adminJohn V Walsh Correspondent
The major adversaries of the US Empire are China, Russia and Iran. Of the three, China is the greatest threat to US hegemony since its economy has already surpassed that of the US in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), according to the IMF.
And military power in the end is a function of economic power, as we have known at least since Thucydides.
The Empire’s answer to China’s rise is the “pivot” to East Asia, the grand design of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, with the assistance of their eager Rasputins at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The pivot is both military and economic, with Japan as the US military surrogate in the region and the anchor for the anti-China TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) trade pact.
So far the pivot has been a bust.
It demands the concentration of US military and economic resources in East Asia, and so far that has not happened at near the level required.
The level is high, because China’s economy is very strong and dynamic whereas Japan’s is stagnant and because the US has quickened the mutual embrace of China and Russia by engineering an anti-Russian coup in Ukraine. Now in East Asia the US and Japan must confront not only China but also Russia, which has its own dispute with Japan over the Kurile Islands, a dispute dating from WWII.
Why has the US not committed more forces to East Asia since the “threat” is greatest there? The answer lies right in front of us, out in the open. US forces are committed elsewhere — specifically in the Middle East. And why is that?
The principal reason is Israel. Israel’s demands keep the US from freeing its forces to confront China more sharply. But in that direction lies the danger of World War. So Israel is a factor keeping the US from getting us into a predicament that might lead on to world war.
And Israel is able to do this because the “Israel Lobby” is so powerful.
Lest this line of thought be misunderstood, we should be clear that the “threat” from China is not to the existence or to the prosperity of the US but to its global domination. China’s rise does not mean that the US need become less prosperous; in fact it can mean greater prosperity for the US. Unfortunately this kind of win-win situation is unacceptable to the imperial elite since the termination of the US role as global hegemony would reduce them to denizens of a sleepy little town on the Potomac.
Instead of a vigorous turn to East Asia, the US has been pursuing a step-by-step strategy of knocking down weaker adversaries before going on to the major ones. But this strategy has not been going well. Iraq was the first on this list of lesser adversaries to be attacked, and that country is still not pacified, as ISIS has shown so clearly.
Next was Libya, and regime change there went smashingly for the Empire, with Hillary Clinton caught gloating on camera over the barbaric assassination of Muammar Gaddafi.
But to accomplish this the US lied in the UN Security Council, promising a no-fly zone but delivering a bombing campaign, which brought Gaddafi down.
Russian President Putin has called that the last straw. Russia gave the go-ahead to a no-fly zone for humanitarian reasons but then was betrayed when the US turned it into a bombing campaign. Russia and China are unlikely to trust US calls for humanitarian action again.
Syria was to be the next step, but the anti-Assad campaign has not succeeded, although it has wrought untold devastation on that country. Iran looms as the next target if the step-by-step approach is to be followed. And then Russia. Clearly this will not work. Neither Russia nor Iran will be brought down by sanctions alone, and so Israel is clamouring for war on Iran. And with each day, China grows stronger and less vulnerable. Time is not on the side of this approach.
The US policy in the Middle East is a spectacular success for Israel even though it is disastrous for US’s ambitions as unchallenged global hegemony.
Israel’s adversaries, Iraq, Syria and Libya lie in ruins. And the hatred in the Muslim world that has arisen from these ashes is directed at the US. Ever unsatisfied, Israel is now pushing ever harder for regime change or destruction of Iran, its last major adversary – a push that will not be relaxed with a nuclear accord with the P5+1, if indeed that occurs.
This push is sure to increase after the midterm US elections which saw more hawks enter the Congress.
In summary, for the sake of its ambition to be an unchallenged global hegemony, the US Empire should abandon the step-by-step approach in the Middle East and get on with the pivot.
However, Israel with its enormous influence over US foreign policy, most especially Middle Eastern policy, will not permit such a shift in priorities.
That is the reality.
That is the central contradiction between imperial US policy in the Middle East and US imperial policy in the world. — Counterpunch.
Online Reporter