq as part of the process of separating it from Iran.
Economic imperatives underlie all this maneuvering. As Dmitry Minin writes in a September 2014 article in GlobalResearch, “It is not difficult to notice that the rebellion in Syria began to grow two years ago, almost at the same time as the signing of a memorandum in Bushehr, Iran on June 25, 2011 regarding the construction of a new Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline.”
In addition large gas fields were discovered in Syria in 2011 near the Lebanese border and near Homs. Qatar meanwhile has its own large gas field, and there is a U.S.-approved plan for a rival pipeline that would transport gas from Qatar to Europe, Turkey and Israel. This partly explains Qatar’s support of the Syrian “rebels” and the U.S. agenda. Heading off the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline is also aimed at both China and Russia. From both a military and economic standpoint, the conquest of Syria will strip the Russians of their Mediterranean port at Tartus.
The most recent series of assaults on Iraq are also part of the pursuit, by the U.S., for economic domination of the region. Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya writes in GlobalResearch, “in Washington’s eyes Nouri Al-Malaki’s federal government in Baghdad had to be removed for refusing to join the U.S. siege against the Syrians, being aligned to Iran, selling oil to the Chinese, and buying weapons from the Russian Federation. Iraq’s decision to be part of an Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline also undermined the objectives of the U.S. and its allies to control the flow of energy in the Middle East and to obstruct Eurasian integration.”
Instability and War
Militarily, according to 21st Century Wire, the U.S. aims eventually to establish a no-fly zone over northeastern Syria along the Turkish border. The object would be “to disable the Syrian government’s air defense system through a series of airstrikes. After the No-Fly Zone is established, then the push will begin to carve out a NATO-run Buffer Zone or ‘DMZ’ along the Turkish-Syrian border which could help to facilitate additional U.S. ground forces into the region in 2015.” It is interesting to note that on October 9, Turkey called for establishing a no-fly zone over northern Syria, and there are seemingly “spontaneous” demonstrations by Kurds in Turkey and Europe demanding Turkish intervention in Syria.
The U.S. has established advanced early warning radar and missile systems in Israel and Turkey. Thousands of U.S. troops went to Israel two years ago for a massive air defense military exercise. The U.S. now has some 30 military bases, thousands of troops and hundreds of aircraft, missiles and ships surrounding Iran. It’s reported that U.S. special forces have been on the ground in Iran for several years. U.S. military planners have made clear that their plans for war on Iran include the use of nuclear weapons.
Russia and China have meanwhile been strengthening their economic ties with Iran, and Iran is economically and strategically important to both countries. The Russians and the Chinese have made clear that they would view an attack on Iran as a threat to their own national security. Observers have said that a war on Iran could easily morph into a full-blown regional conflict that would pull in Central Asia and could lead to nuclear war. The American people have been kept completely in the dark about the threat of nuclear war, of course, and this has heightened the danger.
Political Report of the LRNA Central Body, October 2014.
November.December Vol24.Ed6
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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