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发帖数: 38600 | 1 http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/01/defending-dollar-imperia
“The Fed’s ‘need’ to take on an even more active role as foreigners
further slow the purchases of our paper is to put the pedal to the metal on
the currency debasement race now being run in the developed world — a race
which is speeding us all toward the end of the present currency regime.”
– Stephanie Pomboy, MacroMavens
“No matter what our Western counterparts tell us, we can see what’s going
on. NATO is blatantly building up its forces in Eastern Europe, including
the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea areas. Its operational and combat training
activities are gaining in scale.”
– Russian President Vladimir Putin
If there was a way the United States could achieve its long-term strategic
objectives and, at the same time, avoid a war with Russia, it would do so.
Unfortunately, that is not an option, which is why there’s going to be a
clash between the two nuclear-armed adversaries sometime in the near future.
Let me explain: The Obama administration is trying to rebalance US policy in
a way that shifts the focus of attention from the Middle East to Asia,
which is expected to be the fastest growing region in the coming century.
This policy-change is called the “pivot” to Asia. In order to benefit from
Asia’s surge of growth, the US plans to beef up its presence on the
continent, expand its military bases, strengthen bilateral alliances and
trade agreements, and assume the role of regional security kingpin. The not-
so-secret purpose of the policy is China “containment”, that is,
Washington wants to preserve its position as the world’s only superpower by
controlling China’s explosive growth. (The US wants a weak, divided China
that will do what it’s told.)
In order to achieve its goals in Asia, the US needs to push NATO further
eastward, tighten its encirclement of Russia, and control the flow of oil
and gas from east to west. These are the necessary preconditions for
establishing US hegemonic rule over the continent. And this is why the Obama
administration is so invested in Kiev’s blundering junta-government; it’s
because Washington needs Poroshenko’s neo Nazi shock troops to draw Russia
into a conflagration in Ukraine that will drain its resources, discredit
Putin in the eyes of his EU trading partners, and create the pretext for
deploying NATO to Russia’s western border.
The idea that Obama’s proxy army in Ukraine is defending the country’s
sovereignty is pure bunkum. What’s going on below the surface is the US is
trying to stave off irreversible economic decline and an ever-shrinking
share of global GDP through military force. What we’re seeing in Ukraine
today, is a 21st century version of the Great Game implemented by political
fantasists and Koolaid drinkers who think they can turn the clock back to
the post WW2 heyday of the US Empire when the world was America’s oyster.
Thankfully, that period is over.
Keep in mind, the glorious US military has spent the last 13 years fighting
sheep herders in flip-flops in Afghanistan in a conflict that, at best,
could be characterized as a stalemate. And now the White House wants to take
on Russia?
Can you appreciate the insanity of the policy?
This is why Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was sacked last week, because
he wasn’t sufficiently eager to pursue this madcap policy of escalating the
wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. Everyone knows it’s true,
the administration hasn’t even tried to deny it. They’d rather stick with
foam-at-the-mouth buffoons, like Susan Rice and Samantha Powers, then a
decorated veteran who has more credibility and intelligence in his little
finger than Obama’s whole National Security team put together.
So now Obama is completely surrounded by rabid warmongering imbeciles, all
of whom ascribe to the same fairytale that the US is going to dust-off
Russia, remove Assad, redraw the map of the Middle East, control the flow of
gas and oil from the ME to markets in the EU, and establish myriad
beachheads across Asia where they can keep a tight grip on China’s growth.
Tell me, dear reader, doesn’t that strike you as a bit improbable?
But, of course, the Obama claque think it’s all within their grasp, because
, well, because that’s what they’ve been told to think, and because that’
s what the US has to do if it wants to maintain its exalted position as the
world’s lone superpower when its economic significance in the world is
steadily declining. You see, here’s the thing: The exceptional nation is
becoming more unexceptional all the time, and that’s what has the political
class worried, because they see the handwriting on the wall, and the
writing says, “Enjoy it while it lasts, buddy, cuz you ain’t gonna be
numero uno much longer.”
And the US has allies in this wacky crusade too, notably Israel and Saudi
Arabia. The Saudis have been particularly helpful lately by flooding the
market with oil to push down prices and crush the Russian economy. (On
Friday, Benchmark crude oil prices plummeted to a four-year low, with Brent
crude sinking to $69.11 a barrel.) The Obama administration is using the
classic one-two punch of economic sanctions and plunging oil revenues to
bully Moscow into withdrawing from Crimea so Washington can move its nuclear
arsenal to within spitting distance of Moscow. Here’s a bit of background
from the Guardian:
“Think about how the Obama administration sees the state of the world. It
wants Tehran to come to heel over its nuclear programme. It wants Vladimir
Putin to back off in eastern Ukraine. But after recent experiences in Iraq
and Afghanistan, the White House has no desire to put American boots on the
ground. Instead, with the help of its Saudi ally, Washington is trying to
drive down the oil price by flooding an already weak market with crude. As
the Russians and the Iranians are heavily dependent on oil exports, the
assumption is that they will become easier to deal with.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, allegedly struck a deal with King
Abdullah in September under which the Saudis would sell crude at below the
prevailing market price. That would help explain why the price has been
falling at a time when, given the turmoil in Iraq and Syria caused by
Islamic State, it would normally have been rising.” (Stakes are high as US
plays the oil card against Iran and Russia, Larry Eliot, Guardian)
And here’s more from Salon’s Patrick L. Smith at Salon:
“Less than a week after the Minsk Protocol was signed, Kerry made a little-
noted trip to Jeddah to see King Abdullah at his summer residence. When it
was reported at all, this was put across as part of Kerry’s campaign to
secure Arab support in the fight against the Islamic State.
Stop right there. That is not all there was to the visit, my trustworthy
sources tell me. The other half of the visit had to do with Washington’s
unabated desire to ruin the Russian economy. To do this, Kerry told the
Saudis 1) to raise production and 2) to cut its crude price. Keep in mind
these pertinent numbers: The Saudis produce a barrel of oil for less than $
30 as break-even in the national budget; the Russians need $105.
Shortly after Kerry’s visit, the Saudis began increasing production, sure
enough — by more than 100,000 barrels daily during the rest of September,
more apparently to come…
Think about this. Winter is coming, there are serious production outages now
in Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela and Libya, other OPEC members are screaming for
relief, and the Saudis make back-to-back moves certain to push falling
prices still lower? You do the math, with Kerry’s unreported itinerary in
mind, and to help you along I offer this from an extremely well-positioned
source in the commodities markets: “There are very big hands pushing oil
into global supply now,” this source wrote in an e-mail note the other day.
” (What Really Happened in Beijing: Putin, Obama, Xi And The Back Story The
Media Won’t Tell You, Patrick L. Smith, Salon)
The Obama team managed to persuade our good buddies the Saudis to flood the
market with oil, drive down prices, and put the Russian economy into a
nosedive. At the same time, the US has intensified its economic sanctions,
done everything in its power to sabotage Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline (
that would bypass Ukraine and deliver natural gas to Europe via a southern
route), and cajole the Ukrainian parliament into auctioning off 49 percent
of the leasing rights and underground storage facilities to privately-owned
foreign corporations.
How do you like that? So the US has launched a full-blown economic war
against Russia that’s been completely omitted in the western media. Are you
surprised?
Washington is determined to block further Russo-EU economic integration in
order to collapse the Russian economy and put foreign capital in control of
regional energy distribution. It’s all about the pivot. The big money guys
figure the US has to pivot to Asia to be a player in the next century. All
of these unprovoked attacks on Moscow are based on that one lunatic strategy.
But aren’t people in the EU going to be angry when they can’t get the
energy they need (at the prices they want) to run their businesses and heat
their homes?
Washington doesn’t think so. Washington thinks its allies in the Middle
East can meet the EU’s energy needs without any difficulty. Check out this
clip from an article by analyst F. William Engdahl:
“…details are emerging of a new secret and quite stupid Saudi-US deal on
Syria and the so-called IS. It involves oil and gas control of the entire
region and the weakening of Russia and Iran by Saudi Arabian flooding the
world market with cheap oil. ….
On September 11, US Secretary of State Kerry met Saudi King Abdullah at his
palace on the Red Sea. The King invited former head of Saudi intelligence,
Prince Bandar to attend. There a deal was hammered out which saw Saudi
support for the Syrian airstrikes against ISIS on condition Washington
backed the Saudis in toppling Assad, a firm ally of Russia and de facto of
Iran and an obstacle to Saudi and UAE plans to control the emerging EU
natural gas market and destroy Russia’s lucrative EU trade. A report in the
Wall Street Journal noted there had been “months of behind-the-scenes work
by the US and Arab leaders, who agreed on the need to cooperate against
Islamic State, but not how or when.
The process gave the Saudis leverage to extract a fresh US commitment to
beef up training for rebels fighting Mr. Assad, whose demise the Saudis
still see as a top priority.”
(The Secret Stupid Saudi-US Deal on Syria, F. William Engdahl, BFP)
So the wars in Ukraine and Syria are not really separate conflicts at all.
They’re both part of the same global resource war the US has been
prosecuting for the last decade and a half. The US plans to cut off the flow
of Russian gas and replace it with gas from Qatar which will flow through
Syria and onto the EU market after Assad is toppled.
Here’s what’s going on: Syria’s troubles began shortly after it announced
that it was going to be part of an “Islamic pipeline” that would transfer
natural gas from the South Pars gas field off the coast of Iran across Iraq
and Syria, eventually connecting to Greece and the lucrative EU market.
According to author Dmitri Minin:
“A gas pipeline from Iran would be highly profitable for Syria. Europe
would gain from it as well, but clearly someone in the West didn’t like it.
The West’s gas-supplying allies in the Persian Gulf weren’t happy with it
either, nor was would-be no. 1 gas transporter Turkey, as it would then be
out of the game.” (The Geopolitics of Gas and the Syrian Crisis: Syrian “
Opposition” Armed to Thwart Construction of Iran-Iraq-Syria Gas Pipeline,
Dmitri Minin, Global Research)
Two months after Assad signed the deal with Iraq and Iran, the rebellion
broke out in Syria. That’s quite a coincidence, don’t you think? Funny how
frequently those kinds of things happen when foreign leaders don’t march
to Washington’s tune.
Here’s more from Minin:
“Qatar is doing all it can to thwart the construction of the pipeline,
including arming the opposition fighters in Syria, many of whom come from
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Libya…
The Arabic newspaper Al-Akhbar cites information according to which there is
a plan approved by the U.S. government to create a new pipeline for
transporting gas from Qatar to Europe involving Turkey and Israel…
This new pipeline is to begin in Qatar, cross Saudi territory and then the
territory of Jordan, thus bypassing Shiite Iraq, and reach Syria. Near Homs
the pipeline is to branch in three directions: to Latakia, Tripoli in
northern Lebanon, and Turkey. Homs, where there are also hydrocarbon
reserves, is the project’s main crossroads, and it is not surprising… that
the fiercest fighting is taking place. Here the fate of Syria is being
decided. The parts of Syrian territory where detachments of rebels are
operating with the support of the U.S., Qatar and Turkey, that is, the north
, Homs and the environs of Damascus, coincide with the route that the
pipeline is to follow to Turkey and Tripoli, Lebanon. A comparison of a map
of armed hostilities and a map of the Qatar pipeline route indicates a link
between armed activities and the desire to control these Syrian territories.
Qatar’s allies are trying to accomplish three goals: to break Russia’s
gas monopoly in Europe; to free Turkey from its dependence on Iranian gas;
and to give Israel the chance to export its gas to Europe by land at less
cost.”
How do you like that; another coincidence: “The fiercest fighting (in Syria
) is taking place” where there’s massive “hydrocarbon reserves” and
along the planned pipeline route.
So the conflict in Syria isn’t really about terrorism at all. It’s about
natural gas, competing pipelines and access to markets in the EU. It’s
about money and power. The whole ISIS-thing is a big hoax to conceal what’s
really going on, which is a global war for resources, more blood for oil.
But how does the US benefit from all of this, after all, won’t the gas
revenues go to Qatar and the transit countries rather than the US?
Yep, they sure will. But the gas will also be denominated in dollars which
will shore up demand for USDs thus perpetuating the petrodollar recycling
system which creates a vast market for US debt and which helps to keep US
stocks and bonds in the nosebleed section. And that’s what this is all
about, preserving dollar supremacy by forcing nations to hold excessive
amounts of USDs to use in their energy transactions and to service their
dollar-denominated debts.
As long as Washington can control the world’s energy supplies and force the
world to trade in dollars, it can spend well in excess of what it produces
and not be held to account. It’s like having a credit card you never have
to pay off.
That’s a racket Uncle Sam is prepared to defend with everything he’s got,
even nukes.
MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless:
Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also
available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at [email protected]
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发帖数: 38600 | 2 'Wolfowitz Doctrine':
The Wolfowitz doctrine is the basis of US policy toward Russia and China.
The doctrine regards any power sufficiently strong to remain independent of
Washington’s influence to be “hostile.” The doctrine states:
“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either
on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a
threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a
dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and
requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a
region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to
generate global power.”
The Wolfowitz doctrine justifies Washington’s dominance of all regions. It
is consistent with the neoconservative ideology of the US as the “
indispensable” and “exceptional” country entitled to world hegemony.
Russia and China are in the way of US world hegemony. Unless the Wolfowitz
doctrine is abandoned, nuclear war is the likely outcome. | n*****9
发帖数: 654 | 3 米国老将们还是有点水平，
比只会骂街的中国老将，乌克兰老将强1万倍。
:) |
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