Will Washington Risk WW3 To Block Emerging EU-Russia Superstate OpEd – Eurasia Review

Russia is an inalienable and organic part of Greater Europe and European civilization. Our citizens think of themselves as EuropeansThats why Russia proposes moving towards the creation of a common economic space from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, a community referred to by Russian experts as the Union of Europe which will strengthen Russias potential in its economic pivot toward the new Asia. - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia and the changing world, February 2012

Therelentless demonization of Vladimir Putin is just onepart of Washingtonsmulti-prongedstrategy toroll-back Russian power in Central Asia and extinguish Putins dream of a Greater Europe. Along with the attempt to smear the Russian president as a KGB thug and dictator, the media has also alleged that Moscow intervened in the US presidential elections and that Russia is aserial aggressor that poses a growing threatto European and US national security. Themedia onslaught, which has greatly intensified since the election of Donald Trump in November 2016,has beenaccompanied by harsh economic sanctions, asymmetrical attacks on Russias markets and currency, the arming and training of Russian adversaries in Ukraine and Syria, the calculated suppression of oil prices, andaheavy-handedeffort to sabotage Russias business relations in Europe. In short, Washington is doing everything in its power to prevent Russia and Europe from merging intothe worlds biggestfree trade zone thatwill be the center of global growth and prosperity for the next century.

This is why the US State Department joined with the CIA to topple the elected governmentof Ukraine in 2014. Washington hoped that by annexing avital landbridge between the EU and Asia, US powerbrokers could control critical pipeline corridors that are drawing the two continents closer together into an alliance that will exclude the United States. The prospect of Russia meeting more of the EUs growing energy needs, while Chinas high-speed railway systemdelivers more low-cost manufactured goods, suggests that the worlds center of economic gravity is shifting fast increasing the probability that theUSwill continueonitspath of irreversibledecline. And when theUSdollar isinevitablyjettisoned as the primary means of exchange between trade partners in the emerging Asia-EU free trade zone, then the recycling of wealth into US debt will drop offprecipitously sending US markets plunging while the economy slips into a deep slump. Preventing Putin from creating a harmonious community of economies from Lisbon to Vladivostok is no minor hurtle for the United States. Its a matter of life and death.

Remember the Wolfowitz Doctrine:

Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.

Washingtons relations with Russia will always be fractious becauseRussia poses a perennial threat toUS ambitions to rule the world. Geography is fate, and Russias geography contains massive oil and gas reserves that Europe needs to heat its homes and fuel its businesses. Thesymbiotic relationshipbetween supplier and end-userwill eventually lead to the lifting of trade barriers, the lowering of tariffs, and the smooth melding together of national economies into aregion-wide common market.Thismay beWashingtons biggest nightmare, but itsalso Putins top strategic priority. Heres what he said:

We must consider more extensive cooperation in the energy sphere, up to and including the formation of a common European energy complex. The Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea and the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea are important steps in that direction. These projects have the support of many governments and involve major European energy companies. Once the pipelines start operating at full capacity, Europe will have a reliable and flexible gas-supply system that does not depend on the political whims of any nation. This will strengthen the continents energy security not only in form but in substance. This is particularly relevant in the light of the decision of some European states to reduce or renounce nuclear energy.

If Europewants areliable partner that can meet its energy needs, thenRussia fits the bill.Unfortunately, the US hasrepeatedlytried tosabotage both pipelines in order to undermine EU-Russiarelations. Washington would prefer that Europe either dramatically curtailits use of natural gas or find other more expensive alternativesthat dont involveRussia. In other words, Europes material needsare beingsacrificedfor Washingtons geopoliticalobjectives,the primary goal of which is to prevent the forming of Greater Europe.

Washingtons war against Russia is becoming increasingly militarized. Recently the Pentagon deployed more combat troops to Syria and Kuwait suggesting that US warplanners intend to shift from the current strategy of arming jihadist militias (to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad), to a more direct use of martial force to seize-and-hold territory in East Syria. There are signs of anuptick inthe violence in Ukraine too, asPresident Trump appears only-too-eager to usea more iron-fisted approach in settling regional disputes than his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Also, NATO has deployedtroops and weaponryto Russias westernflankwhiletheUS has spreaditsmilitary bases across Central Asia. NATO has continuedto push eastward eversince the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989. The steadybuildup of hostile armieson Russias westernperimeter has been a source ofgrowing concern in Moscow and for good reason. Russians know their history.

At the same time the US is building a ground-based missile defense system in Romania (Star Wars) that integrates the US nuclear arsenal at a site that is just 900 miles from Moscow. TheUSmissile systemwhich wascertified for operation in May 2016,cancels-outRussias nuclear deterrents and destroys the strategic balance of powerin Europe. Putin has responded byordering appropriate countermeasures. Here are Putins comments on the subject:

It seems that NATO countries, and especially the United States, have developed a peculiar understanding of security which is fundamentally different from ourown. The Americans are obsessed with the idea of absolute invulnerability for themselves But absolute invulnerability for one nation means absolute vulnerability for everybody else. We cannot agree to this.

In the last week, the Trump administration announced that it will deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to South Korea citing a need to respond to provocations by North Korea. In truth, Washington is using the North as a pretext for its plan to hem in Russia and China at axial ends of the Eurasian heartland as a means of containing the vast landmass that Sir Halford Mackinder calledthe pivot area stretching from the Persian Gulf to Chinas Yangtze River.

Washington hopes that by controlling critical sea lanes, encircling the region with military bases, and aggressively inserting itself where necessary, it can prevent the emergence of an economic colossus thatwill diminish the United States role as global superpower. Americas future rests on its ability to derail economic integration at the center of the world and prevail inthe Great Game where others have failed. Heres an excerpt from an article by Alfred W. McCoy titledThe Geopolitics of American Global Decline which helps to shed light on thestruggle that is now taking place for control over the so called world island:

Following World War IIthe US became the first power in history to control the strategic axial points at both ends of Eurasia With fears of Chinese and Russian expansion serving as the catalyst for collaboration, the U.S. won imperial bastions in both Western Europe and Japan. With these axial points as anchors, Washington then built an arc of military bases that followed Britains maritime template and were visibly meant to encircle the world island.

Having seized the axial ends of the world island from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945, for the next 70 years the United States relied on ever-thickening layers of military power to contain China and Russia inside that Eurasian heartland. Stripped of its ideological foliage, Washingtons grand strategy of Cold War-era anticommunist containment was little more than a process of imperial succession.

By the Cold Wars end in 1990, the encirclement of communist China and Russia required 700 overseas bases, an air force of 1,763 jet fighters, a vast nuclear arsenal, more than 1,000 ballistic missiles, and a navy of 600 ships, including 15 nuclear carrier battle groups all linked by the worlds only global system of communications satellites.(The Geopolitics of Global Decline, Alfred W. McCoy)

For the last 70 years the imperial strategy has worked without a hitch, but now Russias resurgence and Chinas explosive growth are threatening to breakfree fromWashingtons stranglehold. The Asian allies have begun tocrisscross Central Asia and Europe with pipelines and high-speed rail that willgather together thefar-flungstateletsscattered across the steppe, draw theminto a Eurasian Economic Union, and link them to an expansive andthriving superstate, theepicenter of global commerce and industry. Grand Chessboardbrain-trust Zbigniew Brzezinski summed up the importance of Central Asia in his 1997classic stating:

Eurasia is the globes largest continent and is geopolitically axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the worlds three most advanced and economically productive regions. .About 75 per cent of the worlds people live in Eurasia, and most of the worlds physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the worlds GNP and about three-fourths of the worlds known energy resources. (The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives, Zbigniew Brzezinski, p.31)

A new global empire is graduallyemerging in Central Asia, and while the transformative impact of economic integration has notyet been realized, US efforts to block the embryonic alliance are getting weaker and more desperate all the time. The hyperbolicpropagandaabout thealleged Russia hacking of the presidential election is just one example of this, while the arming of Nazi militants in Kiev is another.

The bottom line is that both Russia and China are using markets, development and raw ingenuity to beatWashington, while Washington relies almost exclusively on deception, covert activity and hard power.In other words, the former communists are beating the capitalists at their own game. Heres more from McCoy:

China is reaching deep within the world island in an attempt to thoroughly reshape the geopolitical fundamentals of global power. It is using a subtle strategy that has so far eluded Washingtons power elites.

The initial step has involved a breathtaking project to put in place an infrastructure for the continents economic integration. By laying down an elaborate and enormously expensive network of high-speed, high-volume railroads as well as oil and natural gas pipelines across the vast breadth of Eurasia, China may realize Mackinders vision in a new way. For the first time in history, the rapid transcontinental movement of critical cargo oil, minerals, and manufactured goods will be possible on a massive scale, thereby potentially unifying that vast landmass into a single economic zone stretching 6,500 miles from Shanghai to Madrid. In this way, the leadership in Beijing hopes to shift the locus of geopolitical power away from the maritime periphery and deep into the continents heartland. (Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Washingtons Great Game and Why Its Failing, TomDispatch)

Washingtonis not going to letthe Russo-China plango forward without a fight.If economic sanctions, covert activity and financial sabotage dont work, then US powerbrokers willimplement morelethal strategies.The recent deployment of troops to the Middle East suggests that policymakers believe that a direct military confrontation might be the best available option, after all, a shooting war with Russia in Syria or Ukraine would not necessarily escalate into a full-blown nuclear conflagration. No one wants that. But if the fighting can be contained within Syrias borders, thenitwould be a practical way to rally theEU allies, torpedo Russias economic integration plan, and draw Moscow into a long, resource-draining quagmire. Is that what US war-planners have in mind?

Its a risky plan, but one that Washington wouldeagerly pursue if it helped to reinforce Americas global supremacy.

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Will Washington Risk WW3 To Block Emerging EU-Russia Superstate OpEd - Eurasia Review