Every 80 years, nations often experience colossal events. There are different theories about this cycle – for example, the Fourth Turning theory focuses on the cyclical strengths of institutions versus individuals. Others surmise that four generations after a major crisis, there are no more older people to warn the society, and the younger people take peace and prosperity for granted.
Well, exactly 80 years ago, America was mired in the Great Depression, and World War II was about to begin. Yet, predictably, most Americans and Europeans now cannot even fathom such scenarios repeating in their lifetime.
There are two major catalysts that can ignite catastrophic wars in the next decade: debt/economic crisis in the West and the great-power rivalries (US + EU versus Russia + China). Geopolitical tensions that are simmering now will reach a crescendo very soon. Without extraordinary caution and prudence, we’re destined to become another victim of history’s inexorable cycle.
America is #2
How many American politicians and elites can say, “America is the second largest economy in the world”? How will Americans react when they hear it for the first time? There will be shock, anger, denial and a lot of blame and finger-pointing. However, most Americans fail to realize that not only is this scenario almost inevitable, but it will happen within the next 8-10 years.
Consider that China’s nominal GDP grew 200% since 2008, while the US grew only 35%. Even if China slows down a lot and grows only 100% and the US continues at the same pace, China will be #1 before 2028.
What does China’s rise mean to Western corporations and the globalists who control them? Loss of power and wealth. And that’s something the globalists aren’t going to just let happen.
There’s more to China’s rise than just GDP. In late 2017, US News and World Report ranked China’s Tsinghua University as #1 for computer science and engineering, dethroning MIT. In hi-tech areas such as 5G, driverless vehicles, electric vehicles, passenger drones (“flying cars”), 3D printing, artificial intelligence, super computers, quantum computing and numerous other fields, China is #1 or #2.
Throughout history, an established power has never passively watched a rising power take its spot. As Harvard Professor Graham T. Allison points out, 75% of the time, the established power goes to outright war with the rising power.
Zombie Bear Comes Back to Life
After the fall of the Soviet Union, American intellectuals’ favorite phrase was “the end of history.” And John Bolton famously claimed that there should be only one country in the UN’s Permanent Security Council: USA! America has the won the Cold War and will stay as the hyperpower forever! Everyone will embrace America’s exceptionalism and remain submissive.
Alas, Putin came along and resuscitated the Russian bear that was on life support. He thwarted the globalists in Ukraine and Syria, survived a Wall Street-engineered drop in oil price (from $115 to $45 in mere six months), prevented the collapse of the Russian economy in spite of severe sanctions, shored up enormous gold and foreign exchange reserves, and even managed to develop hypersonic ICBMs that can evade America’s vaunted missile defense systems.
Worse, Putin is working with the Chinese on US-independent versions of the Internet, banking system, credit card system, etc. All these have turned Putin into the globalists’ public enemy #1.
In the 1960s, the CIA came up with all sorts of false flag attacks to blame Russia – killing Cuban refugees in Miami, buying Russian planes to attack US military installations, etc. Now, the Russia hacking/interference claim and the spy-poisoning drama are just the previews; expect much more in the coming months and years.
Middle East Powder Keg
In the 1990s, Neocons in Israel and the US – remember PNAC? – dreamed of hegemony over the Middle East. Take out Iraq and Iran, the domination is complete. Imagine controlling all that oil and the strategic portions of water through which much of global trade passes.
And if Western firms can construct oil/gas pipelines from the Middle East to Europe, the latter can say, “Nyet” to Russian oil/gas. Without Europe as the customer, Russia will suffer immensely and surrender.
Controlling the Middle East also means controlling the land and the sea routes of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. A few “moderate rebels” in strategic locations can greatly disrupt China’s Europe-bound trains.
This is why Syria and Iran are so important to all sides of the geopolitical struggle.
With Neocons and pro-Israel warmongers filling up Trump’s cabinet, a war on Iran is more likely than ever before, which will definitely draw Russia, and possibly China, into the conflict.
Asian War to Contain China
China’s Achilles’ heel is that it’s surrounded by America’s vassal states – Taiwan, Japan and South Korea for now. The Philippines used to be America’s puppet, but it’s now leaning towards China and Russia, thanks to Duterte. How North Korea will turn out is yet to be seen. India, which was colonized by the British for 200 years, is experiencing amnesia and is quickly ceding its sovereignty to the US.
Japanese elites – under pressure from globalists – are trying to change their constitution so that Japan can build up its military again. This is obviously an ominous sign.
Thus globalists have a lot of options to wage a proxy war on China. Asia has been growing rapidly and enjoying unprecedented prosperity, but there’s a good chance they will screw it up by becoming sacrificial pawns in the geopolitical chessboard.
Financial Wars
If the globalists have mighty military and vassal states to impose their hegemony, they have one tremendous weakness: a fake economy based on debt and money-printing. America’s enormous strength is based on the petrodollar – an unfair system that forces other countries to buy oil and other commodities in US dollars. Take that away, the American Empire starts to wobble. Without enormous demand for the US dollar and treasuries, interest rates will go up, debt will become expensive, and interest payments on existing debt will skyrocket.
This is why China, the largest importer of oil, just started oil futures that trade in Yuan. Before the end of the year, China plans to announce systems where one can directly buy and sell oil in Yuan. If China were to get out of the globalist hegemony, there’s no better way than to establish petroyuan, especially if it’s backed by gold.
What’s Next?
Thanks to the Deep State and Democrats, US-Russia relations will continue to deteriorate as sanctions pile on. Globalists will also use the anti-Russia hysteria to create an EU army, bolster NATO, and provoke Russia with missile defense systems and military build up on its borders.
The US will continue to build its troops to encircle China, saber rattle in the South China Sea, incite Muslim separatists in Western China (Xinjiang), and try to turn Asian countries against China.
There will also be endless economic, propaganda and hybrid wars against both Russia and China in the coming years.
Conclusion
America is 5% of the world’s population. It cannot expect to rule the other 95% forever. America’s unipolar dominance is a blip in history. We have to learn to coexist with other great powers and focus on creating a peaceful, prosperous world.
Instead, America’s elites are filled with hubris and hegemonic fantasies. Americans – and sadly most Europeans now as well – are ignorant about geopolitics, easily swayed by propaganda, and programmed to accept wild stories without demanding proof or evidence. The combination of ruthless elites and gullible masses is extremely dangerous. Without great restraint, diplomacy, wisdom and compromises, we will be sleepwalking into a nuclear disaster in the next decade.
Chris Kanthan is the author of a new book, Deconstructing the Syrian War. Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has traveled to 35 countries, and writes about world affairs, politics, economy and health. His other book is Deconstructing Monsanto. Follow him on Twitter: @GMOChannel
Top Image Credit: Anthony Freda Art “11th Hour”
‘Without great restraint, diplomacy, wisdom and compromises, we will be sleepwalking into a nuclear disaster in the next decade.’
What the author fails to say is that Russia and China are not only ahead in many fields but are pulling further and further ahead.
US-UK-EU realise this and know that the longer they leave it the less chance of winning. Thus there is pressure on them to do something now.
In addition, both Russia and China have recently experienced difficult financial times and their people are robust and inured to hardship. The other side would fold in a matter of weeks. They cannot find enough able bodied men to field a peace time army, what hope when real sacrifice and hardship is required.
‘Without great restraint, diplomacy, wisdom and compromises, we will be sleepwalking into a nuclear disaster in the next decade.’ we will be lucky to make it to next year.
There’s an entire paragraph on China’s technological achievements. And Russia’s hypersonic missiles are mentioned as well. Did you read the article?
I read the article, you clearly did not read the comment.
Your entire premise is based on this statement you made: “What the author fails to say is that Russia and China are not only ahead in many fields but are pulling further and further ahead.”
Hmmm…
Which is absolutely true, and the corollary is that the window for the West to act is closing.
Which was the gist of my comment.
The author talks about a decade, I am saying that the West elites know that every day they delay means that their chances of winning decline.
Not much could be done. China graduates 4 times as many science and engineering students as the US. The US is importing engineers from India, but it’s not a viable solution
A lot could be done if the US would stop wasting trillions of dollars on foolish discretionary wars.
True, but we must also change our culture. There’s so much degeneracy and dysfunctional culture that just having money alone isn’t going to make American kids sign up for science and engineering degrees
Current Gubmint High Skool grad-u-ates can’t even spell. They Know nothing of US government function or the Constitution, and a large portion seem to be propagandized progressive snowflakes. Libtard Colleges only “finishes them off”.
The froggy has been boiled
The complete absence of High School “Civics” has undone the new “millennials.” All that they are taught now in the “progressive institutions” is revolt & anarchy.
Please also recall that much of China’s expertise in the technological realm is based on their supposed theft of U.S. patents.
My thinking is, how are China’s technological advances so far ahead of the U.S. if they are based on old science?
We are broke. Thousands of nuclear devices have already been exploded. The republic is dead. Compromise will solve nothing. Prayer will not save the day. I find it laughable that Easter and April Fools Day have merged and the joke is on US. Their are no timely solutions, the positive in all of this is that your spirit is indestructible. My advice is to reincarnate on a better planet next time around and keep yourself wrapped in the wisdom of lessons learned from lives lived on planet hell.
That’s was great article until you cited, “the Deep State and Democrats” as the cause for US/Russian relations break down. As I recall, there was not one Democrat that was a signatory of the PNAC documents, and that is the same policy we follow today under Trump. It seems the entire alt media has been bought, or compromised under Trump, watering down the NWO into a nefarious group led by Soros and Hillary, and these nameless Deep State people.Listen to Jones in the last couple of year??? It’s pathetic.
Itsthe Deep State that’s spreading Russia hoax like interference and hacking. The Democrats and MSM feed the anti-Russia hysteria every day
The anti Russia narrative has been set up for almost decade by NWO operatives on both sides of the aisle, seeing how Russia is the no.2 target of PNAC, eclipsed only by the ultimate goal of China. Trump’s entire goal is to try and placate them while we leap frog into Iran, hoping Syria will fall as a result. Trump is a PNAC lackey just like Obama. Just a different narrative.
Trump has a lot of problems, but he has always been advocating detente with Russia. It’s the liberals who scream “Trump is a Putin puppet”; it’s the Democrats who demand anti-Russian sanctions, believe every b.s. claims from anonymous Deep State sources, unsubstantiated claims (“Steele Dossier”) etc. Look at the twitter feeds of Neocons like Bill Kristol, he’s now a darling of the Left.
Sanctions against Russia could hardly be considered, detente. Watch what Trump does, not what he says. Like Obama , it’s usually the opposite. One good thing about Bush/Cheney, they announced their evil and acted on it.
You’re really twisting facts here like a pretzel. Congress forced Russian sanctions and every day the liberals scream about how Trump is not enforcing sanctions fully. The MSM feeds anti-Russian hysteria daily like Orwell’s “two minutes of hate.” Deep State’s biggest fear is Trump-Russia detente. They wouldn’t even let him meet with Putin in Asia.
So the Republican House, forced the Republican President to sign the sanctions?
And you really think the , “Deep State” let Trump sneak in to upset their plans???? But somehow the Democrats and Soros were behind it all? You must listen to RRRrogerStone Wars, starring the guy formerly known as Alex Jones.
The House passed the Russia sanctions bill 419-3.
And what kind of a moronic discussion it is to even deny the liberal role in anti-Russia hysteria. All the lies about “Russia hacking DNC”, “Wikileaks is a Russian agent”, “Trump is a puppet of Putin”, “Trump-Russia collusion” is all from the loony Left who still live in denial. Go to Twitter and search for “#TrumpRussia” — it’s mad liberal conspiracy day in and day out. And you mock Alex Jones??
Granted Trump is crazy and wrong in many areas, don’t try to pin the anti-Russia idiocy on him.
No one denied their role. They simply aren’t in charge of the Legislative, or Executive Branch. That would be the Republicans, and you seem to have fallen into the left right trap, where your guy’s bad deeds are someone else’s fault, and the real boogie man is a partisan of the other Party, when that simply isn’t the case. The real boogie men are pin head globalist that buy, black mail, and beat their agenda into existence and own both parties virtually 100%. And so far as mocking Alex Jones, he does that himself on a daily basis, and has spat upon his original audience. If you were a listener last decade, it would make puke to hear him now.
If it were not for the Deep State and the Democrats, Trump would be buddies with Putin. And yes mainstream Republicans are also controlled by the Deep State. But thanks to opportunistic politics, at least they question some of the propaganda. Like Dunes and others came out with their memos challenging Trump-Russia collusion.
Democrats and Liberals have gone 100% lunatic. But idiocracy gains credibility when mainstream media — from Rachel Maddow to NY Times to Louise Mensch to Scott Dworkin — sing the same conspiracy theory and fuel anti-Russia hatred.
I agree with much of the writer’s view,
Except that China is Not a threat to the NWO Globalist Oligarchs.
China has been selected as the next World Power by the NWO Global Banksters. These NWO USSA politicians like Bush I & II, Carter, Clinton, Obama have denuded the industry of the US, ruined public education, flooded the country with 3rd world aliens who have no knowledge of American tradition, and put us 20 Trillion, soon to be 21 Trillion in Debt to the Federal Reserve Banksters who print paper money out of thin air then charge our labor to pay them back.
President Trump for better or worse is the last foot in the door slamming on our complete subservience to the evil NWO masters. We have enemies Foreign and DOMESTIC, all DemocRats and 80% of ChamberPot Repubs.
Plan B anyone?
China does share its profits with western oligarchs — like Warren Buffett owns 10% of BYD, a popular Chinese electric car. But eventually, Chinese corps will remain Chinese and Chinese banks and central banks will stay state-owned. And that’s against the NWO globalist model
You may very well be correct considering Chinese history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Chinese would be foolish to ever let the West back inside of their country ever again.
Too bad the NWO Traitors rule “our” USSA. We are about to get invaded again on the southern border and Trump needs to put the army on the border to prevent it.
Alas “our” army is only deployed in foreign countries at the behest of said NWO.