DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / April 21, 2014 / Daily Tribune
The West, led by the US, has been on a quarter-of-a-century crusade to impose its global hegemony on the world after its Cold War counterbalancing rival, the Soviet Union, collapsed under the weight of its inefficient and incompetent apparatchiks (political bureaucrats). But that crusade itself has been in collapse since 2008 as the Western economies got to be eaten by the cancer within. That cancer comprises the West’s own apparatchiks — from the corrupt monopoly finance bankers of the Western world’s financial centers, Wall Street, City of London, and European Central Bank, under the aegis of a handful of key banking families (including the Rothschilds and Rockefellers), who have controlled the world through their control of the US Federal Reserve, to the global oil and defense industries and establishments. Only a new world war can save them.
Few Filipinos ponder the implications of the events in Ukraine and the parallels they hold in the Philippines, in China, as well as the China Sea issues. The Philippines is unique in its belligerence as not even Vietnam has taken the “no dialog” stance with its Asian neighbor. Few Filipinos understand that the crisis in Ukraine today was triggered by the last phase in a two-decades-long plan to cripple Russia (“Without Ukraine Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire,” Brzezinski, 1998). Vladimir Putin put a stop to that with the welcome reintegration of Crimea (including Sevastopol) into Russia to protect his country’s defense perimeter. China’s “superintendence” (not monopoly, as it offers bilateral development) in its own backyard also aims to define its defense perimeter against the West’s domination.
Overwhelming demographic and economic advantages of China ostensibly gave rise to Napoleon Bonaparte’s prescient prediction 200 years ago of the “waking dragon.” Strategic analysts see China as the West’s ultimate rival, although China has always declared that it seeks only respect as a coequal of other world powers.
Russia is the underestimated world power because of its moderate demographic potentials and 20th Century historical debacles, but these notions should now be set aside with Russia now shifting its global geopolitical relations, as seen in Putin’s actions in Ukraine and, more importantly, in his strategic economic vision of “turning to the East” not only rhetorically but in very unequivocal terms.
The 2012 Vladivostok Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit signaled Russia’s move to the East, away from the conflict zones to its West. Two years later, Putin orders a new production-type industrial zone in Vladivostok. Then, this May, Russia and China will sign one of the largest deals ever to realize the pipeline and facilities to supply 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year and 900,000 barrels of oil per day directly to China — using rubles and yuan. Russia and Iran are also discussing 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian goods. Moreover, Russia’s Rosneft is joining India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. in setting up pipelines to supply oil to India over the long-term, circumventing the US dollar. All these spell the end of the US petrodollar hegemony.
And, as everyone should know, as the US dollar wanes, so goes its geopolitical clout. What remains is its military-naval supremacy, which is also fast eroding. US military development, upon which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization depends, also faces dwindling resources. Such uncertainties spawned by the US military’s decline, coupled with the certainty of Russian and Chinese military hardware and technological advances, have contributed to the vacillation of Western Powers in Afghanistan, Syria, Middle East, North Africa, and even East Asia. Only the Philippines is bullish on the US “pivot” to Asia. The decline of the US threat to the global balancing of forces is the best harbinger of durable peace in the world.
Meanwhile, the dwindling prospects of US global trade domination is also being clearly demonstrated in the difficult straits that the US-sponsored Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has faced even with a client state like Japan foot-dragging in signing on. And that’s because the TPP promotes US corporate interests over and against national economic and political sovereignty, sacrificing popular welfare and concerns in favor of profit and economic control of corporate transnationals.
Russia and China have shunned the TPP while promoting Apec, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) alliance (with a BRICS Bank to challenge the International Monetary Fund), and the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership).
The year 2014 will see a great shift in geopolitical power relations. Thanks to Russia and its “Look East” policy, Putin’s new Russia has shaken off its infatuation with the Western model and rediscovered its destiny as the great balancer for global peace and development. Russia has become a fulcrum of sorts as the bridge for the New Silk Road to the East (to itself) and then to Europe’s most powerful nation, Germany, and at the same time, wresting the center-of-gravity away from the US (and British) hegemony.
(Tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; catch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., this week on “Ms. Manila revival” and “Bank ‘bail-in’ exposed”; visit http://newsulongpilipino.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)
The West, led by the US, has been on a quarter-of-a-century crusade to impose its global hegemony on the world after its Cold War counterbalancing rival, the Soviet Union, collapsed under the weight of its inefficient and incompetent apparatchiks (political bureaucrats). But that crusade itself has been in collapse since 2008 as the Western economies got to be eaten by the cancer within. That cancer comprises the West’s own apparatchiks — from the corrupt monopoly finance bankers of the Western world’s financial centers, Wall Street, City of London, and European Central Bank, under the aegis of a handful of key banking families (including the Rothschilds and Rockefellers), who have controlled the world through their control of the US Federal Reserve, to the global oil and defense industries and establishments. Only a new world war can save them.
Few Filipinos ponder the implications of the events in Ukraine and the parallels they hold in the Philippines, in China, as well as the China Sea issues. The Philippines is unique in its belligerence as not even Vietnam has taken the “no dialog” stance with its Asian neighbor. Few Filipinos understand that the crisis in Ukraine today was triggered by the last phase in a two-decades-long plan to cripple Russia (“Without Ukraine Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire,” Brzezinski, 1998). Vladimir Putin put a stop to that with the welcome reintegration of Crimea (including Sevastopol) into Russia to protect his country’s defense perimeter. China’s “superintendence” (not monopoly, as it offers bilateral development) in its own backyard also aims to define its defense perimeter against the West’s domination.
Overwhelming demographic and economic advantages of China ostensibly gave rise to Napoleon Bonaparte’s prescient prediction 200 years ago of the “waking dragon.” Strategic analysts see China as the West’s ultimate rival, although China has always declared that it seeks only respect as a coequal of other world powers.
Russia is the underestimated world power because of its moderate demographic potentials and 20th Century historical debacles, but these notions should now be set aside with Russia now shifting its global geopolitical relations, as seen in Putin’s actions in Ukraine and, more importantly, in his strategic economic vision of “turning to the East” not only rhetorically but in very unequivocal terms.
The 2012 Vladivostok Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit signaled Russia’s move to the East, away from the conflict zones to its West. Two years later, Putin orders a new production-type industrial zone in Vladivostok. Then, this May, Russia and China will sign one of the largest deals ever to realize the pipeline and facilities to supply 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year and 900,000 barrels of oil per day directly to China — using rubles and yuan. Russia and Iran are also discussing 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian goods. Moreover, Russia’s Rosneft is joining India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. in setting up pipelines to supply oil to India over the long-term, circumventing the US dollar. All these spell the end of the US petrodollar hegemony.
And, as everyone should know, as the US dollar wanes, so goes its geopolitical clout. What remains is its military-naval supremacy, which is also fast eroding. US military development, upon which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization depends, also faces dwindling resources. Such uncertainties spawned by the US military’s decline, coupled with the certainty of Russian and Chinese military hardware and technological advances, have contributed to the vacillation of Western Powers in Afghanistan, Syria, Middle East, North Africa, and even East Asia. Only the Philippines is bullish on the US “pivot” to Asia. The decline of the US threat to the global balancing of forces is the best harbinger of durable peace in the world.
Meanwhile, the dwindling prospects of US global trade domination is also being clearly demonstrated in the difficult straits that the US-sponsored Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has faced even with a client state like Japan foot-dragging in signing on. And that’s because the TPP promotes US corporate interests over and against national economic and political sovereignty, sacrificing popular welfare and concerns in favor of profit and economic control of corporate transnationals.
Russia and China have shunned the TPP while promoting Apec, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) alliance (with a BRICS Bank to challenge the International Monetary Fund), and the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership).
The year 2014 will see a great shift in geopolitical power relations. Thanks to Russia and its “Look East” policy, Putin’s new Russia has shaken off its infatuation with the Western model and rediscovered its destiny as the great balancer for global peace and development. Russia has become a fulcrum of sorts as the bridge for the New Silk Road to the East (to itself) and then to Europe’s most powerful nation, Germany, and at the same time, wresting the center-of-gravity away from the US (and British) hegemony.
(Tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; catch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m., this week on “Ms. Manila revival” and “Bank ‘bail-in’ exposed”; visit http://newsulongpilipino.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)
