Major General Zhu also accused Hagel of hypocrisy; "Whatever the Chinese do is illegal, and whatever the Americans do is right." Zhu was quick to register Hagel's own threat, as in "the US will not look the other way when fundamental principles of the international order are being challenged." Translation: Don't mess with the exceptionalist. WE are the international order.
It's as if everyone was reading from Kagan's playbook. The difference is that Beijing is not Baghdad, and will not respond to threats by lying down. Instead, it is deploying selective, savvy, tactical moves all across the Western Pacific chessboard. Washington's Asian network of vassals/clients/protectorates is and will be slowly but surely undermined. And on top of it, Beijing clearly sees that both Hagel and Kerry -- who know next to nothing about the complexities of Asia -- are clearly panicking.
Those Deng Xiaoping dictum days -- from "crossing the river by feeling the stones" to "carry a low profile" -- are in the past. Now we're talking about the imminent number one economic power, already the world's top trading nation and America's top creditor.
Russia -- and not the US -- is now the key partner or broker in negotiating hardcore international conflicts. The recent flurry of China-Russia energy and trade agreements, an essential part of their strategic partnership; the progressive integration and concerted economic/financial strategy of the BRICS; and even the slow moving process of Latin American integration all point towards a multipolar world.
Which bring us back to Obama's "new" foreign policy doctrine. Let's quickly survey the recent record.
Obama only refrained from pursuing his reckless, self-imposed red line and bombing Syria because he was saved (from himself) at the eleventh hour by Russian diplomacy.
The Iran dossier remains vulnerable to relentless pressure by neo-cons/Israel lobby/sectors of the weaponizing industry, with the Obama administration introducing extraneous factors bound to sidestep the negotiation.
Obama's sanctions on Russia because of Ukraine were not only unlawful; they are peripheral, as astute European Union business leaders quickly recognized.
A simulacrum of withdrawal is being pushed in Afghanistan -- to be replaced by all-out shadow war.
And the Obama administration -- covertly and not so covertly -- has been supporting neo-nazis in Ukraine and jihadists in Syria.
All this is still not enough for the Kagan bunch -- the "conceptual" architects of the 9/11 wars, who always wanted Obama to bomb Syria; bomb Iran; start a war with Russia over Crimea; and even, sooner rather than later, bomb China to prevent it from getting back to number one.
Hobbesians gone mad -- wallowing in their psychotic sense of perennial entitlement -- will stop at nothing to prevent the emergence of a multipolar world. It's Exceptionalist Empire with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as global Robocop, or hell.
Moscow and Beijing, to say the least, are not exactly impressed; rather, they detect desperation. Yet things could -- and should -- get much nastier, irrespective of imploding Khaganates. Just wait for the Hillary doctrine.
Moscow and Beijing, to say the least, are not exactly impressed; rather, they detect desperation. Yet things could -- and should -- get much nastier, irrespective of imploding Khaganates. Just wait for the Hillary doctrine.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
