{"id":95890,"date":"2017-07-31T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=95890"},"modified":"2017-07-24T10:46:08","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T09:46:08","slug":"empire-of-whiners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/07\/empire-of-whiners\/","title":{"rendered":"Empire of Whiners"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a new report by the Army War College tracks the loss of “US primacy” around the world, it prescribes more of the same; propaganda, surveillance and war.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u00a9 AFP 2017\/ Mark RALSTON<\/p><\/div>\n

23 Jul 2017 – <\/em>It\u2019s public knowledge that from\u00a0the point of\u00a0view of\u00a0the Pentagon, the United States faces five existential threats<\/a>: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and terrorism, in\u00a0that order. Way beyond\u00a0rhetoric, all Pentagon actions should be understood and analyzed under\u00a0this framework.<\/p>\n

Now global public opinion may have access to\u00a0an even more intriguing document; a new study<\/a> by\u00a0the Army War College titled\u00a0 At Our Own Peril: DoD Risk Assessment in\u00a0a Post-Primacy World. Readers are actively encouraged to\u00a0download it and study the fine print.<\/p>\n

Researcher Nafeez Ahmed has proposed some helpful decoding<\/a> of\u00a0this \u201cpost-primacy\u201d predicament, that took virtually ten months to\u00a0be put together.<\/p>\n

The intellectual firepower concerned involved all sections of\u00a0the Pentagon scattered around\u00a0the world, as\u00a0well as\u00a0the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Intelligence Council, and proverbial neocon-heavy think tanks such as\u00a0the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Center for\u00a0Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the RAND Corporation, and the Institute for\u00a0the Study of\u00a0War.<\/p>\n

All that for\u00a0what? To enounce the obvious \u2013 that the US has lost its \u201cprimacy\u201d; and to\u00a0propose more of\u00a0the same, as\u00a0in Orwellian surveillance; \u201cstrategic manipulation of\u00a0perceptions\u201d, a.k.a. propaganda; and a \u201cwider and more flexible\u201d military, as\u00a0in more wars.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this is the best US military \u201cintelligence\u201d can come up\u00a0with, peer competitors Russia and China might as\u00a0well grab a gin and tonic and relax by\u00a0the pool.<\/p>\n

Oh you damn revisionists<\/strong><\/p>\n

The study is a classic piece of\u00a0myopic Exceptionalism \u2013 which might at\u00a0least allow for\u00a0some entertaining value if presented with\u00a0some rhetorical flourish.<\/p>\n

Russia and China are duly described as \u201crevisionist forces\u201d (doesn\u2019t that sound like\u00a0Mao in\u00a0the 1950s?) which should be prevented from\u00a0pursuing their own legitimate national interests. Why? Because that represents a threat that undermines US hegemony.<\/p>\n

Readers of\u00a0the study should desist from\u00a0finding any concrete evidence that both Russia and China pose a serious threat to\u00a0US national security. They should rely on\u00a0US corporate media, which blares all these \u201cthreats\u201d 24\/7.<\/p>\n

It gets curioser and curioser when it comes to\u00a0Iran and North Korea \u2013 both also demonized non-stop by\u00a0media and US Think Tankland. The problem is not that they pose a nuclear threat; the problem is they are obstacles to\u00a0the smooth expansion of\u00a0the \u201cUS-led order.\u201d<\/p>\n

In parallel, what really irks US military intel are \u201cmurkier, less obvious forms of\u00a0state-based aggression\u201d. As in\u00a0the \u201cthreat\u201d represented by\u00a0Sputnik and RT, for\u00a0instance.<\/p>\n

\u201cFacts\u201d, any real facts that challenge the legitimacy of\u00a0the hegemon are considered by\u00a0the study as\u00a0a major driver of\u00a0US decline. OK, the Pentagon does not do irony, so don\u2019t expect any expert to\u00a0acknowledge that these real facts simultaneously unmask the Empire\u2019s actions and debunk its rhetoric.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The study\u2019s circular logic is a hostage of \u2013 what else \u2013 imperial logic; US military power is essentially depicted as\u00a0a key tool to\u00a0coerce and force other nations into\u00a0following the Empire\u2019s diktats.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which leads those \u201cexperts\u201d to\u00a0bomb the concept of\u00a0defense to\u00a0smithereens\u00a0\u2014 and turn it into\u00a0offense; the Empire always reserves itself the right to\u00a0go heavy metal when it pleases. If any actor questions this sovereign imperial right \u2013 for\u00a0instance, North Korea launching a missile or China creating facts on\u00a0the South China Sea \u2013 this becomes a threat, and it must be eliminated.<\/p>\n

Even progressive<\/a> US analysts still don\u2019t get why, after\u00a0a short 70 years of\u00a0hegemony, American geopolitical primacy in\u00a0Eurasia is at\u00a0an end. As much as\u00a0the internal war between\u00a0Trump and the deep state may be accelerating the process, this is still all about\u00a0the post-9\/11 world.<\/p>\n

The adventures of\u00a0the War Party \u2013 from\u00a0Afghanistan and Iraq to\u00a0Libya and Syria; the US government\u2019s astonishing, unpayable debt; the steady erosion of\u00a0the petrodollar; the inexorable march of\u00a0Eurasia integration \u2013 reflected in\u00a0US military obsession with\u00a0the three key vectors, China, Russia and Iran.<\/p>\n

These are only some of\u00a0the factors involved.<\/p>\n

Beijing and Moscow don\u2019t need to\u00a0be reminded by\u00a0studies like\u00a0this of\u00a0the real game \u2013 as\u00a0in US proxy wars deployed from\u00a0Ukraine to\u00a0the South China Sea with\u00a0the ultimate target of\u00a0disrupting the 21st century\u2019s top story; Eurasia connectivity.<\/p>\n

Same for\u00a0Tehran, which identifies very well the multiple machinations, instrumentalizing the GCC petrodollar gang, aimed at\u00a0perpetuating a Sunni-Shi\u2019ite fratricidal war.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to \u201cthe next war\u201d insistently monopolizing the rumor mill in\u00a0the Beltway. Were the US government foolish enough to\u00a0provoke a war against\u00a0Iran, that would be due to\u00a0the Exceptionalism mindset; an economy where endless war is the only tool to\u00a0boost GDP and pay off\u00a0debts; deep state hegemony; and the eternal Return of\u00a0the (Neocon) Living Dead inside\u00a0Think Tankland, the CIA and the Pentagon itself.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPost-primacy\u201d? You ain\u2019t seen nothing yet.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

More:<\/em><\/p>\n

US Encircles Russia With Military Base Network While Insisting on ‘Russian Threat’<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Move Over, Please: China Increases Influence in US-Dominated Middle East<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

China Welcomes South Korea’s Push for Talks With North Amid Nuclear Crisis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

‘Show of Loyalty’ Amid Economic Turmoil: US Triples Coal Price for Ukraine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pepe Escobar is a Brazilian independent geopolitical analyst. He is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. He has been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9\/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of \u201cGlobalistan<\/a>\u201d (2007), \u201cRed Zone Blues<\/a>\u201d (2007), \u201cObama does Globalistan<\/a>\u201d (2009) and \u201cEmpire of Chaos<\/a>\u201d (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is \u201c2030<\/a>\u201c, also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 sputniknews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a new report by the Army War College tracks the loss of “US primacy” around the world, it prescribes more of the same; propaganda, surveillance and war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}