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A Review of Washington’s World Order :Assets & Liabilities [1]
James Petras
The Unz Review
February 19, 2018

James Petras is a retired Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who has published on political issues with particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East, imperialism, globalization, and leftist social movements

Petras is the author of more than 60 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2,000 articles in publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, Canadian Dimension, and Le Monde Diplomatique.

The US empire spans the globe; it expands and contracts, according to its ability to secure strategic assets, willing and able to further military and economic power to counter emerging adversaries.

The map of empire is a shorthand measure of the vectors, reach and durability of global power and wealth. The map of empire is changing — adding and subtracting assets and liabilities, according to the successes and retreats of domestic and overseas power centers. While the US empire has been engaged in intense conflicts in the Middle East, the imperial map has been enlarged elsewhere at lower cost and greater success.

Enlarging the Empire

The US empire has substantially increased its scope and presence in several regions, especially in Latin America. The additions and enlargements include Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Central America, Peru and the Caribbean. The most important asset redrawing the empire in Latin America is Argentina. The US has gained military, economic and political advantages. In the case of Argentina, political and economic advances preceded military expansion.

The US provided ideological and political support to secure the election of its client Mauricio Macri. The new Argentine President immediately transferred over $5 billion dollars to the notorious Wall Street Vulture speculator, Paul Singer, and proceeded to open the floodgates for a lucrative multi-billion dollar flow of financial capital. President Macri then followed up by inviting the Pentagon and US intelligence services to establish military bases, spy stations and training operations along its borders. Equally important, Argentina embraced the US directives designed to overthrow the government of Venezuela, undermine Bolivia’s nationalist government under Evo Morales and pursue a policy of US-centered regional integration.

Bigger Map http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/dl534c66cd.jpg

Argentina: A Client without an Economic Patron

While Argentina is a useful political and military addition to the US empire, it lacks access to the US market — it still depends on China – and has failed to secure a strategic trade agreement with the European Union. Washington has enlarged its military presence with a one-legged client.

Colombia and Mexico, long time US client states, have provided springboards for enlarging US influence in Central America, the Andean region and the Caribbean. In the case of Colombia, the US has financed its war of extermination against anti-imperialist insurgents and their peasant and working class supporters and secured seven military bases as launch pads for Washington’s destabilization campaign against Venezuela.

Mexico has served a multitude of military and economic functions – from billion dollar manufacturing platforms to multi-billion dollar laundering of narco-profits to US banks.

Brazil is the new addition to the empire with the ousting and arrest of the leaders of the Workers Party. The shift in political and economic power has enhanced US influence through its leverage over the wealthiest country in the continent. In sum,the US has enlarged imperial influence and control via its acquisition of Latin America. There is one caveat: At least in the cases of Brazil and Argentina, the US advance is tentative and subject to reversal, as it lacks firm economic and political foundations.

If Latin America reflects an enlargement and upsurge of US imperial influence, the rest of the global map is mostly negative or at best – contradictory.

The empire-building mission has failed to gain ground in Northeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. In Europe, the US retains influence but it appears to face obstacles to enlarging its presence.

The key to the enlargement or decline of empire revolves around the performance of the US domestic economy.

Imperial Decline: China

The determination of the US in remapping the global empire is most evident in Asia. The most notable shift in US political and economic relations in the region has taken place with China’s displacement of the US as the dominant investment, trading infrastructure building and lending country in the region.

Moreover, China has increased its role as the leading exporter to the US, accumulating trade surpluses of hundreds of billions of dollars each year. In 2017, China’s trade surplus reached $375 billion dollars.

Against the relative economic decline of the US, Washington has compensated by widening the scope of its maritime-military presence in the South China Sea, and increased its air and ground forces in South Korea, Japan, Australia, the Philippines and Guam.

As to how the bolstering of the US military presence affects the US ‘re-mapping’ of its imperial presence, it depends on the dynamics of the US domestic economy and its ability to retain its existing principal military clients – South Korea, Japan, Australia and the Philippines.

Recent evidence suggest that South Korea shows signs of slipping outside of the US economic and military orbit. Seoul has trade issues with the US ‘protectionist agenda’ and opportunities to expand its trading links with China.

Equally important, South Korea has moved toward reconciliation with North Korea, and downgraded the US military escalation. As goes South Korea, so goes the US military power base in northern Asia.

The US military strategy is premised on sustaining and expanding its client network. However, its protectionist policies led to the rejection of a multi-lateral trade agreement, which erodes its economic ties with existing or potential military partners.

In contrast to Latin America, the US remaking of the imperial map has led to economic shrinkage and military isolation in Asia. US military escalation has poured even more deadly strategic US arms into the region, but failed to intimidate or isolate China or North Korea.

Re-mapping the Middle East

The US has spent several trillion dollars over the past two decades in the Middle East , North Africa and West Asia. US Intervention from Libya and Southern Sudan, Somalia, across to Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan has resulted in enormous costs and dubious advances. The results are meagre except in terms of suffering.

The US has spread chaos and destruction throughout Libya and Syria, but failed to incorporate either into an enlarged empire.

The Middle East wars, initiated at the behest of Israel, have rewarded Tel Aviv with a sense of invulnerability and a thirst for more, while multiplying and unifying US adversaries.

Empires are not effectively enlarged through alliances with with armed tribal, sectarian and separatist organizations. Empires, allied with disparate, fractured and self-aggrandizing entities do not expand or strengthen their global powers.

The US has waged war against Libya and lost the political leverage and economic resources it enjoyed during the Gaddafi regime. It intervened in Somalia, South Sudan and Syria, and has gained enclaves of warring self-serving ‘separatists’ and subsidized mercenaries. Afghanistan, the US’s longest war in history, is an unmitigated military disaster. After seventeen years of warfare and occupation, the US is holed up in the walled enclaves of the capital, Kabul. Meanwhile, the puppet regime feeds on multi-billion dollar monthly subsidies.

Iraq is a ‘shared’ imperial outpost — the result of fifteen years of military intervention. Kurdish clients, Sunni-Saudi warlords, Shia militia, Baghdad kleptocrats and US contractor-mercenaries all compete for control and a larger piece of the pillage. Every square meter of contested ‘terrain has cost the US five hundred million dollars and scores of casualties.

Iran remains forever under threat, but retains its independence outside of the US-Saudi-Israeli orbit. The US geo-political map has been reduced to dubious alliance with Saudi Arabia and its micro-clients among the Emirate statelets – which are constantly fighting among themselves – as well as Israel, the ‘client’ that openly revels in leading its patron by the nose!

Compared to the period before the turn of the millennium, the US imperial map has shrunk and faces further retrenchments.

The US-NATO-EU Map

Russia has reduced and challenged the US pursuit of a uni-polar global empire following the recovery of its sovereignty and economic growth after the disaster of the 1990’s. With the ascent of President Putin, the US-EU empire lost their biggest and most lucrative client and source of naked pillage.

Nevertheless, the US retains its political clients in the Baltic , the Balkans and Eastern and Central European regimes. However, these clients are unruly and often eager to confront a nuclear-armed Russia, confident that the US-NATO will intervene, in spite of the probability of being vaporized in a nuclear Armageddon.

Washington’s efforts to recapture and return Russia to vassalage have failed. Out of frustration Washington has resorted to a growing series of failed provocations and conflicts between the US and the EU, within the US between Trump and the Democrats; and among the warlords controlling the Trump cabinet.

Germany has continued lucrative trade ties with Russia, despite US sanctions, underscoring the decline of US power to dictate policy to the European Union. The Democratic Party and the ultra-militaristic Clinton faction remains pathologically nostalgic for a return to the 1990’s Golden Age of Pillage (before Putin).

Clinton’s faction is fixated on the politics of revanchism . As a result, they vigorously fought against candidate Donald Trump’s campaign promises to pursue a new realistic understanding with Russia. The Russia-Gate Investigation is not merely a domestic electoral squabble led by hysterical ‘liberals.’ What is a stake is nothing less than a profound conflict over the remaking of the US global map.

Trump recognized and accepted the re-emergence of Russia as a global power to be ‘contained’, while the Democrats campaigned to roll-back reality, overthrow Putin and return to the robber baron orgies of the Clinton years. As a result of this ongoing strategic conflict, Washington is unable to develop a coherent global strategy, which in turn has further weakened US influence in the EU in Europe and elsewhere.

Nevertheless, the intense Democratic onslaught against Trump’s initial foreign policy pronouncements regarding Russia succeeded in destroying his ‘pivot to realism’ and facilitated the rise of a fanatical militaristic faction within his cabinet, which have intensified the anti-Russia policies of the Clintonite Democrats.

In less than a year, all of Trump’s realist advisers and cabinet members have been purged and replaced by militarists. Their hard core confrontational anti-Russia policy has become the platform for launching a global military strategy based on vast increases in military spending, demands that the EU nations increase their military budgets, and open opposition to an EU-centered military alliance, such as the one recently proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Despite President Trump’s campaign promises to ‘pull-back’, the US has re-entered Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria in a big way. The Trump shift from global containment and realism to ‘rollback and aggression’ against Russia and China has failed to secure a positive response from past and present allies.

China has increased economic ties with the EU. Russia and the EU share strategic gas and oil trade ties. Domestically, the US military budget deepens the fiscal deficit and drastically threatens social spending. This creates a scenario of increasing US isolation with its futile aggression against a dynamic and changing world.

Conclusion

The Trump remaking of the global empire has had uneven results, which are mostly negative from a strategic viewpoint.

The circumstances leading to new clients in Latin America is significant but has been more than countered by retreats in Asia, divisions in Europe, turmoil domestically and strategic incoherence.

Remaking global empires requires realism – the recognition of new power alignments, accommodation with allies and, above all, domestic political stability balancing economic interests and military commitments.

The key shift from realism toward a recovered Russia to militarization and confrontation has precipitated the breakdown of the US as a unified coherent leader of a global empire.

The US embraces prolonged losing wars in peripheral regions while embracing destructive trade wars in strategic regions. It budgeted vast sums on non-productive activities while impoverishing state and local governments via sweeping tax ‘reform’ favoring the oligarchs.

Global remapping now involves a volatile and impulsive US-driven empire incapable of succeeding, while emerging powers are immersed in regional power grabs.

There is no longer a coherent imperial empire controlling the fate of the globe. We live in a world of political maps centered on regional powers and unruly clients, while the most incompetent, gossip-mongering politicians in Washington compete with an arrogant, benighted President Trump and his fractured regime.

James Petras
The Unz Review

Citation
http://www.unz.com/jpetras/mapping-trumps-empire-assets-and-liabilities/

[Faust For ScienceParticipant]

We are witnessing the end game of the collapse of civilization.

Many women have become such hedonists they are hitting the wall in the early to mid-twenties.

I have watched over the last few years the rate of PUAs drop on this forum. There are almost no women worth f~~~ing anymore. Even those women whom are pre-wall usually have two or three children in tow.

It is a nightmare.

To many problems to fix.

When is comes to the U.S. nation as a whole. The ship is sinking.

Most sane people that look at the situation do not expect President Trump to save the sinking ship but to run the ship on a sandbar to stop the ship from further sinking.

[Anonymous]

I saw the title and immediately had to think of the Gran Torino Scene you posted, Trump.

Do we identify tuna on how they speak to Men?
I would say, in the case of vertex – its about him this time, the TUNA label does not apply.
but just like in the scene you posted, there is a Kid who enters a Men’s club.
Not Tuna. but he is a Greenhorn at the game of life.

It is upon us to learn the difference
between a Woman, a bitch, a feminist, a divorce rapist on one hand
and
a Young one, a Kiddo, a noob, a Greenhorn boy, a Male teenager on the other hand.

Plus… never forget…
Tuna always stinks.
if not immediately, then after a few weeks the stench is unbearable, and we can always get her kicked out.

Regarding Vertex…
Cut the Kid some slack?
Regarding true tuna…
let Rot and clear up as needed.
We can do that.

Edit:
being an analyst i would like to offer to the community.

Reply To: Advice for New Members: HOW TO TALK TO MEN

Advice for MGTOW: Learn to differ between young Males and true Tuna. Get even better at it.

[743 roadmasterParticipant]

I think the chemical attack never happened. Also think Trump would have stayed out of it if not all the pressure from the war mongers in the senate and press.

Who wins in a “chemical attack”,…..Assad? no he already knows the the west will respond in any kind of chemical attack. The rebels on the other hand have been on the have been getting beat back,…what better way to slow down Assad then a fake or one they did themselves Chemical attack.

Just like this situation in Syria. Think Trump would much rather spend time and energy on trade and the economy issues then having to play warrior.

mgtow is its own worst enemy- https://www.campusreform.org/

[IGMOW (I Go My Own Way)Participant]

No way does South Korea ever end up under the reign of Un or his family. North Korea’s leadership won’t allow anyone else to control things. They will likely remain separate, but put an end the ceasefire situation going on now. North Korea does get sanctions lifted. It is all a game played. North and South Korea don’t know what to expect out of Trump, so Trump being a wildcard likely works here.

If relationship normalizes more, North Korea is going to have a harder time trying to maintain paranoia to keep people in line.

"I am my own thang. Any questions?" - Davis S Pumpkins.

[IGMOW (I Go My Own Way)Participant]

When you are in the position America is in, where it has global interests, a dominant military, and other things that cause it to leave a huge footprint, it ends up being left to clean up messes and try to prevent things. It will then go in, with the wisdom of the elite, and think it can manipulate things to get it to work. End result is that you have blowback from the cold war and a ton of other things going on, it has to account for. Due to the reaping of the whirlwind now, you can’t just withdraw.

Syria is a no win situation. It is a byproduct of the Arab Spring, and all you have is chaos and multiple factions who refuse to submit to one another. Russia has its own interests and America had some. Europe has others. Iran and Israel have others. No one really wants to be in there, but see an opportunity to tip things certain ways. America bet on certain things in there, and it enabled ISIS. Trump wants to withdraw, but then Syria likely did the chemical attack and says they didn’t. And it goes on and on and on. And sometimes, the truth is just on the surface.

"I am my own thang. Any questions?" - Davis S Pumpkins.

[Joey AlfioParticipant]

Pete is spot on. We need to start practicing what the Founding Fathers preached. They were brilliant men, way ahead of their time and continuously warned future generations not to steer in the direction we’re currently drifting into. Truth be told, as much as I love this country, I also fear greatly and get anxious over the mess it’s in. We have many problems that need to be solved, which are overlooked in our society as too much of taboo subject to question or criticize, and given most of our politicians are bought and paid for this country is starting to solely exist for the wealthy elites and special interest groups who use their power and influence to screw everyone over.

The deep state at this point is rooted into our system just as much as gynocentrism. And Trump is definitely not our guy. He’s compromised and gave in. He couldn’t drain the swamp whatsoever — instead, he dived right into it!

Δεν υπάρχει τίποτε αδύνατο γι’ αυτόν που θα προσπαθήσει. - Μέγας Αλέξανδρος

[Anonymous]

PistolPete wrote:

Wizard’s Pupil wrote:

I just wish we could get back to being an Isolationist country again.

Agreed, and I know someone will argue: Well we have to get involved! If we had gotten involved sooner in WWII we could have avoided the Pearl Harbor Attack.”

Of course that attack was precipitated precisely BECAUSE we were already involved. By cutting off Japan’s oil and rubber supplies we were guaranteed to be attacked.

Jefferson was wise indeed. If empire wannabe’s want to war amongst themselves and self destruct—let them. just don’t involve us. With two oceans and an armed populace we needn’t worry about attack.

There is a theory that America and the UK knew the Japanese were coming and were going to attack Pearl Harbor but as the President wanted to enter WW2 and Congress didn’t he needed a catalyst so they let it happen.

Don’t you think it is odd that all the ships were there except the aircraft carriers which they didn’t want to risk losing?

During Trump’s campaign he made a lot of references that indicated he wanted to return to being isolationist but I guess that was before he learned that the President doesn’t run the country.

[PistolPeteParticipant]

Enough of this nonsense. Eloquence is not a factor. Many writers on the forum demonstrate eloquence in their posts: Yumbo, Faust, Can’t stump Trump, and many many others. So I don’t get where you are coming from. Women can be sniffed out by virtue of their writing style. Many years ago I taught at a Jr. college and I was fond of telling students that the manner in which you express thoughts through writing is a fine indication of how you think. Now we know women don’t think in the same manner as men thus their written material reflects how they think. Their written material is filled with illogic, irrationality, emotion etc. Why? because their minds are equally a mass of conflicting and irrational thoughts.

I don’t think you are a tuna because my analysis of your written expressions demonstrate conclusively you are male, albeit I suspect a young man still getting your sea legs as we say. I have a piece of advice and I suggest you take it. When someone points the finger at you and cries TUNA; craft a male response. A woman gets all butt hurt and triggered because it is perceived as a personal attack. A man either just laughs it off or tells the author to go f~~~ himself side-ways with a monkey wrench and move on. Just saying…

[It’sallbsParticipant]

Hitman wrote:

the right gains more followers and resolve with each absurdity the left is involved with.
they will embarrass themselves to death.
and the right will continue .

Stop waiting for the saviour and the change -it aint coming sunbeam.

There will be another saviour after trump that does fcuk all, and another one after that.

http://www.leavemeansleave.eu

[It’sallbsParticipant]

Hitman wrote:

people absolutely change.
politics swings like a pendulum,
like my ball sack.
the right gains more followers and resolve with each absurdity the left is involved with.
they will embarrass themselves to death.
and the right will continue .
.
seems england is f~~~ed.
america is not,
not yet.
i can go shoot MY gun.
can YOU ???
nah.
.
real easy to tear holes in things from across the pond.
look beneath the veneer,
and outside the conspiracy zone.
Trump got the common vote for a reason.
it’s NOT all bs.

It’s not UK vs USA I criticise the UK all the time far more than anywhereelse

He got the vote because he told you what you wanted to hear, meanwhile he has attacked syria twice, talked about removing guns then following due process after, appointed half of goldman sachs,…,…, blocked prosecution of goldman sachs.

Throws you a few crumbs with the tax cut.

He doens’t give a fcuk about average joe america

Trump is a system man same as all of them are regardless of which party they are from.

Stop buying into the illusion of democracy it’s bulls~~~.

http://www.leavemeansleave.eu

[HitmanParticipant]

people absolutely change.
politics swings like a pendulum,
like my ball sack.
the right gains more followers and resolve with each absurdity the left is involved with.
they will embarrass themselves to death.
and the right will continue .
.
seems england is f~~~ed.
america is not,
not yet.
i can go shoot MY gun.
can YOU ???
nah.
.
real easy to tear holes in things from across the pond.
look beneath the veneer,
and outside the conspiracy zone.
Trump got the common vote for a reason.
it’s NOT all bs.

[Y_Participant]

PistolPete wrote:

About f~~~ing time—here is a little known fact. MANY MANY South Koreans DO NOT want a reunification with the North. They saw what happened to the economy of west Germany when it reunited with east Germany and the Koreans do not want to suffer the same fate. Can you blame them?

This is a move to a peace treaty and the push to lifting of UN economic sanctions. Nothing more. The UN sanctions can be lifted without US support if certain conditions are met by NK. Note the Xi – Kim talks last month. They have a plan for this all worked out.

China and Russia will not allow any talk of reunification – neither will the NK regime. This will mean a US controlled peninsula next to the Chinese mainland. The US will start a false flag war for sure to take on China if this happens. So that option is out.

It has been critically assessed in military blogs that NK does not need nukes. They are therefore giving up nothing. The US will not attack either way. So this way it looks good all round.

So what is the objective?

It’s all about getting SK and Japan into China’s OBOR. Remember the Russian dialogue with NK, SK and Japan? They already have something ready to boost trade if a NK-SK peace treaty is established.

SK is now going under tariffs and there will be further economic blood spilt by Trump. Japan desperately needs this to get out of the economic hell of the last 30 years – again Trump is not helping.

Trump got blindsided and he did not even know it.
That is why he wants to re-join and ‘lead’ the TPP.
Dream on Trump.

https://nypost.com/2018/04/17/koreas-expected-to-announce-end-of-68-year-war/

North and South Korea are discussing plans to make a stunning announcement at their leaders summit next week: a permanent end to the 68-year state of war between the two, according to reports.

——Thanks to Donald Trump

mgtow is its own worst enemy- https://www.campusreform.org/

Trump is full of s~~~.

http://www.leavemeansleave.eu

[743 roadmasterParticipant]

——-Judge takes it one step further,….If they can do it to a president no one is safe with attorney-client privilege.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-hands-defeat-to-trump-and-cohen-over-fbi-raid-youve-miscited-the-law

Judge Hands Defeat to Trump and Cohen Over FBI Raid: ‘You’ve Miscited the Law’
The president and his fixer tried to stop the feds from getting their hands on ‘privileged’ information. They failed.

President Donald Trump and his longtime attorney Michael Cohen both lost a court challenge related to the FBI’s seizure of Cohen’s documents they both claim are protected by attorney-client privilege.

Cohen had asked a federal judge for a temporary restraining order to stop federal prosecutors in Manhattan from viewing the information seized by the FBI until an independent third party, called a “special master,” be allowed to sort out what is protected by attorney-client privilege.

mgtow is its own worst enemy- https://www.campusreform.org/

It is possible to have a child, and you are a parent. You get tough with them, and out of need, they will still respond, and you have a good relationship. But, how does this work with nations?

You can pick another news source, but what posted above comes to mind:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-03/trump-says-no-one-is-tougher-on-russia-but-he-wants-relationship

Let’s say Trump did say he was going to be tough with Russia, but wants to have good relationship? Why would any nation seek to have good relationship with another nation that will be tough with them? How does this work? Can someone explain it to me? Isn’t the term “make someone your biatch”? There is also Balkanization. But nations that are Balkanized do things out of fear, and are puppet states. How does the United States do this with Russia, or China, or anyone else, unless they are a puppet state, sucking on financial support? Is this Russia?

"I am my own thang. Any questions?" - Davis S Pumpkins.

[ForeverDoneParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

ForeverDone wrote:

Dark Lord of the Sith wrote:

3/3 votes to your question trumps your query. Delete that bulls~~~. I refuse to waste my precious data allotment over your self-masturbatory signature. Knock it off.

Then stop posting in my thread. Plus, you should switch to one of those unlimited data plans. I think Straight Talk is 45 bucks all in. Therefore, you do not have worry about your precious data being used. Geez, you sound like a pouty female…

I’ll make your thread 100 pages you tuna/mangina f~~~. Knock your f~~~ing bulls~~~ off. Nobody cares about your asinine video.

Seems you do. LOL. Someone’s got their panties in a bunch.

[Anonymous]

ForeverDone wrote:

Dark Lord of the Sith wrote:

3/3 votes to your question trumps your query. Delete that bulls~~~. I refuse to waste my precious data allotment over your self-masturbatory signature. Knock it off.

Then stop posting in my thread. Plus, you should switch to one of those unlimited data plans. I think Straight Talk is 45 bucks all in. Therefore, you do not have worry about your precious data being used. Geez, you sound like a pouty female…

I’ll make your thread 100 pages you tuna/mangina f~~~. Knock your f~~~ing bulls~~~ off. Nobody cares about your asinine video. Actually, I’ll just block your ass. Expect more to follow.

[ForeverDoneParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

3/3 votes to your question trumps your query. Delete that bulls~~~. I refuse to waste my precious data allotment over your self-masturbatory signature. Knock it off.

Then stop posting in my thread. Plus, you should switch to one of those unlimited data plans. I think Straight Talk is 45 bucks all in. Therefore, you do not have worry about your precious data being used. Geez, you sound like a pouty female…