Category: US Empire

Geopolitics, Neoliberalism, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine War, US Empire, War

Nations Under Attack (Part 3): Narrative as a Tool of War

Part 1 of this series argues that elites aggressively seek to acquire and control resources and power—primarily for their own personal enrichment. Part 2 outlines how the Western elites enact this agenda against nations that are targeted for resource pillage and inclusion within the broader sphere of Western influence for ongoing power projection and exploitation. This part deals with narrative as a tool of war.

Narrative is a key lens through which we form our view of the events and the world around us. Each event or account of the world comes as a form of story that is shaped by the storyteller and relayed to us for a purpose. Most of recognise this fact when we call out the Murdoch press or perhaps view with suspicion news sources like TASS, the Russian news agency or China’s CGTN. Critically, the importance of taking control of the narrative is also well known to governments and to the military and security agencies. Since Operation Mockingbird came to public attention, it is well known that the CIA has been shaping narratives in the USA and around the world for decades though its involvement in the US news and entertainment industries.

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Australia, China, CIA, Empire, Geopolitics, Neoconservatism, Neoliberalism, Politics, Propaganda, Russia, US Empire, War, Zionism

Australia and New Zealand — losing an empire, who will protect us now? Part 5. US decline and collapse

5. US decline and collapse — The end of empire

One of the great lessons of history is that all empires eventually collapse. Exceptional though many believe it to be, the US empire will be no different and there are many signs that having achieved a couple of decades of apparently unchallenged global domination following the fall of the USSR in 1991, the Anglo-US empire has hit its peak and the way forward lies in its decline. Although empires at their peak can look formidable and unassailable, their collapse can happen quite quickly and while there may be a final military denouement, this often happens in the context of a pre-existing collapse from within. In the end, it is the accumulation of a series of political, social, economic and military collapses combined with the inability of a delusional self-focused elite to face reality that leads to an overall collapse of empire.

Continue reading “Australia and New Zealand — losing an empire, who will protect us now? Part 5. US decline and collapse” →
Australia, China, Geopolitics, Neoliberalism, New Zealand, Propaganda, US Empire, Uyghur, War, Xinjiang

Australia and New Zealand — losing an empire, who will protect us now? Part 3. New Zealand: Pragmatic trader

3. New Zealand: Pragmatic trader

With an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of some 4 million km2 (and continental shelf rights that cover another 1.7 million km2 beyond), much of New Zealand’s air and sea defence resources are dedicated to monitoring and securing the fisheries and resources in its surrounding seas and also to providing civil defence and other support to its Pacific island neighbours. Significantly, of New Zealand’s top five trading partners, China accounts for 24.9% of New Zealand’s total exports (USD9.6 billion) with Australia coming in behind at 14.8% (USD5.7 billion), the USA at 9.6% (USD3.7 billion), Japan at 6.3% (USD2.4 billion) and South Korea at 3.1% (USD1.2 billion).

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Australia, China, Empire, Geopolitics, Neoliberalism, New Zealand, Politics, US Empire, War

Australia and New Zealand — losing an empire, who will protect us now? Part 2. US saviour and defender

2. US saviour and defender — From one empire to another

After World War II, Britain was so depleted that these relatively young and militarily weak nations needed a new alliance that could protect them from possible invaders in the radically altered geopolitical landscape that came out of the war. The obvious candidate for this role was the USA which, in economic and geopolitical terms, was the only real winner of the two world wars. So, in 1951 Australia and New Zealand signed the Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treaty (ANZUS Treaty) with the USA “to protect the security of the Pacific”.

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Islam, Liberalism, Multi-cultural, Muslims, Neoliberalism, Politics, Syria, US Empire, War

The Problem of Mass-migration, Liberalism and Multi-culturalism

The idea that liberalism is dead has recently received a boost from Russian President Vladimir Putin who has been quoted as saying:

“The liberal idea… has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population,” … Putin said in an interview with the Financial Times Friday that the “liberal idea has become obsolete,” and referred to Germany’s decision to welcome more than one million refugees — many fleeing savage urban warfare in Syria — as a “cardinal mistake.”

Russia’s Vladimir Putin: Liberalism in Europe is ‘obsolete’ By Patrick Smith, NBC News, 29 June 2019
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CIA, Conspiracy Theory, Islam, Neoconservatism, Neoliberalism, Politics, Religion, US Empire, War

Review: The Lost Hegemon – Whom the Gods Would Destroy by F. William Engdahl

I have stated before my view that Islam and Muslims are not the problem but rather that religion is used as a tool by those in power as a way of manipulating ordinary people to act in their interests. My article Thoughts on the Nature of the God Construct expands on this idea in terms of how the image and nature of the god that the elites present to us for our worship reveals something of their agendas and efforts to shape society for their own benefit.

Lost hegemon

F. William Engdahl’s book, The Lost Hegemon: Whom the Gods Would Destroy goes much further in examining how radical Islam has been deliberately shaped and promoted as a tool by Western elites as a way of establishing and maintaining control over the Middle East and then as a weapon against the USSR. Since the end of the Cold War, this tool has been resurrected and used to break up Yugoslavia, destabilise Chechnya and then deployed against a succession of Arab and African states with the ultimate aim of conquering and harnessing the rising powers of Russia and China.

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Neoconservatism, Neoliberalism, Politics, Propaganda, Syria, US Empire

The OPCW’s Fall – Just Another Suborned and Discredited International Body

The latest report from the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media provides sobering reading to anyone who thought this supposedly highly respected international body could maintain its credibility in the face of the current war on truth being prosecuted by the Western powers.

Entitled “How the OPCW’s investigation of the Douma incident was nobbled”, authors Paul McKeigue, David Miller, Jake Mason and Piers Robinson identify who seems to have been responsible for suppressing findings that cast doubt on the official US narrative concerning the use of chlorine gas in the supposed gas attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018. The effect of this suppression was the support for an impression that chlorine gas had possibly been used by the Syrian government when this was unlikely based on the evidence and the assessment of the investigators who examined the site.

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Iran, Politics, Propaganda, US Empire, War

Propaganda: Discrediting Leaders as a Hybrid War Device

“President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and eight senior military commanders, a provocative step designed to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic. “

Trump Sanctions Iran’s Supreme Leader in Provocative Move by Saleha Mohsin, Shannon Pettypiece and David Wainer

It’s hard to know what personal resources the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the military commanders targeted by these sanctions own outside Iran that may be affected by these measures. Estimates of the Ayatollah’s wealth vary wildly from the US$500 thousand (CelebrityNetWorth.com in 2018) to the US$95 billion (Reuters in 2013 and TopRichets.com in 2019) and now the US$200 billion claimed by the US embassy in Baghdad.

“Khamenei, who was initially elected president of the nascent republic in 1981, has “possessions” valued at an estimated at $200 billion, according to a Facebook post by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in April.”

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CIA, Islam, Muslims, Neoliberalism, Politics, Propaganda, US Empire, War

China: On the Balance of Evils

Chinese re-education camps in Xinjiang have been in the news recently, where it is reported that the Chinese authorities are ‘re-educating’ some up to 2 million Muslim Uyghur people. The accusations against the Chinese government include disappearances, constant surveillance using facial recognition and phone apps, in-home monitoring by party cadre and both physical and psychological abuse. If these accusations are true, then is it is certainly a human rights issue on a massive scale. 2019-03-10 Ben Bland -Xinjiang camps.jpg

Under pressure of reports in the media, the Chinese have sought to explain their actions as a necessary measure to address an issue of terrorism and separatism. Xiao Qian, China’s Ambassador to Indonesia, cites the 2009 riots in Urumqi which he says killed 197 people, injured more than 1,700 and caused “colossal” property damage, with unrest between 2003 and 2016 involving eight terrorist attacks killing more than 120 people and injuring some 400 others. According to Xiao “It is fair to say that the issue related to Xinjiang is not religious but rather political. It is the manifestation of the struggle between unity and secession, peace and violence and it is a matter of principle concerning China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.”  Xiao’s account of what is being done in Xinjiang is that the Chinese authorities have “taken measures to resolutely combat terrorism, extremism and separatism, and in the meantime, special attention was given to preventing the association of violent terrorist activities and religious extremism with particular ethnic groups or religions.”  Continue reading “China: On the Balance of Evils” →

CIA, Empire, Geopolitics, Neoliberalism, Propaganda, US Empire, War

Nations Under Attack (Part 2): The US War Machine

In Part 1 of this series I examined how global elites have shaped the world so as to advance their own personal wealth and power. They have done this through a variety of means, including economic trickery, political manoeuvring and through both hot and cold warfare. Since World War II, the Western elites mostly associated with the USA and Europe have acted through the power and reach of the USA and its apparatus of public and private organisations that collectively constitute the US War Machine. This article briefly describes the elements of the US War Machine and then covers the main components of the toolkit deployed against targeted nations. Part 3 deals with narrative as a tool of war.

The US War Machine has become one of the distinguishing features of that nation. Since World War II, both the state bodies and private industry have combined to form what is collectively terms a military industrial complex of huge magnitude so that in 2018 the US military budget rose to over $700 billion (including budgets for the various intelligence agencies totaling some $71.1 billion) and further allocations for interfering in other nations, which in 2014 was some $47.8 billion.  These numbers do not even include budget allocations for outside the Defense Department budget, such as for atomic weapons research and production, Veterans Affairs and military pensions, State Department financing of foreign arms sales and military-related development assistance, the Department of Homeland Security and counter-terrorism activities of the FBI. In total, the combined budget for the US War Machine in 2019 is certainly well over $1 trillion. At an economic level, the main goal is to channel money from the public purse into the hands of private suppliers of military equipment and services, while opening new opportunities to exploit resources, sell weapons and develop new markets in other countries—usually with assistance of corrupt local politicians and elites who are granted a slice of the pie in return for selling out their country.

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