Here’s your US foreign policy puzzler for the day: When is regime change not regime change? When the regime stays in power but loses its ability to rule. This is the current objective of US policy in Syria, to undermine Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s ability to govern the country without physically removing him from office. The idea is simple: Deploy US-backed “jihadi” proxies to capture-and-hold vast sections of the country thereby making it impossible for the central government to control the state. This is how the Obama administration plans to deal with Assad, by making him irrelevant. The strategy is explained in great detail in a piece by Michael E. O’Hanlon at the Brookings Institute titled “Deconstructing Syria: A new strategy for America’s most hopeless war”. Here’s an excerpt:
Category: Head Stories
Washington’s Fifth Columns Inside Russia and China It took two decades for Russia and China to understand that «pro-democracy» and «human rights» organizations operating within their countries were subversive organizations funded by the US Department of State and a collection of private American foundations organized by Washington. The real purpose of these non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is to advance Washington’s hegemony by destabilizing the two countries capable of resisting US hegemony. Washington’s Fifth Columns pulled off «color revolutions» in former Russian provinces, such as Georgia, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin and Ukraine, a Russian province for centuries.
Russia, Iran and China are identified as the current obstacles to America’s everlasting quest for full spectrum dominance of the world. CHAIRMAN of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey opens the 2015 National Military Strategy of the United States of America by claiming we are witnessing the most unpredictable global security situation in 40 years. One supposes the general is referring back to the Vietnam era, when that needless war helped sink the global economy into “stagflation.” As Dempsey trots out an array of daunting threats—ranging from belligerent nation
The road to war is paved with a thousand lies. A fresh fib was tossed on the lie-cluttered warpath to Syria, when it was announced that the U.S. and Turkey would create a “safe zone” inside of Syria — supposedly to be aimed against ISIS. This “safe zone” is a major escalation of war, but it was described in soft tones by the media, sounding almost cuddly. In reality, however, a “safe zone” is a “no-fly zone,” meaning that a nation is planning to implement military air superiority inside the boundaries of another nation. It’s long recognized by the international community and U.S. military personnel as a major act of war. In a war zone an area is made “safe” by destroying anything in it or around that appears threatening.
The neocon-flagship Washington Post fired a propaganda broadside at President Putin for shutting down the Russian activities of the National Endowment for Democracy, but left out key facts like NED’s U.S. government funding, its quasi-CIA role, and its plans for regime change in Moscow, writes Robert Parry. The Washington Post’s descent into the depths of neoconservative propaganda – willfully misleading its readers on matters of grave importance – apparently knows no bounds as was demonstrated with two deceptive articles regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin and why his government is cracking down on “foreign agents.”
Few people could probably have predicted that the Greek debt crisis that has been building in intensity since early 2015 would finally have taken such a vicious turn as it has since the end of June. It seems clear that this was the result of a continuing impasse in negotiations between the leftist Syriza government elected in Athens in January on a strong anti-austerity platform and the “troika” of creditors (comprising the European Commission (representing the 19 Eurozone members, ECB and IMF) determined to continue imposing harsh measures of economic “reform”.
To Russia & China: Are you? “The ‘Silk Road’ plan is expected to change the world political and economic landscape through development of countries along the routes, most of which are eager for fresh growth,” Xinhua wrote. Beijing hopes that annual trade volume between China and “Belt and Road” countries will “surpass 2.5 trillion U.S. dollars in a decade or so,” – Chinese President Xi Jinping Today Greece is a tiny microcosm of much of Southern and Eastern Europe. All have too much government debt owed to distant mega banks, massive underemployment, weak energy starved economies and rule by distant, unelected, EU bureaucrats. These problems are combined with minimal prospects for new sources of government funding and private investment.
Deceptive Euphoria Last December US President Obama had to admit that the US Cuba policy had failed. It took Washington about fifty years to understand a basic fact: sanctions, economic and trade embargo, as well as the attempts to isolate the small island were doomed from the very start. The Cuban revolution has stood up to the challenges to protect the independence and sovereignty. The national leadership has defined the strategic mission to accomplish on the way of modernization. The Castro brothers – Fidel and Raul – stood at the origin of the reforms leaving far behind the old ideological dogmas.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
– President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 A standing army – something that propelled the early colonists into revolution – strips the American people of any vestige of freedom. How can there be any semblance of freedom when there are tanks in the streets, military encampments in cities, Blackhawk helicopters and armed drones patrolling overhead?
Let’s start with the geopolitical Big Bang you know nothing about, the one that occurred just two weeks ago. Here are its results: from now on, any possible future attack on Iran threatened by the Pentagon (in conjunction with NATO) would essentially be an assault on the planning of an interlocking set of organizations — the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), the EEU (Eurasian Economic Union), the AIIB (the new Chinese-founded Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), and the NDB (the BRICS’ New Development Bank) — whose acronyms you’re unlikely to recognize either. Still, they represent an emerging new order in Eurasia.