[The background are the sequential articles from Antiwar used as case studies in the article. The central graphic is from Checkmate, by Scott Ritter.]
Published: 2024-04-20
Finding Order in the Mad House
During Brian Berletic's recent discussion with The Duran, he offered a key insight into his understanding of the US and its allies' actions. When combined with imperial thinking and a clearer understanding of events, the haphazard, self defeating and immoral actions of the West during the last few decades begin to make a perverse sense.
This article's attempt to find order in the mad house of Western foreign policy uses 10 recent, articles from Antiwar as example cases for exploration.
US Reimposes Sanctions on Venezuela After Brief Relief
In 2019 the US attempted a coup against the socialist government of Venezuela and its president Nicolas Maduro by naming Juan Guaido as its 'interim president'. The political belligerence was served with financial sanctions, targeting Venezuela's oil industry. Oil extraction in the US does not produce sufficient heavy crude for its heating oil consumption. The missing heavy oil was sourced from Russia as Urals crude. To crash the Russian economy to win its war with its NATO partners against Russia in Ukraine, the US sanctioned Russia oil. This forced the US to source the heating oil elsewhere.
To solve this problem the US lifted its sanctions on Venezuela. The legislation to do this contained a 'sunset clause' which would reapply the sanctions on Venezuela. That clause triggered, reimposing the sanctions.
A first understanding is to see how authoritarian and arrogant this behaviour is. The sanctions on Venezuela were legislated as endless. It is helpful to note that the sanctions "package" caused extensive suffering in Venezuela among its poor. The package was designed to do this. The US hope was that by causing the human suffering the people of Venezuela could be abused into accepting Guaido's puppet leadership.
The behaviour is rooted in the Monroe Doctrine which states that the western hemisphere is the US "backyard" in which it can do whatever it wishes. The timeless sanctions are an application of this doctrine. It is consistent with other arrogant behaviour by the US against its hemispheric neighbours.
The financial sanctions on Venezuela did not only disrupt its trade. The assets of Venezuela's national oil company's US subsidiary, Citgo, were seized by the US. US ally Britain also impounded $2 billion of Venezuela's central bank's gold. This theft of target nation's central bank reserves was a risky and relatively recent development in US foreign policy.
The Monroe Doctrine and associated hubris originated in the era of the US first expansion, its initial foray into empire. It is imperial thinking.
[“Western Hemisphere.”]
Iran Warns of ‘Tit-for-Tat’ Strikes if Israel Targets Iranian Nuclear Facilities
The statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp is a component of the diplomatic exchanges following Israel's attack on Iran's diplomatic premises in Damascus and Iran's UN Charter Article 51 justified response. Iran's statement is a response to bellicose rhetoric being issued by US "closest ally" Israel. These Israeli threats risk an escalation of conflict in southwest Asia which nobody wants but Israel, and even then only if the US fights for it.
The US is steadfastly adhering to its long standing policy of supporting anything that Israel does.
Israel attempted an all-hands sinking of the USS Liberty, a US navy ship, during their 1967 6 day imperial war. Conclusive evidence has demolished Israel's deliberately mischievous claim of mistaken identity to explain away the "mistake". Yet, still the US has not reprimanded Israel for killing tens of its soldiers and wounding over 200. Unbeknownst to many US citizens the crew of the USS Liberty are the most decorated for any naval incident, ever. The bravery and ingenuity displayed was of the highest order. Yet most US citizens do not know of these feats because the US has suppressed the incident to protect the reputation of its "ally".
Even though the US does not wish to incite a conflagration in southwest Asia, it is neither preventing Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza nor publicly advising Israel against its dangerous rhetoric. These could be achieved with a single phone call and a memo.
The consistency of the US behaviour is the protection of Israel irrespective of whatever outrageous or illegal actions it takes. This has recently been horrifically demonstrated with the US continuing to supply Israel with weapons to genocide Palestinians.
Israel is, essentially, a 'mini-me'. It is a settler colonial project of European and Russian Zionist Jews rather than Anglo-Saxon Christians. The US took the mantle of global empire from Britain at the end of WWII. Britain gifted the "Mandate of Palestine" to the Jewish Zionists. The new empire, the US, has been protecting them ever since.
US Announces New Sanctions on Iran
The US has already sanctioned Iran so heavily, for so long, that Iran has sought and found international trading partners outside of the US orbit. These new sanctions are irrelevant. Their utility is a statement of public support for Israel (see above). This would make more sense if Israel stopped threatening the regional war which the US and its vassals do not want.
The key understand here is the use of sanctions. The US and its EU allies have driven international trade away from them into the arms of the new international alliance, the BRICS+/SCO block.
The flight from the US to the multi-polar world is also driven by asset seizures and political destabilization. Iranians have a personal history of this experience. That is the US and UK coup in 1953 and the theft of Iranian oil, to which we shall return.
Two Hezbollah Fighters, One Civilian Killed in Israeli Strikes
See above for endless support for Israeli belligerence.
US Navy Flies Plane Through Taiwan Strait After US-China Defense Chiefs Talk
A day after the US and Chinese political leaders of their military had their first phone call in well over a year, the US wrote a big fat middle finger in the sky over the China-Taiwan straight. This behaviour is emblematic of US diplomatic ineptitude.
The whole world understands that the US is spending money and political influence to create a war with China over Taiwan. Not so many understand the impossibility of the US having any success with this insane plan. The BRICS+ group has more economic power than the G7. We now are certain that Russia alone has a higher military production capacity than NATO. The addition of China will easily overcompensate for addition Japan and South Korea's production.
Here, a part of Berletic's analysis comes to the fore. The US political leadership are disconnected from reality. This has to be the primary explanation. The underlying mechanic of using tax payer funds to pay the US bloated, expensive, low quality Military Industrial Complex is also present, but seems insufficient to explain the idiocy written in the sky. Another phrase which captures some of the fantasy world in which the US political leadership lives is "Cold war thinking". There seems a 'group think', an 'echo chamber' of political analysts behind the US leadership which refuses to accept the world today. It looks very little like that of the 1990s or before, the fantasy world in which they live.
Whistleblower Says US Is Putting Troops in Danger by Refusing to Leave Niger
As a component of the "world is a battlefield" US Global War on Terror the US established AFRICOM, its military command for Africa. The US joined French forces to theoretically assist nations in the Sahel fighting Muslim extremist forces, like those of al-Shebab. So terribly mismanaged has this effort been that four neighbouring nations, Niger, Chad, Mali and Burkina Faso have united to declare their own mini-NATO with a commitment to come to each other's mutual defense. This is a geopolitical blunder of extraordinary ineptitude and blind hubris.
Following a civilian supported military coup, Niger demanded that French forces leave their country. With that complete, Niger moved on to demanding the same of the US. The US response was to send a senior delegation to discuss, cajole and threaten. It walked away, having achieved nothing, and with its hands over its ears chanting "la-la-la-la, can't hear you".
The senior Air Force leader's letter informs Congress that the US Department of Defense (DoD) is putting the lives of its employees at risk by refusing to engage in the process which Niger's junta demands. The problem which the US DoD and State Department are trying not to look at is loss of the Agadez "drone base".
The Agadez air base cost over $100 million and has served as an intelligence (surveillance, at least) and logistics which has also been used for ineffective anti-terrorist operations. Its loss will severely impact the US military and intelligence services' room for maneuver in the greater Sahel.
Into this reluctance to even acknowledge Niger's sovereign right to demand the departure of the US can be read the US DoD's sprawling budget. Within the military bureaucracy individuals are trying to hang onto their turf and advance up its ladder. The commander of AFRICOM would not be happy at all about having to abandon such a valuable facility.
Sovereignty be damned! Hypocrisy to the fore!
UK’s Cameron Says Israel Will Likely Respond to Iran Attack
Lord Cameron is serving as a page boy for Israel. See eternal support for Israel above.
No Sign of US Withdrawal from Iraq After PM Visits Washington
The US is agreeing to change the name on the front of its Iraqi shop. Dave DeCamp captures the probable re-branding with his sub-title:
Both sides left open the possibility of an end to the US-led anti-ISIS coalition but a continued US presence in another form
Iraqi Prime Minister al-Sudani was elected on a policy to rid Iraq of the infidel's military forces. Okay, I'm being facetious. The policy is to rid Iraq of all foreign military forces. Iraq has an army and its Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
The origin of the PMU is instructive. ISIS was a Sunni extremist force born from US funding and training as a part of the Syrian Dirty War to overthrow Syria's al-Assad. Having taken hold of large territories in northern Iraq, ISI advanced on Baghdad. The US trained Iraqi army ran away and abandoned their weapons to ISIS. The holy city of Baghdad was under threat so esteemed Shia cleric al-Sistani issued a fatwa for brigades to be formed to defend the capital. The PMU are composed of young Iraqi men and women who answered al-Sistani's call. The PMU were trained and lead by (Iranian) IRGC Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The PMU defeated ISIS and saved the holy city and capital.
The Iraqi government had no other option but to integrate the PMU into their military because there was none left. Soleimani and al-Muhandis are heroes of the Iraqi people. They were assassinated in a single drone attack authorized by US President Trump. Their pictures can be seen everywhere in Baghdad, years later, as captured by Dimitri Lascaris during his recent visit to the Iraqi capital. The PMU live on and essentially are the Iraqi defence forces.
Iraq's central bank's reserves have been held by the US Federal Reserve since just after the US invasion in 2003. An Iraqi gentlemen recently interviewed by Lascaris stated that Iraqi oil revenues are held in a JP Morgan bank account, and that withdrawals, when permitted, arrive as cash in a helicopter. This, in turn, he believes feeds corruption in the Iraqi government.
Understanding the US refusal to leave Iraq goes beyond its equivalent in Niger. The US also has significant bases at the two crossing points between Iraq and Syria. One is in the northeast of Syria, located in a region which contains Syria's oil deposits and prime agricultural land. The other is in Syria's southwest at al-Tanf which is the primary trade route between the nations. The US collective presence allows control over significant oil resources in Iraq and Syria, to whom they are sold and for what price. Profits are controlled. The military and intelligence presence also facilitates strong influence regional over politics.
The region contains most of the world's easily accessible oil resources. Control over those provides geopolitical power. The history of western control of southwest Asian oil resources extends back to their original discovery.
The 1953 coup in Iran, which George Galloway mentioned in the British House of Commons (lower house of parliament) earlier this week, is a significant event. Then Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh's desire to nationalize Iran's oil was intolerable to the British who were transitioning their Navy from coal to oil powered. The UK needed control of not only the oil, but its price.
This history highlights resource control. It is fundamental to understanding empire, colonial or not. The economic imperative of post-industrialized empire was to maintain the below industrialization state of the colonized or outer reaches. The outer properties provide the primary resources to be transformed by the industrialized empire into valuable products to fuel the empire directly or be sold, back to the colonies or elsewhere. This, in turn, feeds the class system, where profits from these industrialized businesses are kept in the hands of empire loyalists. Some improvement of living standards of the empire's home citizenry are allowed to keep them complacent.
As the world has moved into a third or fourth generation industrialization, the layers are shifting. A third generation industrial empire can allow some of its outer properties to become second generation industrialized nations. The core concepts of centralization of wealth and maintaining the subservience of the outer remain.
This battle between the style and approach of third and fourth level industrialized empires is a component of the current US/NATO/EU/G7 and BRICS+/SCO geopolitical and geoeconomic struggle. Interesting questions include how hierarchical the BRICS+/SCO model will be? Where will industrial development be allowed? How much control of any industrialization be allowed within the industrializing society?
[“Eastern Hemisphere.”]
Speaker Johnson Unveils $95 Billion Foreign Military Aid Bills
See Funding Failing Forever-Wars from two days ago.
18 Israeli Soldiers Wounded in Hezbollah Attack on Army Base
This leads to a topic raised in the Extended podcast on the Funding Failing Forever-Wars article which in turn is based on an insightful article by Pepe Escobar.
The US with its "partners" are currently supporting a war they triggered in Ukraine against Russia. They are also supporting Israel's war (genocide) against Palestine. Israel, the US "closest ally", wants the US to start a war with Iran.
Iran is independent. It has escaped the US sanctions war. It is militarily strong. Israel desires Iran to be subservient but cannot achieve this without US military assistance. The extended conflict in southwest Asia, triggered by the Israeli genocide operation, revolves around an Israeli/US war with Iran and more generally with control of hydrocarbon energy.
A primary component of Iran's escape from the US sanctions regime was a 25 year agreement of cooperation with China, signed in 2021. This guaranteed oil resources for China in exchange for products and services which Iran sought.
The conflict in southwest Asia is a component of the US war with China. Together these three conflicts, one of which has yet to become "hot", are against three of the most powerful nations which are members of both BRICS+ *and* the SCO. The US seeks to weaken these linchpins of the multi-polar world. In each conflict, at the geopolitical level, lunge and riposte provide windows into motivation, desire and strategy or lack thereof.
Academics in China and Russia, and other nations such as India, who are also part of the new BRICS+/SCO block have studied the strategy and tactics of empire displayed by Britain and then the US as their empires were built and Britain's declined. China's economic rise gave it the financial leverage to begin to re-secure its pre-eminence. With Russia as a partner, they have replicated the effective components of both the US and British empires with differences. One of these is the funding of industrial development to obtain political influence or secure access to resources. The US model was the IMF and loans which heavily restricted the economic and political freedom of the indebted nation. The Chinese model is a softer version of the same approach, again with differences. China and Russia also recognized the inevitable decline that comes after hegemony through imperial thinking and hubris.
Their strategy is to construct a long lasting world order built on partnership and mutual benefit rather than belligerent dominance. Their tactics to date have been successful against most efforts by the failing US centric Western empire.
Brian Berletic's central analysis in his discussion with The Duran was that the core failure of the declining hegemon and its vassals is that they keep doubling down on failed tactics. They do not live in the current world. The West has not re-strategized against the improved tactics of the multi-polar world.
Evidence of this doubling down on stupid can be seen everywhere once one becomes aware of it.
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Sources
Iran’s 'New Equation' Reaches Way Beyond West Asia, Pepe Escobar, The Unz Review, 2024-04-17
How America's top spymaster sees the world and why it's so disappointing, Tarik Cyril Amar, Natylie's Place: Understanding Russia, 2024-04-19
Recognition of Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s Interim President, Michael R. Pompeo, US State Department, 2019--01-23
Iran and China sign 25-year cooperation agreement, Maziar Motamedi, Al Jazeera, 2021-03-27
Checkmate, Scott Ritter, Scott Ritter Extra, 2024-04-16
Included for it’s graphic’s inclusion in this article’s. It is a brilliant article which will contribute to wider independent media discussion and analysis.
Funding Failing Forever-Wars, YesXorNo, 2024-04-18
🎧 Funding Failing Forever-Wars — Extended, YesXorNo, 2024-04-18
[US] NATO v Russia: 2014 - 2024, YesXorNo, 2024-03-09
Thanks for all the training. Now, take your fandangled drones and ..., YesXorNo, 2024-03-20
A Litany of Insanity and Failure, YesXorNo, 2023-01-07
From back in the dark ages, during the early struggle to comprehend the mad house.
The 10 Antiwar Articles
US Reimposes Sanctions on Venezuela After Brief Relief, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-04-18
Iran Warns of 'Tit-for-Tat' Strikes if Israel Targets Iranian Nuclear Facilities, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-04-18
US Announces New Sanctions on Iran, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-04-18
Two Hezbollah Fighters, One Civilian Killed in Israeli Strikes, Jason Ditz, Antiwar, 2024-04-18
US Navy Flies Plane Through Taiwan Strait After US-China Defense Chiefs Talk, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-04-18
Whistleblower Says US Is Putting Troops in Danger by Refusing to Leave Niger, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-04-17
UK's Cameron Says Israel Will Likely Respond to Iran Attack, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-04-17
No Sign of US Withdrawal from Iraq After PM Visits Washington, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-04-17
Speaker Johnson Unveils $95 Billion Foreign Military Aid Bills, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-04-17
18 Israeli Soldiers Wounded in Hezbollah Attack on Army Base, Jason Ditz, Antiwar, 2024-04-17
Holding on to the empire w⧸ Brian Berletic (Live), Berletic joins Mercouris and Christoforou, The Duran, 2024-04-18
Related
Max Blumenthal: Hamas Still Stands, Napolitano interviews Blumenthal, 2024-04-18
Blumenthal raises a number of interesting points. Towards the end he places his analysis within the “multi-polar world” geopolitical struggle. This represents another case of this phrasology and thinking being displayed in high distribution independent media.
Culture
Complicated, Avril Lavigne, her 2002 debut single, uploaded 2017-01-25
Copyleft: CC0