We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

America’s Long War: US Tightens the Noose on China

Click here to access article by Sean Stinson from The Greanville Post
With the generals now in charge of the White House and Vice President Pence waiting in the wings, one wonders what plans lay in store for Trump. The obvious danger is that if he is removed, the resulting backlash from his support base could trigger an internal collapse and perhaps even civil war. The recent events in Charlottesville are nothing compared to the kind of hell which could spill over onto the streets in response to such a betrayal. Meanwhile the doubling down of troop deployment in Afghanistan, the unlawful search and seizure of Russian diplomatic property, wild threats against Venezuela and war games on the Korean Peninsula are signs that global stability is also under threat, perhaps more so than at any time in the last 70 years.
This is the best geopolitical analysis that I have seen recently regarding the Empire's policy of containment directed at China. While our economic and diplomatic attacks on Russia are overt, the policies of the Empire against China are very much under the radar of most of alternative media.

Grand strategy proposals among Empire capitalists offer another illustration of how capitalism functions. Capitalism is always a contest between capitalists for more profits and power, and since the beginning capitalists learned that colluding with others usually along national lines, much like neighborhood street gangs, could be of mutual benefit to gang members. This kind of development largely accounts for WWI and II. 

Since WWII, facilitated by the technological advances of our age, the US-led Empire's gang became transnational.  It now consists largely of capitalists whose countries US controlled since the end of WWII. This includes capitalists from the former British Empire, the rest of Europeans countries, Israel, Japan, and South Korea. (I exclude the Gulf states because our close cooperation with these medieval rulers are informed by a collusion of special geopolitical interests.) The Empire's rivals are primarily Russia and China. Under the threat posed by Deep State actors, Trump seems to be lashing out in all directions to appease them and save his administration instead of concentrating only on the containment of China as Bannon advised.

However, the containment policy is still on and political developments in southeast Asia, according to Stinson, will now play a crucial role for the Empire in containing China, specifically with regard to the latter's Belt and Road plans.