by Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan for the Saker Blog
Washington Post published a book review titled “Think we have military primacy over China? Think again” on the book “The Kill Chain” authored Mr. Chris Brose on 13 May 2020, which has exposed the American Defense capabilities. The Author is a well-versed defense analyst and close to Pentagon. He has a deep insight of American defense capabilities.
After World War II, the US under the Marshal Program developed infrastructure in war-torn Western Europe. After the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, global organizations like the World Bank and IMF came into existence providing the US with a leadership role. The UN headquarters was also established in New York. The US as a major contributor, funding the UN had also a considerable amount of influence on its working and dealings. NATO was formed to counter an emerging Communist Threat initially, but later on, its scope widened too. In the Cold war era, the US was on the steering seat and controlling various states by creating a false sense of fear amongst them. But after the disintegration of the former USSR, the US and its allies diverted their focus on the Middle-East. Iraq war, Libya war, Afghan War, Yemen War, Kuwait War, etc have witnessed a unipolar world as in most of the cases the US did not bother to involve the UN, it acted blatantly in the violation of all international norms of the civilized world. Most of the actions were self-centered, self-initiated, and short-sighted.
The US spent too much on its war crazy defense budget, as a result, The US emerged the largest defense Industry and biggest supplier of defense equipment, weapons, and ammunition, etc. The US established an overseas military basis and deployed its aircraft carriers in various parts of the world. The US enjoyed the unique superpower of the world and involved in many military operations and wars unnecessarily.
With huge military expenditure, its economy suffered and its economy started to decline. Even the common taxpayer in the US is asking the Government for accountability of his/her tax money. Whatsoever, the official statistics show, but a common man does not feel safe and secure, as a result of aggressive policies, anti-American sentiments have grown world-wide gradually. The Americans do not feel safe and secure, at home and abroad equally. The common citizen is worried and still suffering. COVID-19 has exposed America completely. The US is the worst-hit country by the outbreak with the highest number of infections and the highest death toll. It proved the last nail in the coffin.
Unexpectedly, the US faced a lot of resistance in Syria. Despite its huge military might, it could not win the war in Syria. The Afghan war may be America’s most costly war ever, as, after the 19 years of full-scale war in Afghanistan, it could not produce any results and most of Afghanistan is still under the Taliban control. Modern weapons, hi-tech, and intensive training could not help US forces to win this prolonged war. Finally, the US is hiding behind a peace deal to escape from Afghanistan without losing face. Iran-sanctions are another big question mark on the political face of the US. The assassination of General Suleimani was bounced backed on America. North Korea rejected Americºan coercion.
The US policies of aggression and high-defense spending have cost the US economy adversely. The US funding for the UN and its subordinate organizations like WHO was reduced to a big extent, furthermore, the US is curtailing its defense expenditures on its ally’s security and facing isolation. France, Germany, UK, and Japan, do not feel comfortable with the current policies of the US. In case of war, US allies may not support or participate.
A recent report by the National Defense Strategy Commission clearly explains the current status of the US. “America’s ability to defend its allies, its partners and its vital interests is increasingly in doubt,” obviously allies may not support the US in case of any war. The report says “Russia and China are challenging the United States, its allies and its partners on a far greater scale than has any adversary since the Cold War’s end,” further says “If the United States had to fight Russia in a Baltic contingency or China in a war over Taiwan,” the report warned, “Americans could face a decisive military defeat.”
The report identified a set of six trends, it said had fundamentally altered the strategic environment now facing the United States:
- The return of major-power competition from authoritarian powers like Russia and China;
- The rise and expanded military capabilities of aggressive regional challengers like Iran and North Korea;
- Evolving and intensifying threats from jihadist groups;
- Rising “gray-zone” aggression, which includes strong-arm diplomacy and economic coercion, media manipulation and cyber-attacks, paramilitary and proxy forces;
- The proliferation of advanced technology – hypersonic and Artificial Intelligence, for instance – that is eroding U.S. advantages and creating new vulnerabilities;
- And political dysfunction – budgetary instability and reduced defense investment.
But I believe it is much more than this. Its policies and overconfidence is also a major factor not accounted for. On the other hand, it is the law of nature that no one superpower remains a superpower forever in history and we believe the same will happen in the future too. There was a time for the Roman Empire, the Turks ruled half of the world, and the British Empire enjoyed a vast empire. But over time, all of them completed their tenure and due to one or another reason, have to lose the status of “Super Power”. I believe, the natural timeline of US superiority is over and whatever now is left of the US is only decline.
The report also indicates that the US has plans to go to war with China or Russia and they have identified the battlefields too. In the case of China, war on Taiwan issue and in the case of Russia, the Baltic region. But, once the war starts, it is beyond some one’s control and may spread to all other parts of the world, which one may not have thought of. I must appreciate, the report is based on facts, no manipulations, or fake.
COVID-19 may have a huge impact on geopolitics and post-pandemic, the landscape may be changed completely. Pandemic might harm many nations and individuals, but at the same time, may provide relief to others. Many countries may realign themselves with emerging and rising powers and leaving their old masters. The completely different world order is visible and inevitable.
However, I hope, the UN, the International Community, and all individuals with consciousness may take all necessary steps to avoid any disaster to humanity. Human lives are the most precious thing on this earth, we must respect and protect human lives. As every country possess lethal and weapons of mass destruction, in case of any misadventure, it may cause very heavy loss to humanity. We all have the responsibility to hand over a better world to our next generations, where our children and grandchildren may live in peace, harmony, and prosper life comfortably. I believe in dialogue, “diplomacy” is the weapon of the civilized world. If all nations follow the UN charter in its true spirit, we may save this world.
Author: Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan, Sinologist (ex-Diplomat), Editor, Analyst, Non-Resident Fellow of CCG (Center for China and Globalization), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan.
Though the military analysis on both sides is converging, that is, the US is fading and would have a very hard time fighting Russia or China in a non-nuclear war, the real power left in the American arsenal is related to wealth. It’s financial tools are still empiric. The capital flows of FDI are significant. World Bank and IMF fundings are decisive. The SWIFT banking system is still very meaningful. The major stock markets are very important. Tariffs are very impactful. The US wields global financial weapons. It achieves much of it hegemony through these tools.
And the tool of sanctions (illegal, but respected by vassals and the targeted) still has great and deep impact, despite the Russian ability to work around many of the sanctions. Sanctions on North Korea and Iran are powerful. Sanctions on Venezuela are powerful.
The arsenal the US has in the financial sector are no less than the kinetic weapons of naval, land and air forces. The remaining edge the Hegemon has is built entirely on these financial weapons along with InfoWar capabilities, not its military.
These non-military weapons have been massively overused and while they still create hardship, they no longer bring the US any real successes. Countries that are the targets are learning to cope and of course breaking free of the overbearing hegemon can have its own rewards in the longer term. Meanwhile the US itself, continues to career downhill at breakneck speed and now seems to have gathered an unstoppable momentum.
Rafael,
I’m open to facts regarding your comment, that financial weapons are not bringing successes to the US.
The goal of hegemony is keep vassals in line, to prevent adversaries parity, and to continue to dominate the international affairs, as well as to crush the weak who cannot cope or counter the weapons.
So, please, post the fact, and make your wishful thoughts proven.
We are realists here, even if we wish for the end to the US domination and a world of higher culture and spirit.
Give us the facts.
Fact one: Russia, under sanctions.
Fact two: Iran under sanctions.
Fact three: Venezuela under sanctions.
Fact Four: Hezbollah under sanctions.
Where is the US success with these financial weapons?
Well, its a slow bleed. Not decapitation.
Everyone of those entities, including Russia, though less so, has been contained, limited, disrupted, diminished in trade, investments, transport, food, medicine, military weapons, mobility, status, and alliances.
Hezbollah has serious financial issues, is tracked around the world as it moves in Latin America and elsewhere, and even has to work hard inside Lebanon though it is critical for security and a major player politically. It is having a hard time escaping the corruption scandals in Beirut. Sanctions have impact.
Venezuela is hurting badly. Can’t sell its crude. Has to get Iranian oil for fuel. Has lost its assets in the US. Lost its foreign reserves in US banks. Sanctions are crippling the economy.
Iran has a collapsing currency. Check it out. They even renamed it. Inflation is killing their development.
Without Russia and China helping, Iran would be on a death watch. Sanctions are crippling industry.
Russia has been able to work around much of the sanctions, but Crimea has been locked in an outcast mode for years now because of Sanctions. Ask Auslander how life is different because of Sanction. Try getting a package sent there directly. To say sanctions have had no effect, ask Nord Stream 2/Gazprom. Ask MS-21 airliner.
Ask Dmitri Rogozin, who can’t even have a personal meeting with his counterpart in NASA. What happened to the SF consulate, and other Russian properties in the US? Sanctions still affect many aspects of Russian international activity.
Yes, just imagine the Chinese navy, the chinese missile systems and their surveillance-communications technologies in 2030.
Simply the new city shining on the hill. Whom will the asian, african, southamerican countries look after?
Imagine also the Iranian missiles, navy and defense capabilities in ten years.
Not to talk of the Russians, they have the priceless political experience and military expertise they have built up from 2000 to 2019… with their thorough o-the-field TESTING of russian weapons carried out in Syria.Now think of cautious India, always ahead of any developing countries in its military standing.
Maktoub! The fate of the empire was written in the stars.
augusto, don’t include India, it is afflicted by ‘Delhi Belly’ and will always sit on a fence and do its business there.
Larchmonter445, I agree with you that, today, the last real source of power of the U.S. is financial. But this is related to the status of the $U.S. as a reserve currency, not its wealth.
As far as ‘wealth’ goes, the U.S.:
– is massively indebted,
– has lost its industrial base,
– has consumed more than it produced for 40 years, and continues to do so.
Indeed, the U.S. is anything but wealthy!
The massive printing of money by the FED, called QE, necessary to keep its financialized economy from imploding, is undermining the status of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency. Once this status is lost so is the U.S.’ financial power and with it any pretense of being the world’s hegemon.
What remains is finance, infowar and fascism.
Finance: Global corporate profits have a 20 years declining trend. Without profitability in the productive capital, solely pumping fictitious capital (credit & stocks) and generating astronomical levels of debt is not sustainable.
Infowar: The ‘Gleichschaltung’ of global information works initially, but how long is an ‘ugly acting’ empire believable?
Fascism: When neoliberalism looses acceptance/control there comes fascism in all kinds of political travestism or it gets blatantly imposed like in Ukraine or Bolivia.
Cheers from France.
There is also technology. The latest restrictions on Huawei shows that the US still holds enough cards in the technology sector to bring its adversaries to their knees.
Knees, not yet – and this is just a company, a business. It is not a state.
What US actions will force is a divergence. Chinese/Asian economies will reorient away from the USA as a market and technology provider. The USA cannot afford to produce the goods they want in many areas – the technology stack to do so does not exist.
If one asks oneself which is most important:
1) The ability to create and manufacture goods using the available resources available within the economy
or
2) The ability to outsource manufacture according to designs and technology available within the economy
In my humble opinion, the first is more important. It is no good having the most advanced technology if it cannot be turned into goods that people can afford to buy. People will buy goods that have inferior technology as long as they are serviceable.
So, Huawei may be forced to make electronics with tech that is available in China and might be 3 or 4 years behind the leading edge. But where will Apple go to make their new iToys?
Can Apple on-shore its manufacturing at a price that it’s domestic buyers can afford?
What happens as Huawei catches up with leading-edge technology without dependence upon the USA? With both the manufacturing and tech stacks under one vertical, they will move ahead in a way that they would not have done unless forced to do so.
Huawei is more than just a company. It is supposed to lead China through the fourth industrial revolution with leading-edge 5G and AI technology, and it is the one company that underpins China’s effort to transform the global economic landscape. As a rough comparison, Huawei is to China what IBM and Lockheed Martin have been to the US, which is why the US is hell-bent on achieving Huawei’s destruction. As big and successful as Apple has been commercially, it is of little strategic value to the US.
The divergence you speak of assumes that a viable Chinese alternative to the American system is available and other countries will coalesce around China’s market and supply chains. Neither of these propositions seems likely at this point. We have just seen Taiwan’s TSMC indicate in no uncertain terms which side it is on so what are the chances that other companies in Asia, much less Europe and elsewhere, will break away from the American orbit in favour of China?
Huawei has the resources and the technical experts to work around the blockade of semiconductors.
The Chinese have a corporation that is building 5 and 7nm chips. In two more years they will catch up with the US at 3nm.
The US underestimates the insult to the young (and older) Chinese STEM professionals, all top of the US universities, so the best of the best. They will work 24/7 to help their nation overcome the blockade.
As for the US, it will do what it can to create more problems, but the race is on and the US just threw a shoe and is going to be at a great disadvantage.
Arrogance is trumped by Chinese patriotism and pride. The Chinese will win this, if not completely with 5G, with 6G, AI, robotics, nanotechnology, industrial internet and smart cities.
The US does not even have an electrical grid that can support its infrastructure needs. In fact, the US has a century old infrastructure, so it cannot win any race that is Earth bound. They will do a few good things in Space, but that’s it.
The absolute last and stupidest thing to have done to China is to insult its people by attacking their most excellent technological company. And, don’t forget, Meng Wanzhou is still wearing an ankle bracelet in Canada and still may become a political prisoner in the US. That’s a woman the US is screwing around for over a year.
These affronts bring to mind the Opium War foisted on China and the Nanking rapes committed by Japan. That’s how they think, and it doesn’t matter how America thinks. It is the Chinese who will react to the insults.
I predict they will triumph and the US will lose big time.
You underestimate your enemy, and you lose.
Additionally, the Chinese are learning from their strategic partner, Russia. They see how Russia sheds off the US hegemonic acts like a duck sheds water. This inspires and educates them.
The facts are it’s not just numbers in demographics. It’s the STEM professionals in which the US is pathetic.
The race is a brain race, and the Chinese have vastly more brains working on Huawei’s side. They lack no money. They are incentivized profoundly. And all the US has is one finger raised to proclaim their symbolic America First.
If you saw the Chinese tech companies seamlessly work together to conquer logistics and then AI analysis of COVID-19, you would not claim US dominance. The Chinese produced CT scan analysis of COVID patients in 10 seconds. This became the standard AI medical analysis for China and then in many other nations that got the algorithm. Human doctoring takes 10-15 minutes to analyze the 300-400 scans per patient. Chinese AI became 10 seconds. That’s what the US is up against. China is light years ahead in big data to AI, because they have more big data. US big data is about shopping. Chinese big data is about humans. And the US will always have only 25% the big data, so their AI will always be inferior.
Add to it, that China already has 5G up and running while the US is 2 years behind.
This isn’t the race to the Moon. It’s a brain race. And the Chinese have a vast army of brains.
True to a point. Say they master 7nm.
(1) It take a very important machine called the “stepper” to shrink all the circuits drawn on a piece of paper to smaller and smaller format. It’s also called a litho machine. It’s make by two players where only one is really good. ASML out of Netherlands. The other is Nikon. US has asked ASML to stop selling these machines.
(2) The process of getting a design out to fab is called a “tape out”. Typically for an average chip it costs between 25-30MM USD. So, before they do a tape out, an entire chip is simulated with timings and place and route to minimize electron travel distance. etc. This is made by a couple of companies and the big daddy is Cadence that has bought everyone else out
(3) There’s the process of polishing the wafer, growing crystals etc that are also super specialized. That’s the fab.
These are hundreds of thousands of man years of r&d.
I don’t think China has localized any of this. So, 7nm for China indigeneous tape out is gonna take a long time.
The latest Kirin chipset produced by Tsinghua is only 13nm. This is war.
There’s a huge difference between ‘best’ and ‘good enough’. In the situation that the USA is now placing Huawei and, through them China, means that ‘good enough’ will do.
Now, all those machines used to make the goods that Chiana is being barred from buying. I wonder which of their componentry is from China or Chinese manufacturers.
As I noted above, it is the manufacturing stack that will trump the invention stack because invention does not manufacture. It does not take long to ramp up innovation. Anyone from the USA who has visited China can report back on how innovation looks – Chinese style. It’s a different world. It is rather reminiscent, in terms of how I saw things, of Japan 30 years ago. One would see a country full of innovation, of products and public works that were outside of the imagination of anyone who had never left the United States. That’s China today.
@Larchmonter445,
Is SMIC the Chinese corporation you’re referring to? As far as I know, the best they can do now is 14nm chips and they’re on a crash program to produce 7nm chips. TSMC, the Taiwanese company that is setting up a 5nm chip production facility in the US, is expected to come up with 2nm and 1nm chips in the next couple of years.
All this hardware nonsense aside, if USA puts its hand on ARM and Imagination, call it game over. The brain of anything, CPU in this case is ARM and GPU the graphics is from ARM (Mali) or Imagination. Both are UK companies, though Imagination is PE owned (chinese). That people is the nuclear option.
Hope Huawei signed a master agreement with ARM. If not once the license period expires and ARM has been banned on relicense, no one in China can even manufacture a chip.
ARM licenses designs from CPU/GPU to tiny microcontrollers. If the IP for USB, Bluetooth, WiFi is also banned, I say, close the book.
I think your comment is extremely important for us to recognize. The power of this financial system is global. If it was a simple task to just walk away from it then I could imagine the Russian government would have done so already. Bankers representing this power are also in Russia. As Daniel Estulan has said, if Russia gets too far out of line they could just devalue their credit rating to zero. I’m reminded of a couple of quotes from Woodrow Wilson, who said that an invisible empire had been set up over the U.S.
>I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world – no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.
>Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.
John Perkins who wrote “Confessions of an economic hit Man” has described how this system functions. While I’ve not read his book I have heard him interviewed several times, and listened to his presentations. The IMF will target a nation where there is something they want. They send in their rep who, one way or another gets the leadership to take a loan he knows they can never repay. If there is any rebellion along the way they may first cause riots to topple the government. If that doesn’t work they will send in ‘the jackals’, the hit men. As a last resort, they send in the U.S. military. A conclusion to be drawn is that what we refer to as the empire is not independent countries, Britain, and America. And these institutions, The BIS, IMF, World Bank, Federal Reserve System and those who run it are not the real power either. They are the technocrats who run it. But they have been placed in their positions by the real ruling power and can easily be removed.
As I have mentioned at least once before, in another book I haven’t read, “Tragedy and Hope”, but have read the introduction which was hair raising enough, it says this:
>There really is a “world system of financial control in private hands” that is “able to
dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world.” I call this
system the World Trade Federation. It is an ultra-secret group of the most powerful men
on the earth. They now control every major international institution, every major
multinational and transnational corporation both public and private, every major domestic
and international banking institution, every central bank, every nation-state on earth, the
natural resources on every continent and the people around the world through
complicated inter-locking networks that resemble giant spider webs. This group is
comprised of the leading family dynasties of the Canada, United States, Britain,
Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and China. This self-perpetuating group has
developed an elaborate system of control that enables them to manipulate government
leaders, consumers and people throughout the world. They are in the last stages of
developing a World Empire that will rival the ancient Roman Empire. However, this new
Empire will rule the entire world, not just a goodly portion of it as Rome did long ago,
from its ultra-secret world headquarters in Germany. This group is responsible for the
death and suffering of over 180 million men, women and children. They were responsible
for World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam, etc. They have created
periods of inflation and deflation in order to confiscate and consolidate the wealth of the
world. They were responsible for the enslavement of over two billion people in all
communist nations—Russia, China, Eastern Europe, etc., inasmuch as they were directly
responsible for the creation of communism in these nations. They built up and sustain
these evil totalitarian systems for private gain. They brought Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and
Roosevelt to power and guided their governments from behind the scenes to achieve a
state of plunder unparalleled in world history.
That writer said this group is planning a final 3rd world war and they are very near to completing their empire. While they are of various ethnic backgrounds they hold no allegiance to any because they own the entire world. They have no warm, kind feelings for any people living anywhere. I find it very easy to believe what St. John the Theologian and Apostle wrote as he was shown in Revelation. He saw a beast given it’s power by the dragon, Satan, the enemy of mens souls. Then he saw a second beast, apparently the enforcer for the first. The world will finally be brought to a state where nobody will be able to buy or sell (there is money control again) unless they have the mark of the beast or the number of his name on their right hand or forehead. For any who are tempted to look at events from a strictly logical position, you may as well forget that. We are dealing with something else entirely. A dark entity, empowered by evil forces. There are no major events that are merely a coincidence. That includes what is happening now with this virus. But as they like to keep reminding us “We are all in this together”.
Mr Mouldey, your comment in my opinion is very correct. We wrestle against dark principalities.
Ps: thanks to author for this article
The weapons are only a shield for the rot at the core which will make the weapons useless,those weapons cannot fight the poverty, the homeless, the failing old infrastructure an electrical grid that has failed to have any upgrade since 1952 nor the virus that’s ever growing in the U.S. today.The rot that the whole world can see when you resort to stealing from others in a time like the virus, stealing from your own to give to some other with in your own country.It reminds me of Animal Farm where all animals are created equal but some more equal than others.and I’m sure that in other halls of other powers there will be much whispering at the antics of this country with its leadership gone as it pins not only its best hope but all hope on a reality star.!!!!
Afghanistan: where empires go to die.
I wonder, do they go there when they are ill and almost dead, or do they stumble into the place, like a squirrel into a power line transformer?
Like Alexander, they go there intending to conquer the “backward” peoples. They go with an empire behind them. And they perish on the rocks and down the caverns.
It all seems so easy. Backward people in sandals, no match for heavier firepower, no air force, no heavy artillery. Sometimes homemade rifles. But they are tribal people, and a male society that feels little pain and can bear months of deprivation while living in the mountains in order to kill any invaders.
It was the Afghanis who invaded and conquered India and established the Mughal Empire.
Katherine
A recent report by the National Defense Strategy Commission clearly explains the current status of the US. “America’s ability to defend its allies, its partners and its vital interests is increasingly in doubt,”
As I mentioned elsewhere…..
Talking of loyalty to our ‘protector’ – how loyal is/was Donald Trump to his staff, compaign managers, helpers etc.? Would you ever consider working for a man so devoid of loyalty to others. I could easily imagine him dumping Melinia should he wish to promote his brand. Think Flynn, Page, Maniforth, Pappadopolus, Stone, etc. Now think of any allies needs in the narrow passages of his or his administration’s consciousness..Also bear in mind his envoy Pompeo and understand that the most dangerous warmonger is religious one be it a mad muslim or a fundamental American christian.
.. Therefore we expect the Afghanis to next invade Nebraska, and, ???
Apparently the answer is, empires are like squirrels trying to steal the nuts off of those transformer lugs. They get vaporized every time, but that doesn’t stop the next one from trying.
The word “Mughal” is an islamisized version of “Mongol”. The mughals were turkic mongols who went west from Mongolia, converted to Islam and turned back to create turkmenistan etc. There has been only one famous afghan (Ghazni). He did not make past western India.
I agree with the author, the U.S.’s best days are behind. We are an empire in decline. We don’t have political parties anymore. They are but extensions of oligarchs, billionaires, bankers and corporations lust and desire to have control of something they no longer have. A war would only bring more misery, trying to hide how badly this country has declined. A 3rd world shit hole country with a top 1% owning everything and a bottom 99% feeding off of the scraps. A financial system that is afloat only by excessive manipulation and control. An Economy in ruins. A service based Economy shattered by social distancing and political gerrymandering.
It’s a lootocracy for sure.
Top .01% . Funnel operating upside down, in reverse, everything since 2008 accruing to this bunch.
Listen from 5:00 to 9 minute mark, look at the charts he puts up.
Chico Crypto
MAY18
https://youtu.be/7enyI_Bnh8w?list=RDCMUCHop-jpf-huVT1IYw79ymPw&t=376
Sure enuf,right on topic of this desperation to keep asset prices up, there’s a story/vid (ongoing of course) about how if hertz declares BK & dumps their zillions of rentals, wouldn’t that slam the resale value of every new & newish auto out there, including the vast majority leased thus loan goes underwater to cost in a flash.
HERTZ BANKRUPTCY COMING? may16
https://youtu.be/dmiLbrMNZ1I?t=148
They will do anything to keep those cars from flooding the market, including storing them indefinitely and dumping them into the ocean during shipment.
A simple and cogent packaging of the most important history since the 2ndWW. I much appreciate the wording: “Rising “gray-zone” aggression”, which is about the best description I’ve come across of what we always want to say, when we say ‘hybrid’ actions.
And yes, the fall of empire, the re-organization of whatever the international order is going to express itself to be, is visible and inevitable.
They know. They know well that they will lose to an equal opponent. So they will not take on Russia or China. directly….but rather Iran or Venezuela. If they try to place major Nukes in Poland, well, Russia will put its foot down firmly so that will not happen.
The attitude of the orange despicable Me towards Venezuela is that it can be taken almost carelessly anytime. Instead, he will come face to face with a prolonged people’s war spilling into the hinterlands of Colombia for sure and maybe Brazil. But little does he have a clue at this time. So I figure Iran has drawn the short straw. sadly. Turkey and the Kurds will play treacherous roles each, Iraq will batten down the hatches while Israel and Hezbollah will be at it. Russia might, just might pull Turkey off the back of Lebanon….. it depends… Syria will be relatively OK. Israel will occupy Golan Heights completely however. Saudis will be taken out by Iran.
Perhaps things will fall apart here at home precipitously and the American people will take the hit so to speak of the plutocratic elite’s fantasies and wet dreams. Again, sad but better than accruing even more karma abroad.
“Help, help, stop me before I kill again!!!” should be the Looneytune’s beacon beamed to the world these days. It is obvious that the ruling class is incapable of getting its house in order and so the new Rome burns.
Excellent post, Direct and succinct and underlines the decline of the US empire in terms that all previous empires would innately understand. I had a friend who still imagined that somehow the US was a cause for world good. He is a Vietmam vet. He cannot believe he is/was betrayed. Of course he is old now yet he somehow clings on to the belief of US foreign policy continues to be moral. How cane he consider Pompeo and understand that the most dangerous warmonger is religious one be it a mad Islamist or a fundamental American Christian. Both are moral degenerates on any scale of human consideration of others.
I’ll take a different view: empires collapse when their cultural system is not accepted any longer. In India, for example, British empire lasted much longer than in Afghanistan because Indian elite castes accepted, adopted and pursued British cultural system ( cricket, golf, bridge, higher education, class stratification, justice system, etc.) unlike Pashtuns and many other Afghan tribes who didn’t. American cultural system was widely adopted by many countries after WWII as it was seen as a wave of future. I saw it as such. For a while, up until destruction of Yugoslavia. No longer. Rock and Roll is largely gone, musicals too, coke and burgers are on the way out, reality shows are turning not real, the so called abstract painting (ala Rotko and Pollock) turned out to be neither, and so on.
I do think that only the countries which come up with the cultural system compatible with the spiritual needs of most of its population, especially young ones, will be able to cope with the future disasters. Widely shared collective consciousness turns out to be much more powerful binding agent than anything else I know.
Putin’s attempt to restore religion, collective memory ( Besmrtniy polk), opening up archives, investing in talented Russian youth, explains his success to a much larger extent , than his success in military reorganization and economic restructuring.
The crisis in western European countries, except possibly in Hungary, is precisely that there is nothing that binds its people in that cultural/spiritual sense.
Best regards, Spiral
That is very insightful Spiral. As a child of the 70’s onward in the US, the culture I grew up (mainly its counter-culture?) was I think widely influential in the world, particularly its music – jazz, blues, rock, even bluegrass, was all created here (and to be fair a lot of rock/pop came from the UK as well). That is largely gone now, not entirely, but there’s nothing much new coming out these days.
What has replaced it I’m afraid is Hollywood, which is also widely consumed in the world today, and so is still very influential. That it is becoming more and more just formulaic good guy/bad guy cartoon-ish drivel perhaps foretells its demise as well, that and its replacement by copy-cat but indigenous media (Bollywood).
So I think even the much vaulted American culture which used to be so loved the world over is also coming to an end.
This reminds me of a personal episode. We had bought an Israeli s/w company and one of the first books we were asked to read was a book about them. What stood out to me was this —
It said America is a melting pot (like a 4 cheese pizza — my expansion) where everything is melded, where as Israel is like a salad. Everything is mixed up, but separate. What the book did not say is if they had uses a salad dressing as a binder.
I have thought long and hard as to what binds America and Americanism and this melting pot theory is a hoax. Another story sold up the river only in Modern Family, Modern Love or some make real TV show.
I think its already coming apart at the fringes and the day its no more “the land of plenty” or “the land of milk and honey” the society will violently tear apart.
Hope an alternative story is stood up soon with more legs to it.
Human lives are the most precious thing on this earth, we must respect and protect human lives.
Nope. Not true at all. The ugly exceptionalism myth rears it’s ugly head once again. Human lives are no more or less precious than any other kind of life on earth. That’s the root of all problems right there, and the reason we’re in our current predicament in the first place.
Spot on brother (if I may say so). That’s what has made Hinduism survive so long. Long after all the polytheistic religions have been gone. It says humans and animals deserve almost equal treatment. That’s where the monkey god (Hanuman) and having animals as cohorts (the peacock with Muruga, the mouse with Ganesh) etc come into the mythology. And to the root of vegetarianism.
To quote Alvey from “The Elves of Lily Hill Farm” written by Penny Kelly:
We Humans are at the top of the heap.
We need everything in the heap underneath us,
But nothing in the heap needs that human at the top.
Sounds like a spiteful but wishful obit, however I thank the author for not picking on India unnecessarily as that’s the typical tendency.
However, “…The US is the worst-hit country by the outbreak with the highest number of infections and the highest death toll. It proved the last nail in the coffin.” is a very puzzling statement. Last nail for what?
You don’t need to read some American military mouthpiece or a rag like Washington Post to understand the United States of America.
As the following blog put it in a more eloquent analogy: America is the Norma Desmond of the world–a world hegemon that has seen its best days but is still “very entitled, very narcissistic, and dangerously deluded.”
As such, things likely will not end well for America:
“As a fan of old movies in general and Sunset Boulevard in particular, I keep coming back to how the psychological profile of Norma Desmond’s character seems so reminiscent of the United States right now – or more precisely the political class that dictates its policies and the narrative used to maintain the illusion. After the end of the Cold War, Washington was the grand dame on the world stage, at the peak of her powers economically and militarily. And she wielded her power without apology for years, becoming entitled to wield it – making demands and bossing others around whom she perceived to be lesser lights.
She’s declining now but doesn’t accept it – continuing to bomb other nations without remorse, assassinating foreign military leaders, sanctioning 1/3 of the world’s population, dotting every corner of the globe with military bases, and engaging in brinksmanship – all while continuing to proclaim her greatness, exceptionalism and indispensability. Other players on the world stage seem to see through the masquerade, but still feel the need to tiptoe around her.
[…]
Rather than accept her declining stature and use whatever influence she still has to engineer a soft landing domestically and work with the rest of the world toward a multi-polar order that values peaceful co-existence, America seems to have chosen the Norma Desmond path: very entitled, very narcissistic, and dangerously deluded.”
IS THE U.S. THE NORMA DESMOND OF THE WORLD STAGE?
http://natyliesbaldwin.com/2020/05/is-the-u-s-the-norma-desmond-of-the-world-stage/
that is confusing the puppet with the puppeteer. The real narcissim is to be found in the (((little state))) the wields such disproportionate influence within the hegemon’s halls of power.
That narcissism is embedded within that states founding myth, and in the religious texts that inform that myth.
God’s chosen people? Really? They are just using the yanks until they are dried up and will blow away, as Benjamin Netanyahu has been quoted as saying.
I agree 100% with the article, except one sentence, based on personal experience:
>However, I hope, the UN, the International Community, and all individuals with consciousness may take all necessary steps to avoid any disaster to humanity.<
I am from Serbia and former Yugoslavia. We have had very poor experience with UN and International Community, especially the latter. I believe Libya, Iraq, Iran and many others share my sentiment.
Bet regards :-)
No nation can survive without an economy. The economic paradigm for the US is pillage and plunder, enabled by military means, enabled by the usury financial system, enabled by forcing other nations to become indebted to the US and to accept the USD as their medium to settle trade. To defeat this, the components must be withdrawn in stages. Firstly, must come to obviate, when certain nations no longer need or want USD currency and debts. This day is soon at hand. Secondly, this will ignite a series of events to collapse the usury system of debts and derivatives, for such system has within the seeds of its own destruction. At that point, the US will have nothing left but the military option to eliminate certain nations. We can only hope certain nations will have the capability to strike back and reduce the US to the level of rubble the US has caused to so many nations this past century. If yes, the world may be saved from mutual annihilation. If no, we are doomed.
Yep. At some point, someone’s going to have to come in and secure all the nukes, the bio-warfare stuff, the chem-warfare agents, and the rest of the god-only-knows-what that the enterprising little AZ rats have been assembling all these years. That’s going to be quite a project in the midst of a total societal melt down. A decapitating strike on US military command and control nodes (possibly with help from within?) and/or the power grid will almost certainly be required at the very least. Very messy indeed, under even the best of circumstances.
As an aside, I’ve long expected that we’ll see truly massive false-flag attacks on the US’s own citizenry to stir outrage and justify attacks on the mythical Russian or Chinese “other,” just as we’ve already seen in more limited form with 9-11 and CV19. As in, nuke a city or two, pull the plug on the power grid after the news has propagated, declare martial law, and then basically declare war on anything that moves. The masses will be pacified, one way or another!
Hear, hear:
The above snippet follows exactly the same template as do ”documentaries” about ”Evil men of History”. Not a single Anglo or Zionist Jew to be found there. Selecting and name-calling Russia, China, Iran, the DPRK, and — a little quaint — Zbigniew Brzezinski’s jihadists leaves us with two possible explanations. Either
a) there is no evil emanating from Anglos and Zionist Jews
or
b) the evil powers and ditto men of History were nominated by Anglos and Zionist Jews.
In this light, item #4 on the quoted list becomes a source of profound Schadenfreude as it indicates Anglos and Zionist Jews are increasingly finding themselves at the receiving end of some richly deserved retribution.
In my view the UN and other International Organizations (IOs) have become so much impracticable – that also due to the USA negative Roles at different times – we should not expect anything from the IOs. Every nation has to fight its own war on the economic fronts, be it China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Russia or India. There must a a mjor shift from physical ammunition in store, or the large number of army personals. CV-19 shall bring vast changes in every aspect of our lives including social aspects. .
One big change is that bio-warfare has become the preferred method of waging war. Look at how effective the new malarial blanket, COVID19, was in collapsing the world economy. The military is much more advanced in bio-warfare than the public realizes. They have the antidotes, but they can’t use them too soon. Otherwise, it would be apparent that the virus was engineered.
The real civilizational change is that the evil ones, led by Bill Gates, are using this crisis to impose their new world order under the guise of “helping humanity” by tracking everyone with a chip which will result in total control. Then they are going to reprogram our DNA under the guise of “improving humanity’s health,” but they will be able to design perfect slaves. All parents will be DNA screened. All babies will be produced and raised in a laboratory after DNA screening and alterations. Gates and his father are obsessed with depopulation. The Gates Depression is designed to kill 1 billion people.
@Charles Carroll
Bill Gates obviously took Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” published in 1932 very seriously. Set in a futuristic world state, citizens are biologically engineered in vitro into an intelligence based social hierarchy.
This is the neoliberal approach
George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” suggests a rather different view of totalitarianism, where the Northern hemisphere is divided into three warring political blocs, who are constantly at war with each other subjecting the general population to degraded living standards. This is the neoconservative approach.
A logical review of the international development with special focus on the role of USA. Might Right was followed by USA as the Sole Superpower after integration of Soviet Union and before the emergence of China as a significant player on world canvas.
In fact, the poor muslim countries have been suffering a lot by the aggressive behaviour of USA. They were offended in the name of War on Terror without any legal or moral justifications. In fact the very offensive action was a terrorist action, leading to development of resistance in the Muslim Countries. The aggressive behaviour against muslims has led to development of hate among muslims in various parts of the World.
USA couldn’t maintain it’s role as Superpower in the fields of economics, science and technology, due to it’s engagement in unproductive wars. As mentioned by the honorable author, USA has reached the declining phase of it’s role as Superpower.
In fact, the eternal Superpower is God, the Creator the Sustainer of the Universe, who neither sleeps nor gets tired of looking after everything small and big.
@Qureshi
“The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers” by Paul Kennedy published in 1989 describes how all the the Empires of the recent historical past disintegrate, whether the Roman, Spanish, or British, because they overextended themselves at their boundary by using military force. It began to cost them more to maintain their Empires, than it cost to build them in the first place. The US will be no exception.
I still believe that for America’s sake, its future will prosper when its people remove the tentacles of the Rothschild/Rockefeller clan once and for all. I’m sure that many Americans can see that their country is no longer the same super power of the Cold War era and that its political class truly does not care about its working class, nor for democracy. If Trump is a true patriot, he would pull the trigger with one tweet on Twitter – JFK tried but the MSM and CIA smothered his plea to the population.
At least, the US citizenry has not accepted gun control. Unlike many of the five eyes countries which have long ago disarmed, the Establishment has thus far failed to enact gun control laws designed to weaken America further. This will be the toughest nut to crack.
No need to crack the nut of gun control, nor will anyone seriously try, other than as a political divide and conquer strategy. Bio-warfare and next gen surveillance technologies make personal firearms stockpiles obsolete, other than for creating mischief with one’s neighbors.
Not sure we were ever the superpower that we thought we were in the wake of WWII either. That was all mostly media hype, deficit spending (spending the actual wealth we’d have now, had we not already squandered it), and lack of worthy contenders at the time. That time is now long gone, for sure.
https://tass.com/society/1157995
4 scenarios for post virus world ….each has visible “buds ” !now….take your pick.
It is very interesting article. Thank you for your job!
Good article with good analysis. 👍
America could have won every war it fought. In a ‘no holds barred’ war, they could have minced their opponents and that includes China and Russia. Russia could have been turned to dust shortly after the 2nd WW and China likewise after the Korean war. But only if they had eliminated Russia first.
The Zionists’ greatest regret will always be not being in total control of the USA after WW 2 and getting control a little too late.
“Russia could have been turned to dust shortly after the 2nd WW and China likewise after the Korean war.”
???? Seems to me that if the armies had met at the Elbe river as enemies instead of allies that the Yanks/Canadians, etc. would have been pushed back to the North Sea by the SSSR in no time. Their armies had difficulties all the time from the moment they hit the Normandy beaches. To name some; Ardennes, Arnhem, Hürtgenwald (The Meat Grinder), against far outnumbered Germans of which in the case of the Hürtgenwald many were recrutes that had never seen battle before.