US: WAR ABROAD POVERTY AT HOME
Brig Asif Haroon Raja STAFF WRITER/VT and Opinion Maker
USA is the largest economic power of the world and strongest military power in human history. Its moral, political, and diplomatic strength which was at its peak till 9/11 has drastically eroded after the fateful event. Collapse of Soviet Union in 1991 had provided a great opportunity to USA to rule the world as a sole super power for the next 100 years.
There was none to challenge its pre-eminence. It however, failed to shape a more prosperous and more just world. Its arbitrary military adventures in pursuit of security and mercantile interests instead of enhancing global security environments, made the world more turbulent and unsafe. At home, the citizens have been deprived of their privacy, wiretapping of telephones and basic freedom of movement through unsolicited checks at airports, open vehicle searches without probable cause and the creation of a massive new bureaucracy with no other desire than to deprive Americans of their rights, eventually including the right to bear arms. The US leaders are childishly trying to convince citizens they are working to ensure the security of their homeland by fighting futile war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan and now looking forward to stretch their neck into Pakistan. Every second America fights, new enemies with new weapons and new allies emerge. Every second of war leaves America weak, vulnerable, broke and moving toward collapse.
For the sole super power the biggest threat to its security comes from Al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban. These are enemies any city police force could defeat easily. America’s own estimates of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan are under 100. There is no proof whatsoever that the Taliban is at war with America at all. The Taliban would fight against Luxembourg or Montenegro with the same vigor and determination if they partnered with the corrupt Karzai regime and tried to enforce a government on Afghanistan.
India, Israel and Zionists have made America so obsessed with these threast that they have become oblivious to the emerging defiance of Cuba-Venezuela led South American states and growth of Russian and Chinese influence in that region posing a credible threat to Western Hemisphere.
Russia is upgrading Venezuela’s armed forces and is reportedly making it a nuclear power. Venezuela has accepted credit worth $2.2 billion arms purchase which is in addition to $1 billion credit in last June and $4.4 billion purchases of jest, helicopters, tanks and weapons in 2005. Russian-Venezuelan Navies carried out joint maneuvers in Caribbean last winters.
The US might be finding solace in equipping its allies Brazil, Columbia and Chile to counteract threats posed by anti-US bloc in Latin America; the first two being leading arms spenders in that region. The US, British and Netherlands have deployed new forces to encircle ALBA countries with a view to attack Nicaragua, Ecuador and Venezuela. The US is building up its military bases in oil-rich South America under the guise of controlling flow of drugs to USA. The real motive is to control oil reserve since it procures half of its oil requirements from South America.
The fact is that militarization of neighborhood together with increased influence of Russia and China may not auger well for the security of USA in the long run. Decision of Latin American leaders to use new currency ‘Sucre’ instead of dollars should be a wake up of call for Washington.
America is also unmindful of resurgence of Russia and its fast expanding influence over its former Republics including Central Asia where USA has pinned high hopes to extract mineral and oil resources. It seems oblivious of Chinese burgeoning nuclear, military and economic power. It is the only country that has faced the ongoing global recession positively and is likely to come out of it on a winning note. The US is also not much concerned about nuclear North Korea capable of striking US homeland.
The US is sustaining expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has also invested heavily in development of weapons of mass destruction. In Afghanistan, the US is spending over $60 billion annually. Its annual military budget comes to $655 billion, which accounts for half of global military spending.
In 2008, it increased its share of global arms business to 70%. Iraq venture over extended the US militarily, financially and diplomatically. It drained the US of credibility, resources and resolve. It discredited its leadership, degraded its financial health and disabled its political will. Under the umbrella of homeland security, the real purpose was to shield those responsible for 9/11 from American public. 9/11 is the Achilles heel of American credibility.
The vast majority of informed people around the world, including millions in the US, now consider 9/11 either a proven "inside job" or extremely suspect. Currently, the US is totally clueless, or at least claims to be, as to who planned and financed the most massive terror attack in history. Obviously national intelligence services planned 9/11. That we aren’t asking "which ones" is something worth noting.
The US is suffering from worst economic melt down and its economy has become debt ridden. Its banks are collapsing at a fast rate. On 29 October, nine banks were seized by US authorities, which was the heaviest seizure in a single day since global crisis began. Total of 115 banks have failed this year while 25 banks failed last year. American capitalism has proved to be an utter failure but so far no concrete steps have been taken by Washington to extract itself from the whirlpool of economic meltdown.
It is fighting a losing war in Iraq and Afghanistan where it is spending colossal amount. The cost of war in Iraq is $689,451,723,581 and in Afghanistan $228,666,011,141 according to official admissions, a staggering sum. The real costs are estimated to be 300% higher than this.
Even using conservative figures, this is almost $12 billion a month. Costs in Afghanistan would accelerate with 30,000 troop surge. The drug trade in Afghanistan is supplementing war on terror in Afghanistan and covert operations in Pakistan. 10% of drug profit is earmarked to keep the pot of Pakistan on the boil.
War on terror is a major drain on its fast dwindling economy but instead of giving it up as a bad job, it is egotistically continuing with it and trying to reinforce failure with renewed fervor. It is still vainly hoping to seek hydrocarbon energy reserves from Central Asian States not realizing that Russia and China would never allow this plunder to take place within their arena.
USA as an expansionist power is past its zenith and is on decline. China invested $ 1 trillion in US Federal Treasury Bonds but USA is in no position to honor bonds owned by China.
A small segment of American population is dirty rich. They trebled their bank accounts and properties in the last two decades but their hunger and greed for more wealth is insatiable. In league with Jews, they supported George W. Bush led neo-cons in shaping draconian policies on terrorism and invading Afghanistan and Iraq to keep their war industries running and to acquire lucrative oil contracts in Iraq. They encouraged corporate governance and turning world into a global village to suit their economic interests.
The affluent class lives in a world of their own. They are oblivious of the pains of the jobless and salaried class who cannot even afford to send their children to universities. In 2007, Native Americans had poverty rate of about 25%, triple the white poverty rate. Poverty rate climbed to 13.2% in 2008, up from 12.5% in previous year, the highest level since 1997. In 2008, 39.8 million people were living in poverty as against 37.3 million in 2007. This happened since millions of workers lost their jobs because of economic melt down.
Facing 2010, many regions of America have unemployment rates of nearly 50%. Those who stop looking for work because of a hopeless job market are no longer considered unemployed.
An American dies of lack of health care every 12 minutes. Obama’s much publicized health care program came under severe criticism since it doesn’t bring down cost of prescription drugs. There is however continued rise in incomes for the wealthiest 1%. They spend billions in cultivating the media to twist and distort facts and suppress truth, subvert US democracy and to keep American public unaware about their wrongdoings and about happenings in the world.
Zionists monopolize media, pop culture, think tanks, academia and politics. Jewish controlled print and electronic media backs corporate interests, endorses imperial wars and troop surge. The US media also supports CIA efforts to topple elected governments, assassinate independent minded popular leaders, prop up friendly dictators, secretly fund and train death squads like Blackwater, practice sophisticated forms of torture and breakup freedom movements.
Much of this covert activity, under the control of the powerful oligarchy that rules America under Zionist influence, takes place inside America itself with "whistleblowers" dying of mysterious accidents, rigged electronic voting machines computing outlandish totals in support of "bought and paid for" candidates. Many organizations intended to secure America from foreign threat maintain secret units answerable to cabals of "think tanks" and extremist organizations.
The fat cats in USA turn a blind eye to skewed democracy, sham elections, corruption, drug trade, widening rich and poor divide, lack of justice and accountability as long as their corporate interests are well protected. However, the ones defying their dictates are demonized and projected as demagogues or fundamentalists.
"Conspiracy theory" is the term used in the US for failing to report news authorized by Washington PR agencies and their Zionist controllers.
They have fattened their purses with the help of Merrill Lynch, Marc Rich, Lehman Bros, Andrew Fastow, Goldman Sachs, and George Soros. These war mongers in pursuance of self interests are keeping war on terror inflamed.
In Afghanistan, CIA is involved in drug trade in a big way. One of the reasons of occupying impoverished Afghanistan was to restore and control world largest supply of opium for world heroin markets and to use drugs as a geo-politics weapon against opponents, especially Russia. Afghanistan has turned into a narco-state and is producing 92% of world opium.
Former FBI translator, Sibel Edmonds, silenced for years by the Bush administration, has testified to the use of NATO planes, transporting, not only drugs, but acting as a private airline for international terrorists. For every terrorist sent to torture under "rendition" a dozen terrorists ride in First Class style as CIA contractors, according to Edmonds.
Oblivious of internal polemics and emerging threat in the immediate neighbourhood, the US continues to get itself bled in the infernos of Iraq and Afghanistan under the vain hope that troop surge in Afghanistan and covert operations would help in ensuring their homeland security. Such childlike hopes are far fetched and can at be termed as wishful thinking!
The writer is a defence and security analyst. Brig Asif Haroon Raja is Member, Board of Advisors,
Opinion Maker. He is also the author of several books.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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