Pepe Escobar — What sanctions on Russia and China really mean

The Pentagon may not be advocating total war against both Russia and China – as it has been interpreted in some quarters

Look at the behavior and its motives rather than the speech and spin.

Global hegemony is a zero-sum game for the US. The stakes could not be higher. Obviously, the US has not built the military it has to defend the homeland or even its allies.

The US would prefer to prevail through hybrid means rather than kinetically, but if not ....

Even an amateur in international relations, geopolitics, or geostrategy, as well as history, could figure this out easily. But the US has already declared it as policy in the Wolfowitz and Bush doctrines. and recently named Russia and China as the chief adversaries. 

Equally obviously, when backed to a corner, great powers respond.

This is a trajectory toward WWIII.

Asia Times
What sanctions on Russia and China really mean

Pepe Escobar