Page 3 of 5 REVAMPING US
FOREIGN POLICY, Part 3 The rising pole of
the East By W Joseph Stroupe
in all spheres of endeavor that
increasingly bind themselves to one another in
real terms and that is fundamentally centered on,
irreversibly focused on, the East, not on the
West.
That profoundly meaningful new
development, namely the arising of an interwoven
and cohesive new East-centric global grouping with
truly unmatched economic and energy-based clout,
is
fundamentally flowing against
and undermining the foundations of the US-backed
liberal global oil-market order, reworking the
entire geopolitical landscape and unhinging the
very underpinnings of US-led unipolarity, and the
grouping's jubilant members fully know it.
The question is asked, "Why should anyone
believe that the rising powers in the East will
truly act cohesively enough to be able to present
a real challenge to the US global position?" It
must be remembered that the rising poles in the
East and their energy-exporting partners around
the globe do not exist, and do not act, in a
vacuum. They operate in a world still inordinately
dominated by the US. It is a US determined to hold
on to its position by keeping all challengers
down, by force if need be.
The pent-up
global tensions arising out of what is seen as 15
years of grossly inequitable US-led unipolarity
now need only a spark to ignite a reversion to a
full-blown neo-Cold War and the accompanying
global polarization into East and West. That
polarization will be accompanied also by a further
galvanizing of the powers around the globe that
oppose US global dominance.
The spark will
be the next military campaign undertaken by the
United States against one of the members of the
so-called "axis of evil" - most likely Iran. The
current US administration is facing an imminent
Iraq-based collapse of its Middle East aspirations
and fortunes, and no one should miscalculate US
determination to get a "win", to hold on to its
global position and to cut Iran and other rivals
down to "proper" size to try to ensure that win.
Consequently, US actions themselves will only
further strengthen the already considerable
cohesion among the members of the multifarious
East.
The Iraq invasion of 2003 galvanized
the globe's players in opposition to the US. The
sparks mentioned above will further consolidate
the members of the multifarious East in opposition
to US-led unipolarity. Inevitable, impending US
actions along militaristic lines are very potent
unity multipliers for the array of poles
comprising the rising East.
As long as the
US exists as a superpower and seeks to retain and
acquire (or reacquire) inordinate dominance over
the global order, then the cohesiveness of the
East will be strengthened and assured. Since the
US cannot be made to cease to exist as a military
and economic superpower, but only constrained and
harnessed tentatively by an East that must stay on
its toes constantly, then there is little chance
the rising East will either fail to achieve the
cohesiveness forecast here or suffer a loss of
that cohesiveness once it is fully attained.
Its common foe, the US itself, isn't
disappearing from the global scene any time soon,
and once the US is shifted out of its global
position it will unceasingly try to reacquire that
position, obliging ongoing vigilance and unity in
the East.
The potency of the rising
East It must be emphasized that the intent
of the rising East is not to destroy or to
collapse the US or its economy. Instead, it is to
shift the US out of its position of global
dominance and to take the reins of the US economy,
like a cherished bull, and to impress it into
service to the interests of the rising East.
This concept should not seem too
hypothetical or be too foreign to the mind of the
reader, for the adroit task described here is
already being accomplished. The US economy and
those of the wider West are already being tasked
by foreigners to support an ongoing and massive
transfer of wealth to the rising East.
Where does one consider that the enormous
foreign-exchange reserves and the huge trade
surpluses of the so-called emerging economies in
the East came from? How did the global economic
landscape completely reverse from that of
independent economic strength and wealth in the
West to that of a West largely absent its former
independent economic strength and steeped in red
ink, and mounting economic might and ascendant
wealth in the East? The economies of the West, and
in particular the US, are already being massively
harnessed to serve the interests of the rising
East.
Thus, contrary to the
conventional-wisdom-based argument that says the
US economy is too big and too powerful to be
threatened by the rising East, the US economy is
already being "harmed" and "threatened" in a very
real sense; it is being yoked by foreigners in the
East to serve the purposes of the East.
Even a powerful ship of immense size and
strength is entirely controlled by only a few
individuals at the helm and by its comparatively
tiny rudder. Who is genuinely at the helm of a US
economy excessively dependent on foreign cash
inflows and financing from the East, massively
dependent on foreign sources of oil from exporters
tightly aligned with the East, a US economy
sinking in red ink that has already forfeited an
excessive degree of its former independent might
and has thereby sacrificed its former autonomy?
The stark facts reveal that US government
officials at the Federal Reserve and in the White
House have largely been playing with a toy plastic
steering wheel, as it were, while the genuine helm
is largely manned by others in the East. The
repeated complaints
