By Pepe Escobar with permission and first posted at Asia Times
The West is the best
The West is the best
Get here and we’ll do the rest
Jim Morrison, The End
For those spared the ordeal of sifting through the NATO summit communique, here’s the concise low down: Russia is an “acute threat” and China is a “systemic challenge”.
NATO, of course, is just a bunch of innocent kids building castles in a sandbox.
Those were the days when Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay,
NATO’s first secretary-general, coined the trans-Atlantic purpose: to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”
The Raging Twenties remix reads like “keep the Americans in, the EU down and Russia-China contained”.
So the North Atlantic (italics mine) organization has now relocated all across Eurasia, fighting what it describes as “threats from the East”. Well, that’s a step beyond Afghanistan – the intersection of Central and South Asia – where NATO was unceremoniously humiliated by a bunch of Pashtuns with Kalashnikovs.
Russia remains the top threat – mentioned 63 times in the communiqué. Current top NATO chihuahua Jens Stoltenberg says NATO won’t simply “mirror” Russia: it will de facto outspend it and surround it with multiple battle formations, as “we now have implemented the biggest reinforcements of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War”.
The communiqué is adamant: the only way for military spending is up. Context: the total “defense” budget of the 30 NATO members will grow by 4.1% in 2021, reaching a staggering $1.049 trillion ($726 billion from the US, $323 billion from assorted allies).
After all, “threats from the East” abound. From Russia, there are all those hypersonic weapons that baffle NATO generals; those large-scale exercises near the borders of NATO members; constant airspace violations; military integration with that “dictator” in Belarus.
As for the threats from China – South China Sea, Taiwan, the Indo-Pacific overall – it was up to the G7 to come up with a plan.
Enter “green”, “inclusive” Build Back Better World (B3W), billed as the Western “alternative” to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). B3W respects “our values” – which clownish British PM Boris Johnson could not help describing as building infrastructure in a more “gender neutral” or “feminine” way – and, further on down the road, will remove goods produced with forced labor (code for Xinjiang) from supply chains.
The White House has its own B3W spin: that’s a “values-driven, high-standard, and transparent infrastructure partnership” which will be “mobilizing private-sector capital in four areas of focus – climate, health and health security, digital technology, and gender equality – with catalytic investments from our respective development institutions”
The initial “catalytic investments” for BW3 were estimated at $100 billion. No one knows how these funds will be coming from the “development institutions”.
Seasoned Global South observers already bet they will be essentially provided by IMF/World Bank “green” loans tied to private sector investment in selected emerging markets, with an eye on profit.
The White House is adamant that “B3W will be global in scope, from Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa and the Indo-Pacific”. Note the blatant attempt to match BRI’s reach.
All these “green” resources and new logistic chains financed by what will be a variant of Central Banks showering helicopter money would ultimately benefit G7 members, certainly not China.
And the “protector” of these new “green” geostrategic corridors will be – who else? – NATO. That’s the natural consequence of the “global reach” emphasized on the NATO 2030 agenda.
NATO as investment protector
“Alternative” infrastructure schemes already proliferate, geared to contain “Russia bullying” and “Chinese meddling” off from the EU. That’s the case of the Three Seas Initiative, where 12 EU member-states from Eastern Europe are supposed to better interconnect the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas.
This initiative is a pale copy of China’s 17+1 mechanism of integrating Eastern Europe as part of BRI – in this case forcing them to build very expensive infrastructure to receive very expensive American energy imports.
The offensive against “threats from the East” is bound to fail.
Dmitry Orlov has detailed how “Russia excels at building and operating huge energy, transportation and materials production systems” and, in parallel, how “the technosphere…has quietly relocated and is now busy telecommuting between Moscow and Beijing.”
As every geek knows, China is way ahead in 5G and is the world’s top market for chips. And now the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law – significantly approved right before the G7 in Cornwall – will “safeguard” Chinese companies from “unilateral and discriminatory measures imposed by foreign countries” and the US “long arm jurisdiction”, thus forcing Atlanticist capital to make a choice.
It’s China as a rising global power that in fact has proposed an “alternative” to the Global South in the first place, a counterpunch to the endless IMF/World Bank debt trap of the past decades. BRI is a highly complex sustainable development trade/investment strategy with the potential to integrate vast swathes of the Global South.
That’s a direct connection to Chairman Mao’s famous theory on the division of the Three Worlds ; the emphasis then on the post-colonial Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), of which China was a stalwart, now encompasses the whole Global South. In the end, it’s always about sovereignty against neocolonialism.
B3W is the Western, essentially American, reaction to BRI: try to scotch as many projects as possible while harassing China 24/7 in the process.
Unlike China or Germany, the US hardly manufactures products the Global South wants to buy; manufacturing accounts for only 5% of a US economy essentially propped up by the US dollar as reserve currency and the – dwindling – Pentagon’s Empire of Bases.
China churns out ten top engineers for every US “financial expert”. China has perfected what is known among bilingual tech experts as an effective system to make SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) development plans – and implement them.
The notion that the Global South will be convinced to privilege B3W – a hollow PR coup at best – over BRI is ludicrous. Yet NATO will be regimented to actively protect those investments that follow “our values”. One thing is certain: there will be blood.
America is now infected with all the symptoms of an Empire near collapse – a tumble precipitated by America’s obsession with the needs of the racist Jewish state to reconfigure the Middle East to benefit the Apartheid country.
In the process, the US got blindsided while China and Russia became powerhouses themselves, ready to knock the US Empire off its perch.
Such happenstance is truly God’s doing to impede the Evil American Empire, as wagged by the Evil State of Israel, to become much worse than it already has.
http://biblicisminstitute.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/israel-the-scourge-of-empires/
Yes I hope no blood but think neo-colonial aggression has always been part of their DNA! Thanks for your thoughts!!
No blood!?
Tons of blood is already being shed what with the vaccinations running rampant over the world! What is the potential if or when the american people discover they have been poisoned en’ masse’ by their elites, and they are all carded to die off soon by such deliberate action…mass murder, a genocide of massive proportions?
Will the american people run amok in a death spiral, killing as they go, determined to take their elites with them for their crimes against the people? And would the elites them let loose on the world as they sink themselves into the abyss?
But even if that is not the case the western elites cannot and they people survive the pandemic of vaccines, the western elites cannot deal with loss, defeat and what it would mean for them in the west…total exposure and loss of wealth and the social protection such wealth and power gave them, that kept away from the hangman’s noose
The east will not tolerate a world of usury one more time so the western usurers will be kept out or regulated to ordinariness if they get into the east. The end of the western bankers appears to be nigh. They will fight and there will be blood, likely great quantities of it.
The Russians and Chinese ought to be looking to build quickly such great weapons that they could defeat the west without getting blown up themselves
The best weapon would be an electromagnetic something that would be able to short circuit the west so completely that they would not be able to let loose their planes or fire their missiles at all. That way the Russians/Chinese could go in and neutralize all their weapons, destroy them and their infrastructure, making it impossible for the west to rebuild anytime soon, not into the far, far future if at all
The Western sheeple will never wake up. The Corona scam is designed so no matter what you do, they always have an excuse for them to run to the cliff.
Here in the autumn we probably will get a third wave, a new strain, lately they talk about a Moscow strain. Note Moscow is a liberal capitol.
So if the vaccines at this point show a lot of killed or destroy organs, it will just be blamed on the new hardcore strain of the virus, and the sheeple will get a new vaccine.
They are so social engineered with fear so they will believe it again again again until they are kicked out from the cliff in 2025.
Russia and China and God will not come to any rescue other than to their own populations. Why should they?
Remember WWII when Russia and China both were bombed to pieces by “the Allies”, the ever since insults, despise, threats and looting both these countries have been exposed to y the West.
You ought to be a complete idiot if you as Chinese and Russia dont know today that West wish their submission or death.
I’m really surprised they stopped at that. They could have remixed every alphabet acronym, funding the green plan with $N trillion, giving a vaccine dose to everyone for free for life and proving universal basic income to developing countries and below for the next decade and on and on… All catch free.
Knowing well its just a soundbite from Joe who will go back to DC and back to basement, nothing really matters.
The caravan moves on…
The Summit was a lot of nothing. The US and its Anglosphere and EU vassals will continue their long march to nowhere without a chance in hell of defeating, neutralizing, or exhausting Russia and China. They will defeat themselves.
B3W? It’s like the WEF/Davos crew thoroughly smeared with shit their own Build Back Better public relations rebranding of fascism, so they just added “world” on the end, because, that makes it so much different, right? No one will notice that we just added the word “world”, which by the way makes zero grammatical sense! Build Back Better World. Do they mean “Build Back Better, World,” as in, “Hey, World, Build Yourself Back Better.”
There was a recent policy piece I saw. I think the title was “Our elites can;t even reset a wall socket, let alone the world economy.” B3W is perfect evidence of that.
B3W has a rather obvious subliminal connection to “BMW,” to my mind – an esteemed and well-established world-wide brand if there ever was one; which is no doubt no coincidence whatsoever, marketing “genius” being almost entirely subliminal and thus personally referential. In any case, marketing slogans are a typical western response to pretty much everything these days, which is corporate speak for “we hear you, now we’re going to label and ignore you.” Same as it ever was.
Current top NATO chihuahua Jens Stoltenberg…
Lol! Pablo certainly has a way with words besides being an acute observer: “Chihuahuas possess loyalty, charm, and big-dog attitude” [American Kennel Club]. Stoltenberg fits the profile to a T, less the charm. Certainly shows what having big friends can do to your self image.
The notion that the Global South will be convinced to privilege B3W – a hollow PR coup at best – over BRI is ludicrous.
Absolutely true. ‘Nuff said.
It is so funny to hear those clowns from G7 that they want to start their own infrastructure projects to counter China BRI. This is wrong in so many fronts that is beyond common sense:
1. Building infrastructure is one of China’s greatest strengths and the West’s weakness. China is known to build the Great Wall thousands of years ago. They dug the world longest canal without modern equipment in 600 AD. More recently, America had to import Chinese coolies – the most illiterate and unskilled labors from China – to help complete the Transcontinental Railways that White workers couldn’t or unwilling to do. Today, China is home to 7 of the 10 longest bridges in the world, the largest dams, the longest tunnels, the most high speed rails miles, some of the tallest and largest buildings, airports, … Simple consideration in *TACTICS* dictates that you don’t pick your opponent’s strong area to compete in.
2. Building infrastructure in other countries is obviously the wrong *PRIORITY* for the West, given that there are plenty of infrastructure that need to be built and repaired at home. America is behind China and East Asia countries in 5G, and even 4G stations coverage. There is no high speed rail – the one proposed in California lingers for decades. One of the largest oil producer state Texas had to endure embarrassing electric blackouts recently. Successively Presidents from Obama, to Trump to Biden and many others in the Congress and states repeatedly call for big infrastructure projects, not only as stimuli for the economy but also to provide jobs for the workers. All these proposals are stalled because of lack of funding and political wills. And yet they want to build and believe they can be successful in building infrastructure in the developing countries?
3. Western funding in infrastructure building usually seeks higher interest rates because they are much more short term oriented. They are more risk-averse – risks like political uncertainty, terrorism, dangerous terrain, harsh environments,… Western builders therefore avoid many difficult but critical projects. Funding through IMF/World Banks usually come in “packages” – with political strings attached and other demands. *AFFORDABILITY* and debt traps are very real – not just in term of financial obligations, but the loss of sovereignty for the host countries.
4. China believe building infrastructure in BRI countries will help to uplift the global economy, especially in the developing world. Rising economic tide will benefit everyone, including China. It reduces poverty and inequality among nations. Uplifting billions of population dilute the importance of G7 markets. If the B3W initiative is successful, it will only help to achieve China *STRATEGY*. Those types of competition will incentivize Chinese companies to work harder and help to ensure Chinese reach its goal faster.
In conclusion, the B3W proposal therefore represents an awful choice for the West, an indication of lack of quality thinkers that reek of desperation, prejudices and outdated mentality. Compare with China, G7 has a few hundred years of opportunities and head starts in building infrastructure in Africa and Asia – aftercall, most countries were their colonies. If they were willing and able, they would have done so long along – when those countries were part of their empire and could have help provide more direct economic benefits to the colonizers. Today, countries as diverse as Morocco, United Arab Emirate, Pakistan, Laos are seeking cooperation with China. In one or two decade time, it will be true karma to see those “low IQ” countries enjoy better infrastructure than their former colonizers.
So, don’t cry for G7’s colossal mistakes. Laugh at them – it is funny.
“NATO was unceremoniously humiliated by a bunch of Pashtuns with Kalashnikovs.”
Do not scorn Kalashnikovs. Likewise the U$A was unceremoniously humiliated by a bunch of Vietcong with Kalashnikovs. Yanks in Vietnam who were lucky enough to take one off a dead Vietcong knew they could rely on a Kalashnikov to work under battle conditions worlwide; in ice, snow, rain, mud, sand.
“U$A was unceremoniously humiliated by a bunch of Vietcong with Kalashnikovs.”
It’s more likely they were humiliated with SKS and Mosin-Nagant variants, so it’s even worse.
The ship has sailed but the Norwegian clown, Jens Stoltenberg, and his ilks would continue to pretend otherwise to secure their corrupt lifestyles.
Being a skillful Russian diplomat today seems to include the necessity to be a fully skilled psychotherapist (“…so what do you think is exceptional with you as Americans…” a.s.o.).
When “there will be blood”, who’s blood? Will the Russian military have to conduct kind of an ‘enhanced psychotherapy’ (or the Chinese) with the Americans?
LOL! I imagine mass psychotherapy POW camps, where western prisoners get in touch with their feelings and/or repressed genders while their captors look on perplexed and unbelieving. Perhaps the Americans and their allies will even go to war armed only with fabricated sexual allegations and insults toward foreign leaders? Those Russians – “they’re all just so MEAN and SEXUALLY REPRESSED” they might yell – as their lines are cut down by all too real Russian bullets.
It’s been rather things like real Russian bullets what I had in mind when I mentioned ‘enhanced psychotherapy’. Like in ‘enhanced interrogation’.
The Russian army are certainly tough guys but listening to the psychic issues Americans are struggling with? That could turn out their Achilles’ heel.. .
Indeed, that would amount to cruel and unusual punishment for the Russians, wouldn’t it?
One thing is clear after the Geneva summit: The West is hellbound to make war. There will be war soon. Unfortunately.
As Stoltenberg says, they will outspend Russia. Protect Europe and US by building up heavy armed military bases all around Russia….for defense……and peace as Nato is a peace organisation……and our freedom.
Its really the same stupid Barbarossa model they used in WWII. They will just call it something else and fancy with defence included and they will believe in their own bs.
The latest article here about “dirty little secrets about WWII” gives the answer why US and UK are so upset and desperate in all their approaches and speech about behaviour to Russia and China.
They have the bad conscience criminals have. A criminal cant be close friend with his victims. There can never be trust between the criminal and the victim. The criminal will always be afraid that his victims will revenge.
So what do criminals do to victims who survived and grew strongest, and now visually jeopardize them big by not only their presence but also by their force?
All the ango-zionists and their vassals can do is double down on what they have done since WW2. There is nothing else left in their imperial matrix that would deviate from the global ‘monroe doctrine’ they have shoved down everyone else’s throat, and over millions of dead bodies and counting. This is the End indeed.
Excellent article by Mr Escobar, and the comment section was Top Flight.
THE END is about the right song to play for NATO the EU and the West the ways things are going with clowns like Biden, Boris and Macron.