The Empire itching for war!!

Ever since the Iraq war of 1991 when Empire assembled a coalition to kick Saddam Hussein out of Iraq, it seems the “shock and awe” of its televised cruise missile bombing seems to have gone to the head of the rogue Empire.

During Iran-Iraq war, Iraq was USA’s buddy. But during Kuwait war, Iraq was the rogue regime, a threat to all the Middle Eastern countries. We will not go into why Saddam felt emboldened to go into Kuwait, but Iraq war was an oddity where the world united to kick Saddam and restore Kuwait’s sovereignty.

But the success of that campaign went to the head of the USA and the USA repeated the same scenario in Balkans – in the formerly Yugoslavia – aided and abetted by massive propaganda by the western media.

There was another factor that helped the NATO – Russia’s weakness. Had Russia been militarily powerful as it was during cold war, I doubt NATO would have tried what it did – bombing Serbia indiscriminately.  But that is a question for the discussion on the “if” scenario – purely academic.

Buoyed by the success of the Balkan campaign, the US switched gears and focused its attention back to the Middle East. Enter the Iraq war 2.0 with all the “theatrics” – remember Colin Powell’s “infamous” WMD tactics and mobile weapons lab? – which was based on the famous clean break strategy which called for the overthrow of Saddam’s regime and the containment of Syria through proxy war.

The war that was supposed to have been a “cakewalk” turned out to be anything but a cakewalk. Iraq is in complete chaos. This chaos has given rise to the Islamic State.

In northern parts of Iraq, the Kurds are fighting to establish their own state. The western parts are in the control of 7^th century barbarians – the Islamic State comprising mostly the disgruntled elements from Sunnis and members of Saddam’s disbanded army – who are antagonistic towards civilized way of life and  whose preferred way of dealing with opposition and contrary view point is beheading, burning, drowning, blowing up world heritage sites, etc.

Not being satisfied with the chaos and the fundamentalism that it fueled in Iraq – which somehow the Empire thought as a success – it went whole hog. It launched Arab spring. The dominoes were falling in quick succession. First to fall was Tunisia, followed by Egypt and then followed by Libya.

Only in Egypt’s case, the Arab spring turned full circle. The overthrow of secular Mubarak government saw the Muslim brotherhood, a fanatic fundamentalist organization, which sought to turn the clock back to medieval period – the hallmark of all Islamic regimes – did not fly with the Egyptian population which rose in protest forcing country’s military to step in and remove Morsi – now facing death penalty – from power. Current President Sisi seems to have reversed the tide of Arab spring in Egypt’s case.

But it is Libya which has turned into an utter turmoil – completely ungovernable. With the removal and killing of Gaddafi – the leader who warned Europe that his removal would cause a flood of migrants to European shores – Libya now has descended into a complete chaos. Different factions – zealously cut-throat in their attitude – are ruling different parts of the country. This, in return, has triggered largest wave of migrants to Europe crossing Mediterranean.

To the Empire, this was just an appetizer. Syria, along with Iran, was to be the dessert, but which eluded them thanks to Russia. By intervening in the Syria, a resurgent Russia has upended all the machinations and hideous calculations of the head-chopping nation in the world – Saudi Arabia, which currently “chairs” United Nations Human Rights Council Panel and its equally ugly side kick, Qatar – which has generously supported all sorts of ruffians and bandits in Syria to overthrow Assad’s regime with the aim of preventing the rise of Shia crescent and also to facilitate the gas pipeline through Syria to Turkey to its final destination Europe to break Gazprom’s hold on Europe.

Russia’s successful operations against Islamic State fighters by extensive pinpoint bombing – supported by a volley of “Kalibr” cruise missiles fired from Caspian sea flotilla – has ended Empire’s hegemony in the Middle East. Now even Iraq and Afghanistan are booting out the Empire’s “human rights defenders” and turning towards Russia seeking its help to combat Islamic State fighters.

But the Empire is not done yet. As is the case with a wounded and cornered animal – it hisses and lashes out viciously – the Empire is doing exactly the same. The deployment of so-called “advisors” – numbering only 50 – is nothing but an attempt to gather for itself some leverage in “deciding” Syria’s future. But the champion of democracy fails to understand – and point made clear by Russia repeatedly – that the future of Syria can only be decided by Syrians themselves and through the elections. But the Empire is allergic to this position.

The Empire has not learned the lessons of its disastrous intervention in Libya. Now in Syria, it is trying to deploy “advisors” to guide the Kurdish groups fighting ISIS. There are many, many things wrong with this development.

First of all, nobody – certainly not the sovereign Government of Syria – has invited the Empire to place their advisors with the Kurdish militants fighting ISIS.

Secondly, The Empire will be using Turkish airbase at Incirlik to carry out the “advising” mission. Consider this: The Turks are against the Kurds and are fighting them. The Empire is now going to align itself with the sworn enemies of Ankara and going to use the Turkish airbase. What a comedic situation! But that is the hallmark of the US foreign policy: Comedic and Absurd!

Third, Russia has effectively created a no-fly zone by placing advanced anti-aircraft defenses. The aircrafts of the Empire – sooner or later – are bound to come in contact with them.

Fourth, with Iranian IRGC force and the battle-hardened disciplined Hezbollah effectively operating in the Syrian theater, they too are going to come in contact – again sooner or later – with the Empire’s advisors.

What happens then is anybody’s guess. Russia has repeatedly said that the lawless situation perpetuated by the crazed hegemon – bankrupt in every way – can no longer be tolerated.

EvenCongresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii, member of Armed Services Committee) has begun to sound alarm regarding the Obamaregime’s “escalation”.

And, there is now the case of South China Sea. Sailing by the US destroyer Lassen – close to the China’s man-made island – was a kind of thumbing of nose towards China. China patiently watched the provocation and did not respond to the violation of its territorial waters. China did lodge the strongest protest and its foreign ministry spokesman has warned against the future violations. Whether the Empire will heed them, is another matter.

Which brings to mind the question why the Empire is so hell bent on war?

There are many, many answers, but I can think of mostly two as the most important: One, the loss of position as the sole superpower in the world and the rise of multi-polar world which is a complete anathema to its ideology – “Wolfowitz Doctrine” – of being the sole “benevolent” Hegemon in the world.

Secondly, and most important, I believe – is the precarious financial condition of the Empire: its debt is exploding exponentially, now approaching 19.6 trillion dollars; unemployment number – though officially manipulated and kept low – is rising; job creation is absolutely dismal; number of people out of workforce has reached almost 94 million; nearly 46 million Americans are on food stamps; majority of the jobs that are getting created are in the health and hospitality industry with many of them being part-time jobs; Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has turned out to be anything but affordable both for the employers and ordinary Americans as well and health co-ops some of whom have closed the shop; Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid etc. are all facing problems. The list goes on and on.

There is no way that the economic situation can be reversed. No wonder the Federal Reserve knows what a rate hike would mean for the US economy – complete collapse and social chaos – and is therefore dithering about raising them.  James Carville’s – Bill Clintons’ Campaign manager during 1992 Presidential run – famous words come to mind: “The economy, stupid”.

The only solution to come out of this dire economic situation – with loss of hegemony thrown in the mix for cosmetic purposes – seems to be “War”. 

And, the geniuses – aka “Madcaps” – of the US establishment seem gung-ho for such a scenario to achieve: One, complete Hegemony over the planet, and secondly, wipe out all the debts as only the war can achieve that.

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, has pointed out “there will be no winners”.  The mankind will not survive the conflagration, if one ever breaks out among military powers of the world. (Even the doomsday clock has been moved closer to 3 minutes to midnight.)

But this fact seems to have been lost on the Neocon establishment hell bent on establishing hegemony and pushing for more robust military interventions abroad, trampling all international laws and violating national sovereignties in the process – a hallmark of colonial attitude.

Deploying “advisors” to Syrian theater and taunting China seems to point to one and only conclusion: The Empire is itching for war as a way to solve its own problems.

Mankind is squarely in the cross-hairs of the “champion of democracy”.