There is no prospect of Islamists uniting in order to overthrow the West.
By Paul Craig Roberts
Memorial Day is when we commemorate our war dead. Like the Fourth of July,
Memorial Day is being turned into a celebration of war.
Those who lose family members and
dear friends to war don't want the deaths to have been in vain. Consequently,
wars become glorious deeds performed by noble soldiers fighting for truth,
justice, and the American way. Patriotic speeches tell us how much we owe to
those who gave their lives so that America could remain free.
The speeches are well-intentioned,
but the speeches create a false reality that supports ever more wars. None of
America's wars had anything to do with keeping America free. To the contrary,
the wars swept away our civil liberties, making us unfree.
President Lincoln issued an
executive order for the arrest and imprisonment of northern newspaper reporters
and editors. He shut down 300 northern newspapers and held 14,000 political
prisoners. Lincoln arrested war critic US Representative Clement Vallandigham
from Ohio and exiled him to the Confederacy. President Woodrow Wilson used WWI
to suppress free speech, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt used WWII to
intern 120,000 US citizens of Japanese descent on the grounds that race made
them suspect. Professor Samuel Walker concluded that President George W. Bush
used the "war on terror" for an across the board assault on US civil
liberty, making the Bush regime the greatest danger American liberty has ever
faced.
Lincoln forever destroyed states'
rights, but the suspension of habeas corpus and free speech that went hand in
hand with America's three largest wars was lifted at war's end. However,
President George W. Bush's repeal of the Constitution has been expanded by
President Obama and codified by Congress and executive orders into law. Far
from defending our liberties, our soldiers who died in "the war on
terror" died so that the president can indefinitely detain US citizens
without due process of law and murder US citizens on suspicion alone without
any accountability to law or the Constitution.
The conclusion is unavoidable that
America's wars have not protected our liberty but, instead, destroyed liberty.
As Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "A state of war only serves as an excuse
for domestic tyranny."
Southern secession did pose a threat
to Washington's empire, but not to the American people. Neither
the Germans of WWI vintage nor the Germans and Japanese of WWII vintage posed
any threat to the US. As historians have made completely clear, Germany did not
start WWI and did not go to war for the purpose of territorial expansion.
Japan's ambitions were in Asia. Hitler did not want war with England and
France. Hitler's territorial ambitions were mainly to restore German provinces
stripped from Germany as WWI booty in violation of President Wilson's
guarantees. Any other German ambitions were to the East. Neither country had
any plans to invade the US. Japan attacked the US fleet at Pearl Harbor hoping
to remove an obstacle to its activities in Asia, not as a precursor to an
invasion of America.
Certainly the countries ravaged by
Bush and Obama in the 21st century -- Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Syria,
Pakistan, and Yemen posed no military threat to the US. Indeed, these were wars
used by a tyrannical executive branch to establish the basis of the Stasi State
that now exists in the US.
The truth is hard to bear, but the
facts are clear. America's wars have been fought in order to advance
Washington's power, the profits of bankers and armaments industries, and the
fortunes of US companies. Marine General Smedley Butler said, "I served in
all commissioned ranks from a second Lieutenant to a Major General. And during
that time, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big
Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for
capitalism."
It is more or less impossible to
commemorate the war dead without glorifying them, and it is impossible to
glorify them without glorifying their wars.
For the entirety of the 21st century the US has been at
war, not war against massed armies or threats to American freedom, but wars
against civilians, against women, children, and village elders, and wars
against our own liberty. Elites with a vested interest in these wars tell us
that the wars will have to go on for another 20 to 30 years before we defeat
"the terrorist threat."
This, of course, is nonsense. There was no terrorist
threat until Washington began trying to create terrorists by military attacks,
justified by lies, on Muslim populations.
Washington succeeded with its war lies to the point that
Washington's audacity and hubris have outgrown Washington's judgment.
By overthrowing the democratically elected government in
Ukraine, Washington has brought the United States into confrontation with
Russia. This is a confrontation that could end badly, perhaps for Washington
and perhaps for the entire world.
If Gaddafi and Assad would not roll over for Washington,
why does Washington think Russia will? Russia is not Libya or Syria. Washington
is the bully who, having beat up the kindergarden kid, now thinks he can take
on the college linebacker.
The Bush and Obama regimes have destroyed America's
reputation with their incessant lies and violence against other peoples. The
world sees Washington as the prime threat.
Worldwide polls consistently show that people around the
world regard the US and Israel as the two countries that pose the greatest
threat to peace. See here and here.
The countries that Washington's propaganda declares to be
"rogue states" and the "axis of evil," such as Iran and
North Korea, are far down the list when the peoples in the world are consulted.
It could not be more clear that the world does not believe Washington's
self-serving propaganda. The world sees the US and Israel as the rogue states.
The US and Israel are the only two countries in the world
that are in the grip of ideologies. The US is in the grip of the
Neoconservative ideology which has declared the US to be the "exceptional,
indispensable country" chosen by history to exercise hegemony over all
others. This ideology is buttressed by the Brzezinski and Wolfowitz doctrines
that are the basis of US foreign policy.
The Israeli government is in the grip of the Zionist
ideology that declares a "greater Israel" from the Nile to the
Euphrates. Many Israelis themselves do not accept this ideology, but it is the
ideology of the "settlers" and those who control the Israeli
government.
Ideologies are important causes of war. Just as the
Hitlerian ideology of German superiority is mirrored in the Neoconservative
ideology of US superiority, the Communist ideology that the working class is
superior to the capitalist class is mirrored in the Zionist ideology that
Israelis are superior to Palestinians. Zionists have never heard of squatters'
rights and claim that recent Jewish immigrants into Palestine -- invaders
really -- have the right to land occupied by others for millenniums.
Washington's and Israel's doctrines of superiority over
others do not sit very well with the "others." When Obama declared in
a speech that Americans are the exceptional people, Russia's President Putin
responded, "God created us all equal."
To the detriment of its population, the Israeli
government has made endless enemies. Israel has effectively isolated itself in
the world. Israel's continued existence depends entirely on the willingness and
ability of Washington to protect Israel. This means that Israel's power is
derivative of Washington's power.
Washington's power is a different story. As the only
economy standing after WWII, the US dollar became the world money. This role
for the dollar has given Washington financial hegemony over the world, the main
source of Washington's power. As other countries rise, Washington's hegemony is
imperiled.
To prevent other countries from rising, Washington
invokes the Brzezinski and Wolfowitz doctrines. To be brief, the Brzezinski
doctrine says that in order to remain the only superpower, Washington must
control the Eurasian land mass. Brzezinski is willing for this to occur
peacefully by suborning the Russian government into Washington's empire.
"A loosely confederated Russia ... a decentralized Russia would be less
susceptible to imperial mobilization." In other words, break up Russia
into associations of semi-autonomous states whose politicians can be suborned
by Washington's money.
Brzezinski propounded "a geo-strategy for
Eurasia." In Brzezinski's strategy, China and "a confederated
Russia" are part of a "transcontinental security framework,"
managed by Washington in order to perpetuate the role of the US as the world's
only superpower.
I once asked my colleague, Brzezinski, that if everyone
was allied with us, who were we organized against? My question surprised him,
because I think that Brzezinski remains caught up in Cold War strategy even
after the demise of the Soviet Union. In Cold War thinking it was important to
have the upper hand or else be at risk of being eliminated as a player. The
importance of prevailing became all consuming, and this consuming drive
survived the Soviet collapse. Prevailing over others is the only foreign policy
that Washington knows.
The mindset that America must prevail set the stage for
the Neoconservatives and their 21st century wars, which, with Washington's
overthrow of the democratically elected government of Ukraine, has resulted in
a crisis that has brought Washington into direct conflict with Russia.
I know the strategic institutes that serve Washington. I
was the occupant of the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for
Strategic and International Studies, for a dozen years. The idea is prevalent
that Washington must prevail over Russia in Ukraine or Washington will lose
prestige and its superpower status.
The idea of prevailing always leads to war once one power
thinks it has prevailed.
The path to war is reinforced by the Wolfowitz Doctrine.
Paul Wolfowitz, the neoconservative intellectual who formulated US military and
foreign policy doctrine, wrote among many similar passages:
"Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence
of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere
[China], 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."
In the Wolfowitz Doctrine, any other strong country is
defined as a threat and a power hostile to the US regardless of how willing
that country is to get along with the US for mutual benefit.
The difference between Brzezinski and the
Neoconservatives is that Brzezinski wants to suborn Russia and China by
including them in the empire as important elements whose voices would be heard,
If only for diplomatic reasons, whereas the Neoconservatives are prepared to
rely on military force combined with internal subversion orchestrated with US
financed NGOs and even terrorist organizations.
Neither the US nor Israel is embarrassed by their
worldwide reputations as the two countries that pose the greatest threat. In
fact, both countries are proud to be recognized as the greatest threats. The
foreign policy of both countries is devoid of any diplomacy. US and Israeli
foreign policy rests on violence alone. Washington tells countries to do as
Washington says or be "bombed into the stone age." Israel declares
all Palestinians, even women and children, to be "terrorists," and
proceeds to shoot them down in the streets, claiming that Israel is merely
protecting itself against terrorists. Israel, which does not recognize the
existence of Palestine as a country, covers up its crimes with the claim that
Palestinians do not accept the existence of Israel.
"We don't need no stinking diplomacy. We got
power."
This is the attitude that guarantees war, and that is
where the US is taking the world. The prime minister of Britain, the chancellor
of Germany, and the president of France are Washington's enablers. They provide
the cover for Washington. Instead of war crimes, Washington has "coalitions
of the willing" and military invasions that bring "democracy and
women's rights" to non-compliant countries.
China gets much the same treatment. A country with four
times the US population but a smaller prison population, China is constantly
criticized by Washington as an "authoritarian state." China is
accused of human rights abuses while US police brutalize the US population.
The problem for humanity is that Russia and China are not
Libya and Iraq. These two countries possess strategic nuclear weapons. Their
land mass greatly exceeds that of the US. The US, which was unable to
successfully occupy Baghdad or Afghanistan, has no prospect of prevailing
against Russia and China in conventional warfare. Washington will push the
nuclear button. What else can we expect from a government devoid of morality?
The world has never experienced rogue states comparable
to Washington and Israel. Both governments are prepared to murder anyone and
everyone. Look at the crisis that Washington has created in Ukraine and the
dangers thereof. On May 23, 2014, Russia's President Putin spoke to the St.
Petersburg International Economic Forum, a three-day gathering of delegations
from 62 countries and CEOs from 146 of the largest Western corporations.
Putin did not speak of the billions of dollars in trade
deals that were being formalized. Instead Putin spoke of the crisis that
Washington had brought to Russia, and he criticized Europe for being
Washington's vassals for supporting Washington's propaganda against Russia and
Washington's interference in vital Russian interests.
Putin was diplomatic in his language, but the message
that powerful economic interests from the US and Europe received is that it
will lead to trouble if Washington and European governments continue to ignore
Russia's concerns and continue to act as if they can interfere in Russia's
vital interests as if Russia did not exist.
The heads of these large corporations will carry this
message back to Washington and European capitals. Putin made it clear that the
lack of dialogue with Russia could lead to the West making the mistake of
putting Ukraine in NATO and establishing missile bases on Russia's border with
Ukraine. Putin has learned that Russia cannot rely on good will from the West,
and Putin made it clear, short of issuing a threat, that Western military bases
in Ukraine are unacceptable.
Washington will continue to ignore Russia. However,
European capitals will
have to decide whether Washington is pushing them into
conflict with Russia that is against European interests. Thus, Putin is testing
European politicians to determine if there is sufficient intelligence and
independence in Europe for a rapprochement.
If Washington in its overbearing arrogance and hubris
forces Putin to write off the West, the Russian/Chinese strategic alliance,
which is forming to counteract Washington's hostile policy of surrounding both
countries with military bases, will harden into preparation for the inevitable
war.
The survivors, if any, can thank the Neoconservatives,
the Wolfowitz doctrine, and the Brzezinski strategy for the destruction of life
on earth.
The American public contains a large number of
misinformed people who think they know everything. These people have been
programmed by US and Israeli propaganda to equate Islam with political
ideology. They believe that Islam, a religion, is instead a militarist doctrine
that calls for the overthrow of Western civilization, as if anything remains of
Western civilization.
Many believe this propaganda even in the face of complete
proof that the Sunnis and Shi'ites hate one another far more than they hate
their Western oppressors and occupiers. The US has departed Iraq, but the
carnage today is as high or higher than during the US invasion and occupation.
The daily death tolls from the Sunni/Shi'ite conflict are extraordinary. A
religion this disunited poses no threat to anyone except Islamists themselves.
Washington successfully used Islamist disunity to overthrow Gaddafi, and is
currently using Islamist disunity in an effort to overthrow the government of
Syria. Islamists cannot even unite to defend themselves against Western
aggression. There is no prospect of Islamists uniting in order to overthrow the
West.
Even if Islam could do so, it would be pointless for
Islam to overthrow the West. The West has overthrown itself. In the US the
Constitution has been murdered by the Bush and Obama regimes. Nothing remains.
As the US is the Constitution, what was once the United States no longer
exists. A different entity has taken its place.
Europe died with the European Union, which requires the
termination of sovereignty of all member countries. A few unaccountable
bureaucrats in Brussels have become superior to the wills of the French,
German, British, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Greek, and Portuguese peoples.
Western civilization is a skeleton. It still stands,
barely, but there is no life in it. The blood of liberty has departed. Western
peoples look at their governments and see nothing but enemies. Why else has
Washington militarized local police forces, equipping them as if they were
occupying armies? Why else has Homeland Security, the Department of
Agriculture, and even the Postal Service and Social Security Administration
ordered billions of rounds of ammunition and even submachine guns? What is this
taxpayer-paid-for arsenal for if not to suppress US citizens?
As the prominent trends forecaster Gerald Celente spells
out in the current Trends Journal, "uprisings span four corners of the
globe." Throughout Europe angry, desperate and outraged peoples march
against EU financial policies that are driving the peoples into the ground.
Despite all of Washington's efforts with its well funded fifth columns known as
NGOs to destabilize Russia and China, both the Russian and Chinese governments
have far more support from their people than do the US and Europe.
In the 20th century Russia and China learned what tyranny
is, and they have rejected it.
In the US tyranny has entered under the guise of the
"war on terror," a hoax used to scare the sheeple into abandoning
their civil liberties, thus freeing Washington from accountability to law and
permitting Washington to erect a militarist police state. Ever since WWII Washington
has used its financial hegemony and the "Soviet threat," now
converted into the "Russian threat," to absorb Europe into
Washington's empire.
Putin is hoping that the interests of European countries
will prevail over subservience to Washington. This is Putin's current bet. This
is the reason Putin remains unprovoked by Washington's provocations in Ukraine.
If Europe fails Russia, Putin and China will prepare for
the war that Washington's drive for hegemony makes inevitable.
Dr. Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury
for Economic Policy in the Reagan Administration. He was associate editor and
columnist with the Wall Street Journal, columnist for Business Week and the
Scripps Howard News Service. He is a contributing editor to Gerald Celente's
Trends Journal. He has had numerous university appointments. His book, The
Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is
available here
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