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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 5/30/14

Brave old (exceptionalist) world

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Cross-posted from RT

President Barack Obama speaks at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., on May 28, 2014.
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"I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being." So there it is, straight from the lion's mouth, as in US President Barack Obama.

The rest are details: deadly details, as in the US military remaining "at the core" of the exceptional worldview; the Pentagon reserving for itself "the power to launch unilateral attacks when America's interests are directly threatened"; eight or nine proxy wars deployed in the immediate future with no end in sight; and the most startling admission -- that the "fulcrum" of US foreign policy from now on will be to curb "aggression" by Russia and China.

So going after the dregs of Al-Qaeda, predictably, was always an interregnum kindergarten play; now it's all about the grown-ups, the dragon and the bear.

Still, Obama remains a helpless captive of the Dick Cheney regime "war on terror" logic, emphasizing "the capacity of terrorists to do harm." But now the modus operandi is softened: call it the Take It to the Morgue -- Quietly doctrine.

Take it to the Morgue -- Quietly, will be applied to the renewed "support" for "moderate" Syrian opposition fighters, which will keep dragging Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq down. Leslie Gelb, former president of the ultra-establishment Council on Foreign Relations, suggests the Obama administration may have finally understood that the real fight is against jihadis of the Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) kind, and not Bashar Assad, but that remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Take it to the Morgue -- Quietly is happening right now in Donetsk, with the Kiev regime changers -- fully backed by Washington -- denying, Pentagon-style, that any civilians have been killed by the current "anti-terrorist" operation. Donetsk civilians are the new targets in vogue, replacing Pashtun marriages in the Pakistani tribal areas.

All About "Take It To The Morgue -- Quietly"

Obama wants Congress to approve a new "Counter-Terrorism Partnerships Fund" of up to $5 billion, which translates as Take it to the Morgue -- Quietly, awash in taxpayer money, applied to Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Mali and assorted unspecified latitudes to be ploughed by AFRICOM.

(L-R): Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus meet the public after a regular meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Astana. (RIA Novosti / Michael Klimentyev)

Obama wants to "mobilize allies and partners to take collective action," as in resurrecting the trademark Dick Cheney regime era's "coalition of the willing." "Broadened" tools of action may -- and the operative word is "may" -- include diplomacy and development. But it will really boil down to "sanctions and isolation," as applied to Iran, Syria and now Russia.

There will also be "appeals to international law, and, if just, necessary, and effective, multilateral military action." Translation: "international law" will be openly mocked, as in instances of the "responsibility to protect" (R2P) scam; and if all fails, a "just" war, coalition of the willing-style, is back in the cards.

The whole planet should take all this lying down, because, after all, this administration will "be transparent about both the basis for our actions and the manner in which they are carried out, whether it is drone strikes, or training partners." Of course, one should never forget that "the US should lead by example" and cares nothing but to "extend peace and prosperity around the globe." So shut up, everyone, and no questions about the covert CIA drone scam in Pakistan, or about "collateral damage" in Donetsk.

Panic at Bilderberg

Right after Obama announcing his recycled, convoluted, Pentagon-driven pivoting-with-himself, the Masters of the Universe are gathering at the annual and still very secret Bilderberg conference at the Marriott in Copenhagen. Bilderberg is essentially Atlanticist exceptionalism in action. Here is a delicious appraisal of the early proceedings.

And what a juicy guest list Bilderberg yields -- from Breedlove, Lagarde and NATO "Fogh of War" Rasmussen to Petraeus, Kissinger and Zoellick, the Gotha of Western banking, the usual media suspects from The Economist to the Financial Times, Google's Eric Schmidt, the Prince of Darkness Richard Perle, and even -- quite fascinating -- for the first time, a key Chinese official.

That's Liu He -- the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and the real eminence grise behind Beijing's complex network of committees and policy makers in charge of implementing ambitious, wide-ranging economic reform. So was Liu He invited by Bilderberg as a seducing operation? Or did Beijing manage to infiltrate him via its wide-ranging Atlanticist contacts?

The "masters of the universe," anyway, are scared. There are two main inter-connected themes to be discussed in Copenhagen, both with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the center: the clash between Russia and NATO in Ukraine, and the BRICS push to build a multipolar world order.

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Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia (more...)
 

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