[Originally published at The Naked Hedgie’s blog] As I write these lines, the US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi is apparently en route to Taiwan in what can only be described as a calculated, gratuitous provocation of China. The “normies” will surely protest that Pelosi has the right to visit other democratical nations, bla, bla, bla. For the record, Taiwan is part of China, not an independent nation – even according to the official US government position. But that nonsense is the same kind that was applied to Ukraine: she had the right to join any military alliance it wanted, it’s about freedom, democracy, our values, etc…
Western think tanks have been predicting a war with China for many years now as if it were an inevitable outcome, a future set in stone. In September 2016, the Atlantic Council published a report predicting a world “marked by the breakdown of order, violent extremism, and an era of perpetual war.” The designated enemies of course are Russia and China. Two years later, a bipartisan Congressional panel published a lengthy report “Providing for the Common Defense,” which argued that the USA needs to prepare for devastating wars against the two resurgent powers. Nowhere in this document is there any suggestion that such a war ought to be avoided, and apart from the brief four years of the Trump administration, the US leadership has consistently worked to build up tensions rather than diffuse them. Then, in February 2021 Admiral Charles Richard who heads US Strategic Command called on the nation’s military and civilian leaders to seek new ways to face threats by Russia and China, including the “real possibility” of nuclear conflict. Why? Because Moscow and Beijing have “begun to aggressively challenge international norms.”
One nation started 80% of all wars since 1946
But are wars the best way to defend these “international norms”? Why is the Anglo-American establishment so keen on waging wars? Wars have been the one consistent feature of their foreign policy. A 2003 report by a group of American researchers found that “Since the end of World War II, there have been 248 armed conflicts in 153 locations around the world. The United States launched 201 overseas military operations between the end of World War II and 2001, and since then, others, including Afghanistan and Iraq.” In other words, one nation has launched more than 80% of all overseas military operations since WWII.
Is this because the American people are so relentlessly belligerent? That’s clearly not the case; for as long as I’d observed American politics, the people always voted for anti-war candidates. Yet somehow they always get more war. The root causes of war are systemic in nature and they emanate from the fraudulent monetary system that’s been foisted on us for centuries now. This is a complex argument, but for all who are inclined to explore it further, I summarized it in this article: “Deflationary gap and the west’s war addiction.”
The real target are the American people
But what is the point of it all? Do American Congressmen, National Defense Strategy Commissions, sundry think tanks, and top Generals all think they can defeat China? Obviously, they can’t possibly be that dumb: they just spent 20 years in Afghanistan trying to defeat the Taliban and failed. Even the Pentagon’s own war simulations concluded that their entire Pacific fleet would be destroyed in short order in a war against China. So the risks are clear. What benefits could possibly justify such risks? The important bit to realize here is that the primary target of the war against China is not China but the American people.
The shiny new world war in the Pacific would be very useful to deflect their attention from the metastasizing crises at home, direct people’s anger at a foreign enemy, and for the same high cost also provides the ideal smokescreen for a radical crackdown on dissent against the racists, nazis, enemy sympathizers, deplorables, domestic extremists, insurrectionists and any other variety of thought criminals. As James Madison warned us, “If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
