It is no longer acceptable that US armies fight with taxpayers’
funds for the sole financial interests of global financiers, even if they are
US citizens.
The US withdrawal from Syria
and Afghanistan, as well as the resignation of General Mattis, attest to the
upheaval that is shaking the current world order. The United States are no
longer the leaders, either on the economic or the military stage. They refuse
to keep fighting for the sole interests of the transnational financiers. The
alliances that they used to lead will begin to unravel, but without their
erstwhile allies admitting the powerful ascension of Russia and China.
n 19
December 2018, the announcement of the partial withdrawal of US troops from
Afghanistan and the total withdrawal from Syria sounded like a thunderclap. It
was followed the next day by the resignation of Secretary for Defense, James
Mattis. Contrary to the affirmation of President Trump’s opposition, the two
men hold one another in high esteem, and their difference of opinion has
nothing to do with the withdrawals, but with the manner in which the
consequences should be managed. The United States are facing a choice which
will mark a separation and transform the world.
Before
anything else, in order to avoid barking up the wrong tree, we should remember
the conditions and the aim of the collaboration between Trump and Mattis.
As soon as he entered the
White House, Donald Trump was careful to surround himself with three senior
military officers with enough authority to reposition the armed forces. Michael
Flynn, John Kelly and especially James Mattis, have since left or are in the
process of leaving. All three men are great soldiers who together had opposed
their hierarchy during Obama’s presidency [1]. They did not accept the strategy
implemented by ambassador John Negroponte for the creation of terrorist groups
tasked with stirring up a civil war in Iraq [2]. All three stood with President Trump to
annul Washington’s support for the jihadists. Nonetheless, each of them had his
own vision of the role of the United States in the world, and ended up clashing
with the President.
Losing Military Suprem...Andrei
MartyanovBest Price: $19.37Buy New $19.43(as
of 10:20 EST - Details)
The storm whipped up by the
mid-term elections has arrived [3]. The time has come to rethink international
relations.
Syria
When
in April, as he had promised, Donald Trump mentioned US withdrawal from Syria,
the Pentagon persuaded him to stay. Not that a few thousand men could turn the
tide of war, but because their presence acted as a counterweight to the Russian
influence and a backup for Israël.
However, the transfer of
Russian weapons of defence to the Syrian Arab Army, particularly the S-300
missiles and ultra-sophisticated radars coordinated by the automated command
and control system Polyana D4M1, changed the balance of forces [4]. From that moment on, US military presence
became counter-productive – any ground attack by pro-US mercenaries could no
longer be supported by US aviation without the risk of losing aircraft.
By
withdrawing now, the Pentagon avoids the test of power and the humiliation of
an inevitable defeat. Indeed, Russia has successively refused to give the
United States and Israël the security codes for the missiles delivered to
Syria. This means that after years of Western arrogance, Moscow has declined
the sharing of control of Syria that it had accepted during the first Geneva
Conference in 2012, and that Washington had violated a few weeks later.
Apart
from this, Moscow recognised a long time ago that US presence is illegal in
terms of International Law, and that Syria can legitimately act in
self-defence.
The consequences
The
decision to withdraw from Syria is loaded with consequences.
1— Pseudo-Kurdistan
The
Western project for the creation of a colonial state in the North-East of Syria
which would be attributed to the Kurds will not happen. Indeed, fewer and fewer
Kurds give it their support, considering that this conquest would be comparable
to the unilateral proclamation of a state – Israël – by Jewish militia, in
1948.
As we have often explained,
Kurdistan would only be legitimate within the boundaries which were recognised
by the Conférence de Sèvres in 1920, in other words, in what is now Turkey, and
nowhere else [5]. Yet only a few weeks ago, the United
States and France were still considering the possibility of creating a
pseudo-Kurdistan on Arab land, and having it administered under a UN mandate by
the French ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bernard Kouchner [6].
2— The Cebrowski strategy
The Pentagon project for the
last seventeen years in the « Greater Middle East » will not happen. Conceived
by Admiral Arthur Cebrowski, it was aimed at destroying all the state
structures in the region, with the exception of Israël, Jordan and
Lebanon [7]. This plan, which began in Afghanistan, spread
as far as Libya, and is still under way, will come to an end on Syrian
territory.
It is
no longer acceptable that US armies fight with taxpayers’ funds for the sole
financial interests of global financiers, even if they are US citizens.
3— US military supremacy
The post-Soviet world order
based on US military supremacy is now dead. This may be difficult to accept,
but that changes nothing. The Russian Federation is now more powerful, both in
terms of conventional weaponry (since 2015) and nuclear weaponry (since
2018 [8]). The fact that the Russian armies are one
third less numerous than those of the US, and have only isolated troop presence
overseas, cancels out the hypothesis of Russian imperialism.
The Victors and the Vanquished
The
war against Syria will end in the moths to come for lack of mercenaries. The
delivery of weapons by certain states, coordinated by KKR funds, may drag the
crime on for a short time, but does not offer the hope of changing the course
of events.
Without
any possible doubt, the victors of this war are Syria, Russia and Iran, while
the vanquished are the 114 states which joined the « Friends of Syria ». Some
of these have not awaited defeat to correct their foreign policy. Indeed, the
United Arab Emirates have just announced the forthcoming reopening of their
embassy in Damascus.
However, the case of the
United States is more complex. The Bush Jr. and Obama administrations shoulder
the entire responsibility for this war. They were the ones who planned it and
realised it within the framework of a unipolar world. On the other hand, as a
candidate, Donald Trump accused these administrations of having failed to
protect US citizens, but instead having served the interests of transnational
finance. As soon as he became President, Mr. Trump persistently cut his
country’s support for the jihadists and withdrew his men from the Greater
Middle East. He must therefore be considered as one of the victors of this war,
and could therefore logically avoid the US obligation to pay for war damage
caused by the transnational companies implicated [9]. For him, it is now a question of
reorienting the armed forces towards the defence of US territory, ending the
whole imperial system, and developing the US economy.
Afghanistan
For
the last few months, the United States have been discreetly negotiating with
the Taliban for the conditions of their withdrawal from Afghanistan. A first
round of contact with ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad took place in Qatar. A second
round has just begun in the United Arab Emirates. Apart from the two US and
Taliban delegations, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan are
also participating. A delegation from the Afghan government has also arrived,
in the hope of joining in.
It
has been seventeen years since the United States and the United Kingdom invaded
Afghanistan, officially in retaliation for the attacks of 9/11. However, this
war followed the 2001 negotiations in Berlin and Geneva. The invasion was not
aimed at stabilising this country in order to exploit it economically, but to
destroy any form of a state in order to control its exploitation. So far, this
has worked, since every day the situation is worse than the day before.
Let’s note that Afghanistan’s
misery began during the Carter presidency. National Security Advisor, Zbigniew
Brzeziński, called on the Muslim Brotherhood and Israël to launch a campaign of
terrorism against the Communist government [10]. Terrified, the government appealed to the
Soviets to maintain order. The result was a fourteen-year war, followed by a
civil war, and then followed by the Anglo-US invasion.
After
forty years of uninterrupted destruction, President Trump states that US
military presence is not the solution for Afghanistan, it’s the problem.
The place of the United States
in today’s world
By withdrawing half of the US
troops legally stationed in Afghanistan and all of those illegally occupying
Syria, President Trump is keeping one of his electoral promises. He still has
to withdraw the 7,000 men and women who remain.
Against the State: An ...Llewellyn
H. Rockwell Jr.Best Price: $7.55Buy New $9.95(as
of 07:30 EST - Details)
It is in this context that
General Mattis asked a fundamental question in his letter of resignation [11]. He writes: « “One core belief I have
always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the
strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships.
While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot
protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong
alliances and showing respect to those allies. Like you, I have said from the
beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the
policeman of the world. Instead, we must use all tools of American power to
provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our
alliances. 29 democracies demonstrated that strength in their commitment to
fighting alongside us following the 9-11 attack on America. The Defeat-ISIS
coalition of 74 nations is further proof.”
In
other words, James Mattis does not contest the logic of the withdrawal of US
troops from Afghanistan and Syria, but what will probably follow – the
dislocation of the alliances around the United States and finally, the possible
dismantling of NATO. For the Secretary for Defense, the United States must
reassure their allies by giving them the impression that they know what they
are doing and that they are the strongest. It matters little whether this is
true or not, the point is to maintain the cohesion between the allies, whatever
the cost. However, for the President, there is a clear and present danger. The
United States have already lost their first economic status to China, and now
their first military place to Russia. It is necessary to cease being the
one-eyed man leading the blind, but first to look after ones own.
In
this affair, James Mattis is acting like a military man. He knows that a nation
without allies is lost from the start. Donald Trump thinks like the CEO of a
company. He must first clean up the deficient affiliates which are threatening
to sink his enterprise.
—
[1] Cobra II: The Inside Story of
the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, Michael Gordon & Bernard
Trainor, Atlantic Book, 2006.
[2] ISIS is US: The Shocking Truth
Behind the Army of Terror, George Washington’s Blog, Wayne Madsen,
Webster Griffin Tarpley, Syrian Girl Partisan, Progressive Press, 2016.
[3] “International
relations: the calm before the storm?”, by Thierry Meyssan,
Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 9
October 2018.
[4] “Why
is the United States suddenly withdrawing from Syria?”, by Valentin
Vasilescu, Translation Anoosha Boralessa, Voltaire Network, 21
December 2018.
[5] “The
Kurdistan projects”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete
Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 5 September 2016.
[6] “Bernard
Kouchner enters Syria illegally”, Translation Anoosha
Boralessa, Voltaire Network, 14 December 2018.
[7] The Pentagon’s New Map,
Thomas P. M. Barnett, Putnam Publishing Group, 2004. “The
US military project for the world”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation
Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 22 August 2017.
[8] “Vladimir
Putin Address to the Russian Federal Assembly”, by Vladimir
Putin, Voltaire Network, 1 March 2018. “The
new Russian nuclear arsenal restores world bipolarity”, by Thierry
Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 6
March 2018. « Les moyens russes de Défense hypersonique »,
par Valentin Vasilescu, Traduction Avic, Réseau Voltaire, 28
mai 2016.
[9] “Seize
the transnational corporations to rebuild Syria?”, by Thierry
Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 14
August 2018.
[10] « Brzezinski
: “Oui, la CIA est entrée en Afghanistan avant les Russes …” », par
Zbigniew Brzeziński, Le Nouvel Observateur (France)
, Réseau Voltaire, 15 janvier 1998. Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest
Covert Operation in History, George Crile III, Atlantic Monthly
Press, 2003.
[11] “Resignation
letter from James Mattis”, by James Mattis, Voltaire Network, 20 December 2018.
French
intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace
Conference. His columns specializing in international relations feature in
daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last
two books published in English : 9/11 the Big Lie and Pentagate.
The
articles on Voltaire Network may be freely reproduced provided the source is
cited, their integrity is respected and they are not used for commercial
purposes (license CC BY-NC-ND).
