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It really is a pity that children are not allowed to U.N. meetings, so that during Obama's address to the General Assembly last week someone could have shouted out: "The King is naked!". For even though in its intention his speech was supposed to be a finely-weaved cloth depicting utopian motifs of US-led knights in shining UN armour fighting for human progress, democracy, peace and prosperity around the globe, there were so many holes in this spin-doctor-fabricated material, that the bare flesh of the real US Foreign policy agendas was impossible to conceal.
Everyone present along with the loyal mainstream media carried on with the pretence, purposefully ignoring faulty lines and gaping holes, while praising the smoothness of the yarn (The Guardian: "Obama sought to strike a delicate balance at the UNGA") and spotlighting new haute-couture patterns of justifying war (BBC: "The phrase that will linger is "the network of death") Soon to be seen in all high-street media narratives.
Conveniently, most MSM journalists chose to ignore the ironic twists in the weaving of Obama's advisers: "Hundreds of millions of human beings have been freed from the prison of poverty" (yes, except 67% of Detroit families and 46.5 million people in the whole of the US); "I often tell young people in the United States that this is the best time in human history to be born (the U.S. infant mortality rate is fourth highest among 29 of the world's most developed nations), for you are more likely than ever before to be literate (32 million adults in the U.S. can't read. That's 14 percent of the population), to be healthy (US has the most-expensive and least effective health-care system compared with 10 other western, leading industrialized nations), and to be free to pursue your dreams. (The American Myth of Social Mobility)"
"We come together at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and integration; between fear and hope", said a 2009 Noble Peace Laureate, who only a day before started bombing the 7th predominantly Muslim country after Afganistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq. 'Hours before the U.S. launched airstrikes and cruise missiles into Syria, a senior administration official had told the Guardian that neither of the two groups targeted in the Monday night strikes -- the Islamic State militant group or the Al-Qaeda splinter group Khorasan -- posed an imminent threat to the U.S." In fact, Khorasan Group is a fake terror threat to justify bombing Syria.
As Obama was rallying the world on the path of war (which by then he had already started), not one person has stood up to ask a question about what possible legal authority he has to bomb Syria. During the following days all the mainstream media outlets which in recent months have been so outspoken about international law and the sovereignty of Ukrainian state towards which Russian aggression was allegedly directed, were now not only silent about the lack of UN or Congressional authorization for the Syrian war, they were obligingly spreading all the war propaganda they were fed by the authorities. (Note: 'War propaganda is a war crime according to the Nuremberg Principles: Crime against the Peace. By upholding US foreign policy, MSM is complicit in war crimes.')
Setting aside the tragedy of the Middle Eastern conflict and focusing on Europe, as the Emperor was showcasing his supposedly humanitarian robes, there were so many holes of lies, hypocrisy and double standards in them, only fierce defenders of the Empire or Obama's useful idiots would carry on with the pretense that the naked ugly flesh of US foreign policy is not flashing in front of everyone's eyes. Presumably, because the majority of Brits and Europeans still believe that their own prosperity and progress is dependent on US global dominance, Obama's speech resonated with their beliefs and values irrespective of its falseness. Because when one looks at the facts of what the US has been doing in the UK and Europe in recent years, it becomes clear that the real aggression is not coming from Russia, but from across the Atlantic -- seeding corrupt and undemocratic practices into European politics, as well as endangering the environment, undermining people's rights and powers and even encouraging the spilling of blood (as in Ukraine). The only people who are benefiting from these practices are multinationals and corrupt politicians that work together in alliance to preserve the existing world order, which has been benefiting them and which is currently under threat.
THREATS TO US GLOBAL DOMINANCE
According to Foreign Policy magazine, "American Leadership in the world in imperiled": there's more economic growth occurring in the developing world (see below); military spending of developing countries is increasing (reducing the relative military power of the US) and the total federal debt is $13 trillion, which is 3/4th of GDP. It's the latter, which is the biggest problem that the US faces at the moment: "among allies, adversaries, and swing states alike, U.S. fiscal policy is increasingly calling into question America's ability to lead globally."
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GDPs OF G-7 AND E-7 COUNTRIES
SOURCE: PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS
Foreign Policy listed measures that the US has to take in order to remain a global power -- fiscal deficit could be reduced by increasing the retirement age, investing in infrastructure, reforming corporate tax law to encourage bringing profits home, enhancing productivity through reforming health-care and education, and focusing on technological superiority in military spending. Aside from these domestic-focused solutions, it also stressed the importance of attracting talent from around the world and capitalizing on America's energy boom.
Less than a decade ago, the US was totally dependent on energy exported from abroad, especially from the Middle East. It was all reversed since 2007, when a combination of fracking and horizontal drilling have generated a surge in US oil and natural gas production, helping the US to overtake Russia as the world's leading producer of oil and gas in 2013 and even giving hope that it will overcome Saudi Arabia as the world's largest crude oil producer by 2015. This economic boost from the "North American energy revolution" has made the US relatively energy independent and in turn 'stimulated energy-heavy petrochemical production, created 2 million jobs in shale gas industry', supposedly reduced carbon dioxide emissions and, most importantly, transformed US foreign policy.
It all started with Hilary Clinton, who during her leadership at the State Department has worked closely with energy companies to spread fracking around the globe -- sold as a broader push to fight climate change and boost energy supply, but also to weaken power adversaries, who challenge the US in the global energy market, such as Russia, China, Syria and Iran and to benefit US firms, which with the help of American officials, would get high concessions on shale gas overseas.
In early 2009, when Clinton was sworn as Secretary of State, she instructed lawyer David Goldwyn to 'elevate energy diplomacy as the key function of US foreign policy'. By 2010, Goldwyn unveiled the Global Shale Gas Initiative, which aimed 'to help other nations develop their shale potential', in a way which is 'as environmental friendly as possible'. However, when the Initiative was launched, environmental groups were barely consulted and it was the United States Energy Association, a trade organization representing Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Conoco-Phillips, that played the key role.
By early 2011, the State Department decided to launch a new bureau to integrate energy into every aspect of foreign policy, an idea heavily inspired by Chevron executive Jan Kalicki's book Energy and Security: Toward a New Foreign Policy Strategy. The new Bureau of Energy Resources, with 63 employees and a multimillion-dollar budget (coming out of taxpayers' pockets) started its work in late 2011. One of the strategies was for US embassies to 'pursue more outreach to private-sector energy firms' (some of these firms happened to support Hilary Clinton's and Obama's political campaigns, e.g. Chevron) From then on US officials and oil giants were working together, as if they are part of the same multinational company pursuing the same business plan.
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