RADHIKA DESAI: Hello everyone and welcome to the [15th] Geopolitical Economy Hour, a program that discusses the political and geopolitical economy of our time. I’m Radhika Desai.
MICHAEL HUDSON: And I’m Michael Hudson.
RADHIKA DESAI: And today we have once again Pepe Escobar, roving reporter extraordinaire. Welcome, Pepe.
PEPE ESCOBAR: Thank you. It’s an enormous pleasure to be with you guys again.
RADHIKA DESAI: And today we are going to continue the discussion we started in the last Geopolitical Economy Hour, entitled NATO Out of Bounds, War Against Russia, War Against China.…
Video and transcript.
Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of Neoliberalism
Towards a Demilitarized Global Currency
Radhika Desai, Michael Hudson, and Pepe Escobar
3 comments:
RADHIKA DESAI: “U.S. strategy is not easy to understand. On one hand there seems to be an effort to promote dialogue with China the visits of recent high-ranking U.S. officials, such as Antony Blinken and Janet Yellen. On the other hand, U.S. actions continue to ratchet up tensions across all the fronts.”
This is the West’s Standard Operating Procedure; the good cop / bad cop routine. Keep your opponent talking while you mobilize to attack. Pretend that you want a negotiated settlement while you prepare for war.
We saw this in Ukraine after the U.S.-sponsored coup of 2014. The West used the Minsk accords as camouflage while preparing Ukraine for war. Angela Merkel later admitted this.
On 16 Feb 2022 Ukraine (acting on U.S. orders) began a full-scale bombardment of ethnic Russians in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The U.N.’s Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OCSE) has 57 member states, and they all reported this bombardment -- but their reports were censored by Western corporate media outlets. The purpose of the attack was to force Russia to invade to stop the slaughter, so the West would have a pretext for cutting Europe off from Russia. After nine days of round-the-clock shelling by Ukraine, Russia invaded on 24 Feb 2023.
Again, this is Standard Operating Procedure for the West.
In 1939 the Allies ordered Poland to exterminate ethnic Germans so that Hitler would be forced to invade to save ethnic Germans in Poland. Hitler’s invasion (1 Sep 1939) gave the Allies their pretext for World War II in Europe. It was all planned, and the Western media pretended that Poland was innocent.
Now they’re doing it again with China. Keep them talking. Pretend to seek a “reduction of tensions.” Send Janet Yellen and Anthony Blinken to China while you quietly prepare Taiwan to be another Ukraine.
Will it work this time? We’ll see. Will average Americans allow their government to manipulate them into supporting a major war to make Taiwan another Ukraine? YES. Most average Americans ( liberals and conservative alike ) have been programmed to hate China. They cheer for war because “our team” is always righteous, and “they” are always evil, regardless of who “they” are.
Unlike with Ukraine, however, the USA is so dependent on China for imports that if China stops sending goods to the USA, then most of the shelves in Wal Mart and many other places will become empty overnight as American peasants panic-hoard supplies. Meanwhile whenever the USA imposes another embargo on products to Russia and China (e.g. advanced computer chips) it causes Russia and China to become more self-sufficient.
Continued below.
Continued from above.
MICHAEL HUDSON: “The cost ultimately may be to lose Western Europe. We’re already seeing riots throughout Europe as the economy and unemployment are declining”
I agree with Hudson that economic hardship will cause more and more riots in Europe. France is losing the last of its possessions in Africa. German industry has been brought to its knees by U.S. dictates. The USA is rotting from within. The EU will start to break apart. European politicians will eventually be forced to defy Brussels and Washington, and re-open trade channels with Russia.
RADHIKA DESAI: “This idea that the United States can extend NATO to the Pacific is not going to wash because the Pacific region has historically focused on its own economic development.”
Yes. NATO’s desire to expand into Asia is a desperate pipe dream. Japan, Australia, and New Zealand will join, and maybe the Philippines, but they are already in the U.S. orbit. Who else? Muslim Indonesia, the most populous nation in SE Asia, already hates the USA’s insistence on LGBTQ(P) supremacy. So does Muslim Malaysia. As for Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, they are too integrated with China now. Thailand? Vietnam? I doubt it.
RADHIKA DESAI: “The Chinese are pitting their own strategy of proposing economic development against the NATO strategy of turning everything into a military conflict or a military alliance. We’re going to see the contestation of these two visions in the region.”
Yes, the West sees everything in terms of a war-on-something. A war on “climate change.” A war on straight white males. This is childish, and the planet is moving beyond it.
RADHIKA DESAI: “The United States runs a protection racket, where you ‘protect’ your victims as long as they continually pay you.”
Yes. This takes several forms. On 2 April 2022 the West installed Mohamed Bazoum as puppet dictator of Niger, via a rigged election. Bazoum was an Arab in a nation with very few Arabs. He did the West’s bidding, lest the West withdraw its “protection” of him – but the West became lazy and careless. It focused so much on stealing Niger’s resources that it neglected to “protect” its puppet (Bazoum) who was deposed by his own Praetorian Guard.
MICHAEL HUDSON: “Japan has sort of a Stockholm syndrome with the United States because the US bombed it. And despite its export trade opportunities with China, its right-wing government is still willing to lose this market and sacrifice its economy to the United States.”
Yes. Japan’s historical paranoia about China cements Japan to the U.S. Empire. This is pathetic, but I don’t see it lasting for many more years.
RADHIKA DESAI: “The U.S. ability to produce the sort of arms that are necessary for theater operations today is very weak. It is not able to produce.”
Yes, because U.S. military contractors are incredibly corrupt. As long as Congress keeps the dollars flowing, why produce anything that works? This is why the USA spends so much money on “defense” but can’t keep Ukraine supplied. Military contractors collect federal dollars and produce garbage, or produce nothing. They charge the government $10,000 for a screw, or $50,000 for a toilet seat. Such corruption indicates a society in collapse. It’s a free-for all.
Dollar Uber Alles.
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