SPEAKING
FREELY If it comes to a
shooting war ... By Victor N Corpus
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One could call this
article a worst-case scenario for the new American
century. Why worst case? Because of the hard
lessons from history. The Romans did not consider
the worst-case scenario when Hannibal crossed the
Alps with his elephants and routed them; or when
Hannibal encircled and annihilated the numerically
superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae.
The French did not consider the worst-case
scenario at Dien Bien Phu and when they built the
Maginot Line, and the French suffered disastrous
defeats. The Americans did not consider the
worst-case scenario at
Pearl Harbor or on September 11, and the results
were disastrous for the American people. Again,
American planners did not consider the worst-case
scenario in its latest war
in Iraq, but instead operated
on the "best-case scenario", such as considering
the Iraq invasion a "cake walk" and that the Iraqi
people would be parading in the streets, throwing
flowers and welcoming American soldiers as
"liberators", only to discover the opposite.
Scenario One: America launches
'preventive war' vs China
Our first objective is to prevent
the re-emergence of a new rival. This is a
dominant consideration underlying the new
regional defense strategy and requires that we
endeavor to prevent any hostile power from
dominating a region whose resources would, under
consolidated control, be sufficient to generate
global power. These regions include Western
Europe, East Asia, the territory of the former
Soviet Union and Southwest Asia. –Paul
Wolfowitz, former US deputy secretary of defense
and currently president of the World
Bank
Consider these snapshots of
China:
Since 1978, China has averaged 9.4% annual GDP
growth
It had a five-fold increase in total output
per capita from 1982 to 2002
It had $61 billion in foreign direct
investment in 2004 alone and foreign trade of $851
billion, the third-largest in the world
The US trade deficit with China exceeded $200
billion in 2005
China has $750 billion in foreign exchange
reserves and is the second-biggest oil importer
Last year it turned out 442,000 new engineers
a year; with 48,000 graduates with master's
degrees and 8,000 PhDs annually; compared to only
60,000 new engineers a year in the US.
China for the first time (2004) surpassed
America to export the most technology wares around
the world. China enjoyed a $34 billion trade
surplus with the US in advanced technology
products in 2004 (The Economist, December 17,
2005). In 2005, the surplus increased to $36
billion
It created 20,000 new manufacturing facilities
a year
It holds $252 billion in US Treasury Bonds
(plus $48 billion held by Hong Kong)
Among the five basic food, energy and
industrial commodities –grain and meat, oil and
coal and steel –consumption in China has eclipsed
that of the US in all but oil.
China has also gone ahead of the US in the
consumption of TV sets, refrigerators and mobile
phones
In 1996, China had 7 million cell phones and
the US had 44 million. Now China has more mobile
phone users than the US has people.
China has about $1 trillion in personal
savings and a savings rate of close to 50%; U.S.
has about $158 billion in personal savings and a
savings rate of about 2% (The Wall Street Journal,
Nov 19, 2005)
Shanghai boasts 4,000 skyscrapers – double the
number in New York City (The Wall Street Journal,
Nov 19, 2005)
Songbei, Harbin City in north China is
building a city as big as New York City
Goldman Sachs predicts that China will surpass
the US economy by 2041.
Before China's
economy catches up with America, and before China
builds a military machine that can challenge
American superpower status and world dominance,
America's top strategic planners (Project for the
New American Century) decide to launch a
"preventive war" against China. As a pretext for
this, the US instigates Taiwan to declare
independence.
Taiwan declares
independence! China has anticipated and
long prepared itself for this event. After
observing "Operation Summer Pulse –04" when US
aircraft carrier battle groups converged in the
waters off China's coast in mid-July through
August of 2004, Chinese planners began preparing
to face its own worst-case scenario: the
possibility of confronting a total of 15 carrier
battle groups composed of 12 from America and
three from its close British ally. China's
strategists refer to its counter-strategy to
defeat 15 or more aircraft carrier battle groups
as the "assassin's mace" or shashaujian.
After proper coordination with Russia and
Iran and activating their previously agreed
strategic plan, troops and weapon systems are
pre-positioned. China then launches a missile
barrage on Taiwan. Command and control nodes,
military bases, logistics centers, vital war
industries, government centers and air defense
installations are simultaneously hit with short
and medium range ballistic missiles armed with
conventional, anti-radar, thermo baric and
electro-magnetic pulse warheads.
At the
North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) Command
and Control Center, ranking defense officials
watch huge electronic monitor screens showing
seven US and two British aircraft carrier battle
groups converging on the East China Sea with
another three US carrier battle groups entering
the Persian Gulf, while the remaining two US and
one British battle groups remain in the Indian
Ocean to serve as a strategic reserve.
As
the aircraft carrier battle groups advance, China
draws out one of its "trump cards" by leaking to
the world media that it is dumping its holdings of
US Treasury bonds and shifting to gold and euros.
Meanwhile, strategic planners at NORAD
watch with glee as they observe on the screen as
monitored by their radar satellites that Chinese
surface ships are making a hasty retreat as nine
allied carrier battle groups advance toward the
Philippine Sea and Chinese waters near Taiwan.
The assassin's mace: China's
anti-satellite weapons Glee and ecstasy
soon turn to shock as monitor screens suddenly go
blank. Then all communication via satellites goes
dead. China has drawn its second "trump card" (the
assassin's mace) by activating its maneuverable
"parasite" micro-satellites that have unknowingly
clung to vital (NORAD) radar and communication
satellites and have either jammed, blinded or
physically destroyed their hosts.
This is
complemented by space mines that maneuver near
adversary satellites and explode. Secret Chinese
and Russian ground-based anti-satellite laser
weapons also blind or bring down US and British
satellites used for C4ISR (command, control,
communication, computers, intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance). And to ensure
redundancy and make sure that the adversary C4ISR
system is completely "blinded" even temporarily,
hundreds of select Chinese and Russian information
warriors (hackers) specifically trained to attack
their adversary's C4ISR systems simultaneously
launch their cyber offensive.
For a few
precious minutes, the US and UK advancing carrier
battle groups are stunned and blinded by the
"mace", ie, a defensive weapon used to temporarily
blind a stronger opponent. But the word mace has
another meaning; one which is deadlier and used in
combination with the first.
A mace can be
a spiked war club used in olden times to knock out
an opponent. Applied in modern times, the spikes
of the assassin's mace refer to currently
unstoppable supersonic cruise missiles capable of
sinking aircraft carriers that are in China's
inventory; complemented by equally unstoppable
"squall" or SHKVAL rocket torpedoes and regular 65
cm-diameter wake-homing torpedoes, bottom-rising
rocket-propelled mines, and "obsolete" warplanes
converted into unmanned combat aerial vehicles
(UCAVs) firing anti-ship missiles from standoff
positions and finally dive-bombing into the heart
of the US and UK aircraft carrier armada.
Missile barrage on advancing carrier
battle groups A few seconds after the
"blackout", literally hundreds of short and
medium-range ballistic missiles (DF7/9/11/15s,
DF4s, DF21X/As, some of which are maneuverable)
pre-positioned on the Chinese mainland, and
stealthy, sea-skimming and highly-accurate cruise
missiles (YJ12s, YJ22s, KH31A/Ps, YJ83s, C301s,
C802s, SS-N-22s, SS-NX-26/27s, 3M54s & HN3s)
delivered from platforms on land, sea and air race
toward their respective designated targets at
supersonic speed.
Aircraft carriers are
allotted a barrage of more than two dozen cruise
missiles each, followed by a barrage of short and
medium-range ballistic missiles timed to arrive in
rapid succession.
Supersonic cruise
missiles constitute China's third deadly "trump
card" against the US – part of the so-called
assassin's mace. These unstoppable cruise missiles
may be armed with 440-lb to 750-lb conventional
warheads (or 200-kiloton tactical nuclear warheads
10 times stronger than Hiroshima) traveling at
more than twice the speed of sound (or faster than
a rifle bullet).
The cruise missiles,
together with the SRBMs and MRBMs (short and
medium-range ballistic missiles) may also be armed
with radio frequency weapons that can simulate the
electro-magnetic pulse of nuclear explosions to
fry computer chips, or fuel-air explosives that
can annihilate the personnel in aircraft carriers
and battleships without destroying the platforms.
Their effective range varies from less
than 100 to 1,800 kilometers from stand-off
positions. Delivered by long-range fighter-bombers
and submarines, their range can be extended even
further. In fact, stealthy Chinese and Russian
submarines can deliver such nuclear payloads to
the US mainland itself.
No US defense
vs supersonic cruise missiles The US and
UK aircraft carrier battle groups do not have any
known defense against the new supersonic missiles
of their adversaries. The Phalanx and Aegis ship
defense systems may be effective against subsonic
cruise missiles like the Exocets or Tomahawks, or
exo-atmospheric ballistic missiles, but they are
inadequate against the sea-skimming and supersonic
Granits, Moskits and Yakhonts or similar types
(Shipwreck, Sunburn and Onyx - North Atlantic
Treaty Organization codenames) of modern anti-ship
missiles in China's inventory.
Not only
China and Russia have these modern cruise
missiles, so do Iran, India and North Korea. These
missiles can be delivered by SU-27 variants,
SU-30s, Tu22M Blackjacks, Bears, J6s, JH-7/As,
H-6Hs, J-10s, surface ships, diesel submarines or
common trucks.
Adding to the problems
facing aircraft carriers are the SHKVAL or
"squall" rocket torpedoes installed in some
Chinese and Russian submarines and surface ships.
At 6,000 lbs apiece, these torpedoes travel at 200
knots (or 230 miles per hour) with a range of
7,500 yards guided by autopilot. They are designed
to sink aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines.
Again, it is unfortunate for the US and UK to have
no known or existing defenses against this new
generation of rocket torpedoes.
China's
sea mines Complicating matters for the US
aircraft carrier battle groups are the hundreds of
hard-to-detect, rocket-propelled, bottom-rising
sea mines that are anchored and hidden on the sea
bottom covering pre-selected battle sites in the
East China Sea and the Philippine Sea designed to
home in on submarines and surface ships,
particularly aircraft carriers.
These
sophisticated sea mines (EM-52s) have been
deployed by Chinese and Russian submarines before
the missile attack on Taiwan in anticipation of
the major event that is to follow.
Finally, in addition to all these
asymmetric weapons, the US and UK aircraft carrier
battle groups will have to contend with the
thousands of "obsolete" Chinese fighter planes
converted into unmanned combat aerial vehicles
(UCAVs) launching missiles at stand-off positions
and finally diving kamikaze-style into the heart
of the carrier battle groups.
Chinese and
Russian submarines fire their inventory of
anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) and "squall"
rocket torpedoes at the aircraft carriers and
submarines of the US and UK as the carrier battle
groups come within range. As the battle
progresses, the Chinese and Russian submarines
maneuver to the rear of the carrier battle groups
to complete the encirclement.
In less than
an hour after launching the saturation barrage of
missiles on the US and UK naval armada, all the
aircraft carriers and their escorts of cruisers,
battleships and several of the accompanying
submarines are in flames, sinking or sunk, turning
the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea into a
modern-day "Battle of Cannae".
Meanwhile,
the Chinese fleet that conducted a strategic
retreat forms a phalanx along the forward
positions off China's coast, ready to augment the
hundreds or thousands of land-based long-range
surface-to-air missiles of China (SA-10s, SA-15s
and SA-20s) with their own short, medium and
long-range air defense missile systems.
Applying its long-held military doctrine
of "active defense", China also launches
simultaneous missile attacks on the
forces-in-being and logistics-in-place of the US
and its allies in Japan, South Korea, Guam,
Okinawa, Diego Garcia and Kyrgyzstan, hitting
these US bases with missiles armed with radio
frequency weapons, fuel-air explosives and
conventional warheads. As another Chinese military
doctrine states: "Win victory with one strike."
Chinese and Russian missiles
cocked Both Chinese and Russian
inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs),
submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and
the two countries' extensive air defense systems
have been coordinated and ready to respond in the
event that the US and UK decide to retaliate with
a nuclear attack.
In addition, Ranets-E
and Rosa-E radio frequency/electro-magnetic pulse
systems scattered all along China's coastal cities
are on the look-out to neutralize incoming
missiles and aircraft that may respond after the
attack on the aircraft carrier battle groups.
These systems can work in tandem with
airborne-based anti-missile laser systems now in
China's inventory.
China's trump cards
vs the US China's deadly "trump cards"
(ie, the huge holdings of US Treasury bonds, the
anti-satellite weapons system, the supersonic
anti-ship cruise missiles, SRBMs, MRBMs, "squall"
rocket torpedoes, sea mines, UCAVs, DF31A and DF41
road-mobile ICBMs, JL2 SLBMs, air defense system,
IO/EW/IW, and other RMA weapons) are the key
ingredients of the assassin's mace.
China
may not possess any of those expensive aircraft
carriers of the superpower, but it can wipe out
those carrier battle groups with a "single blow"
of its assassin's mace or shashaujian –its
major tool for conducting asymmetric warfare to
defeat the US in a major confrontation over the
Taiwan issue or other issues.
The US may
possess the most powerful war machine in the
world, but it can be defeated by an inferior force
by avoiding the superpower's strength and
exploiting its weaknesses. Again, an integral part
of Chinese doctrine is: "Victory through
inferiority over superiority." One famous Chinese
strategist, Chang Mengxiong, compared asymmetric
warfare to "a Chinese boxer with a keen knowledge
of vital body points who can bring a stronger
opponent to his knees with a minimum of movement".
The sad part for the American people,
particularly the innocent sailors who will be
manning the battle groups, is that even if US
planners come to realize that the aircraft carrier
battle groups (which are the mainstay of the US
Navy and the main instrument of US power
projection worldwide), have been rendered
vulnerable or obsolete by China's assassin's mace.
The US cannot simply change strategy or
discard such a weapons system. To change strategy
or "retool" would mean wasting hundreds of
billions of dollars invested in those highly
sophisticated systems. The strong lobbying of
influential defense contractors making those
systems would make change extremely difficult.
For defense authorities to admit the
strategic blunder constitutes an almost
insurmountable barrier to a change of strategy.
And finally, the loss of hundreds of thousands of
jobs related to those systems may be politically
and economically unbearable for any US
administration to bear should the program for the
aircraft carrier battle groups be scrapped.
Because of these factors, America may be stuck
with an obsolete system that is too expensive to
maintain but will only lose the war for the US
when employed in a major conflict.
Meanwhile, on the Middle East Front
On another major front, on previously
coordinated signals with China and Russia, Iran
lets loose its own barrage of supersonic Granit,
Moskit, Brahmos and Yakhont cruise missiles
carried by trucks or hidden in man-made tunnels
all along the mountainous shoreline of Iran
fronting the Persian Gulf.
The three US
aircraft carrier groups that entered the Persian
Gulf to ensure the unhindered flow of Arab oil are
likely to be helpless "sitting ducks" against the
bottom-rising sea mines and low-flying, supersonic
anti-ship cruise missiles in Iranian hands. In the
process, a couple of oil tankers about to exit the
Strait of Hormuz are hit with the aid of
rocket-propelled sea mines, thus effectively
blockading the narrow strait and stopping oil
supplies from coming out of the Middle East.
A "weak" nation like China or Iran,
without a single aircraft carrier in their
respective navies, could thus obliterate the
carrier battle groups of a superpower. Here, one
can see the hidden and often unnoticed power of
asymmetric warfare, which may well spell the end
of "gunboat diplomacy" in the not so distant
future.
The Central Asian front On yet another major front in Central Asia,
Russian troops lead the other member-countries of
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO -
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan)
into a major offensive against US military bases
in Central Asia.
The bases are first
subjected to a simultaneous barrage of missiles
with fuel-air explosives and electromagnetic pulse
(EMP) warheads before they are overrun and
occupied by SCO coalition forces. The missile
attack on the US bases is followed by a lightning
attack by four mechanized armored divisions coming
from the Yili Korgas pass of China's Xinjiang
province, linking up with Russia's own armored
divisions in a pincer offensive against US forces
in Central Asia and the Middle East.
America crippled on three major
fronts In just a few hours (or days) after
the outbreak of general hostilities, America, the
world's lone superpower, finds itself badly
crippled militarily in three major regions of the
world: East Asia, Central Asia and the Middle
East.
Impossible? Unfortunately, the
answer is no. China now has the know-how
and the financial resources to mass-produce
hundreds, if not thousands, of Moskit, Yakhont and
Granit-type supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles
and "squall"-type rocket torpedoes against which
US and UK aircraft carriers and submarines have no
known defense.
Iran, on the other hand,
already possesses the same supersonic cruise
missiles that can destroy any ship in the Persia
Gulf, including aircraft carriers. Russia and
China, meanwhile, are operating on familiar
grounds close to their territory, compared to the
US, which needs to cross the Atlantic and Pacific
to replenish troops and logistics.
A
geopolitical reality America has to face An important consideration in any US-China
conflict is the geopolitical reality that the US
and its allies will be operating on exterior
lines, while China will operate on interior lines.
This gives China a huge advantage in a major war
in Asia against US and allied forces.
Consider the long sea lanes of
communication (10,000 kilometers) that the US
alliance would be forced to cross each time its
forces had to resupply and you get an idea of the
huge logistics problem that the US would face in a
confrontation with China.
Such lengthy sea
lanes of communication (SLOC) are highly
vulnerable to a gauntlet of Chinese and Russian
submarines lying in ambush along the route laden
with underwater sea mines. This will make
transporting personnel and equipment by the US
over the Pacific or the Atlantic extremely
dangerous and expensive.
Compare this US
handicap with troop movement by Chinese troops
using heavy-lift aircraft, railways and highways
within the China mainland. China's interior lines
of communication are shorter and protected, with
little chance for enemy interdiction. Chinese
troops can concentrate numerically superior forces
rapidly at any given point to defeat invading US
forces one by one with much shorter and less
vulnerable lines of communication.
And in
the event that the US forces and their allies are
lucky enough to land on the Chinese mainland, they
will be faced not only with a conventional
People's Liberation Army of more than 2 million,
but also with a people's militia conducting
asymmetric warfare and a people's war in its
teeming millions. US forces and their allies will
be like a raging bull charging and goring a hive
of killer bees. US forces may be able to set foot
in China, but it is highly doubtful if they could
come out alive.
Grimmer scenarios There is a scenario grimmer than described
above, however, and that is if strategic planners
belonging to that elite group called the Project
for the New American Century decide to launch a
nuclear "first strike" against China and Russia
and risk a mutually-assured destruction: 1)In
defense of Taiwan ... or 2) In launching a
"preventive war" to stop China from catching up
economically and militarily. Or, if China decides
to start an offensive against Taiwan with a
one-megaton nuclear burst 40 kilometers above the
center of the island. Or, if China and Russia
decide to arm a number of their short and
medium-range ballistic missiles and supersonic
cruise missiles with tactical nuclear warheads in
defending themselves against US and UK aircraft
carrier battle groups.
Land-attack
versions of these supersonic cruise missiles armed
with nuclear warheads carried by stealthy Chinese
and Russian submarines can also put American
coastal cities at great risk to nuclear
devastation. Strategic planners must also consider
these worst-case possibilities.
Scenario two: America vs a medium
power "In the Middle East and Southwest
Asia, our overall objective is to remain the
predominant outside power in the region and
preserve US and Western access to the region's
oil." - Paul Wolfowitz
"I cannot think of
a time when we have had a region emerge as
suddenly to become as strategically significant as
the Caspian. But the oil and gas there is
worthless until it is moved. The only route which
makes both political and economic sense is through
Afghanistan." – Dick Cheney in 1998 as chief
executive of a major oil services company
History is replete with vivid examples
where a much stronger and larger force has been
defeated by a weaker and smaller force. The French
were defeated by Vietminh guerrillas in Dien Bien
Phu. Soviet Union forces, still a superpower at
that time, were defeated in Afghanistan. And
another superpower, the United States, was
defeated by "ill-clad, ill-fed and ill-armed"
Vietcong guerrillas in Vietnam.
Asymmetric warfare If the US
pushes through its plan of world domination, then
it should expect all the smaller and weaker
countries that do not wish to be pushed around to
fight back using asymmetric warfare. This is a
form of warfare that allows the weak to fight and
defeat a much stronger foe by "attacking the
enemy's weakness while avoiding his strengths".
The US, for instance, may possess the most
sophisticated weapons system on Earth. It may have
the most modern planes, helicopters, ships, guns,
precision-guided weapons, sophisticated sensors
and command and control systems, but if it cannot
see its adversary, if it is fighting a shadowy and
"invisible" enemy (like American and British
forces are experiencing in Iraq), such advanced
and sophisticated weapons systems are rendered
useless.
In asymmetric warfare, most of
the fighting is conducted at the team level.
Thousands of agile and elusive teams consisting of
two to five members equipped with man-portable
surface-to-air missiles, portable anti-tank guided
weapons, sniper rifles, man-portable mortars,
anti-tank mines, anti-personnel mines, sea mines,
C4 explosives (for making car bombs, booby-traps
and improvised explosive devices or IEDs) riding
on bicycles and motorcycles and fast boats will
make the lives of any invading or occupying forces
extremely miserable.
These "invisible"
agile teams merge with the population most of the
time and come out only when there is a vulnerable
target to strike at. Then, they disappear into the
shadows. They communicate via runners bringing
coded written messages, so there are no electronic
signals to track down. They operate
semi-autonomously, so there are no centers of
gravity that can be targeted.
And since
they are indigenous to the area and united with
the local people, their human intelligence
(humint) is far more superior to that of the
invaders. They will also enjoy a tremendous
advantage in psychological operations (psyops),
for it is much easier to mobilize nationalist
sentiments against a foreign occupier than for an
aggressor to justify occupation.
Asymmetric warfare may be compared to a
fierce lion invading the territory of a school of
piranhas; or a king cobra encroaching into a
colony of fire ants. The lion may be the king of
beasts, mighty and strong, but it is no match
against the tiny piranhas in their own territory.
The sharp fangs and claws of the lion are rendered
useless. The same is true with the cobra's venom.
The analogy applies to the French in Dien Bien
Phu, the Soviets in Afghanistan and the Americans
in Vietnam and now in Iraq.
Asynchronous warfare Aside from
asymmetric warfare, weak nations fighting the
strong can also avail themselves of asynchronous
warfare. If a strong nation invades or occupies a
weak one, the weak bides its time before striking
back. And it strikes at a time and place when and
where the adversary least expects.
An
example is Iraq. The underground resistance
movement in Iraq may recruit Iraqi scientists or
sympathetic scientists of other nationalities to
infiltrate the US (via the Mexican border, for
instance) and manufacture dirty bombs as well as
chemical and biological weapons inside the US.
Such weapons may be brought to Washington and
detonated in or near the US Congress.
They
could also hire a private plane, or buy one
themselves, and use it to spread biological or
chemical weapons they have manufactured in-country
over New York or Washington. They can mail letters
containing anthrax to key offices of vital
services all over the US and paralyze utilities
and other government functions nationwide.
Or they can smuggle, say, the components
of a hundred portable surface-to-air missiles,
assemble them in the US, and employ them
simultaneously in all of the major airports in
America. Or they can employ those portable
surface-to-air missiles to simultaneously target
American airlines taking off or landing in
different international airports all over the
world.
Some major powers may pass on their
research on RMA (revolution in military affairs)
to the Iraqi resistance to be tested inside the
US. These weapons include laser weapons, ultrahigh
frequency weapons, ultrasonic wave weapons,
stealth weapons, high-powered microwave weapons
and electromagnetic guns. They include miniature
robot ants that infiltrate computers, stay dormant
and then activate on the signal to destroy their
hosts. The Iraqi underground could also recruit
hackers to work inside and/or outside the US to
hack into key US systems.
American
crossroad As the sole superpower, the US
stands at a critical crossroad. One road leads to
world domination. Using its pre-eminent military
war machine without equal, it can strike at any
perceived threat, change foreign sovereign regimes
at will, grab precious mineral resources anywhere
in the world and control local economies with its
host of transnational corporations. It can also
sabotage the economy of up-coming rivals, or
launch preventive wars to preempt prospective
competitors and try to defeat them militarily
while they are still weak compared to America.
Such a course of action is very tempting,
especially to leaders with global ambitions of
becoming "Lords of the Earth". But such a road is
full of risks and what is planned on paper, as
what was done in Iraq, may not turn out as hoped.
And such a path will necessarily ignite the
outrage of most right-thinking people. America
will earn for itself the enmity and hatred of
people all over the world.
America had
outlined its blueprint for world domination, by
force if necessary, in the following documents:
National Security Strategy of the United
States of America, September 2001
President George W Bush's speech at the
Graduation Ceremony at West Point, June 1, 2002
Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy,
Forces and Resources for the New Century, a report
of the Project for the New American Century,
September 2000
Defense Planning Guidance written by then
deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz in
February 18, 1992
In these documents, the
US outlined some of its new doctrines and
policies, such as: preventive war, pre-emptive
military action, unilateralism, regime change,
acting as the world's constabulary or "cavalry",
establishment of military bases and spreading US
forces all over the world, control of outer space
and the global commons of cyberspace and control
of the world's oil resources.
The
alternate road, on the other hand, leads to world
leadership. The US can choose to use its power,
wealth and influence to sincerely do good for the
people on this planet. It can lead in easing or
obliterating the debt burden of poor nations, or
in promoting the spread of quality education
through distance learning in remote villages of
developing countries.
It can focus in the
fight against poverty, or the fight against drugs,
or the effort to save the deteriorating
environment of planet earth. It can lead the fight
against HIV/AIDS, or malaria and other deadly
diseases. The whole world is waiting for the US to
lead in these important battles.
If the US
chooses to focus its huge resources on the latter,
I am confident that it will gain the hearts and
minds of people all over the world. Then it can be
a true world leader. Then it can maintain its
preeminent world status. By gaining the world's
sympathy and support, terrorism directed against
Americans and the US mainland will be greatly
minimized. The alternate road, in fact, is the key
to defeating the phenomenon of "terrorism"
gripping the world today.
Victor N
Corpus is a retired brigadier general. He has
a master's degree in public administration from
the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University. His major assignment while serving in
the armed forces of the Philippines was as chief
of the intelligence service.
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