The U.S. may have created a pool of quicksand…and jumped in

By Martin Love

NORTH CAROLINA - It has been suggested that the various hostile moves initiated by the Trump administration against Venezuela and Iran, to cite just two countries under economic siege, is that the U.S. literally has no alternative. No alternative but to try to counter every single development anywhere that might diminish the concept (at the least) of America as the sole superpower and hegemon, as it has been especially since the fall of the Soviet Union. This, it has been argued, is because the U.S. is fundamentally tapped out financially (with over $22 trillion in debt and at least $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities) and must resort literally to stealing resources and power and demanding obeisance wherever it can be had wherever it may be waning.

A simple case in point is U.S. hostility to Germany and Russia over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that may go on line later this year and augment Germany’s and Europe’s access to relatively cheap energy and, as well, shore up if not expand Europe’s relationships both diplomatic and economic with Europe’s natural partner to the east, Russia. But just about anywhere you look, challenges to U.S. hegemony and a multi-polar world are cropping up.

 It appears that the U.S. game plan involves threats of war and destruction unless the various challenges to “empire” can be obviated by other means. But it is definitely a double-edged sword, for as much as the U.S. over extends itself overseas, it also risks internal implosion in the so-called “homeland” and above all, further rejection of the prime lynchpin of U.S. power which is the dollar.

And the U.S. seems clearly to be overplaying its hand. Regarding Venezuela, where the regime-change efforts have so far not gone to plan and “progressed” appears to have stalled out, the only further option seems to be an outright invasion or the stoking of a civil war – both of which even many U.S. elites consider foolish and counter- productive. And regarding Iran, it is absolutely heartening that Iranian leadership has been faithful to the JCPOA, because it does appear that Iran’s steady cool is gaining the Islamic Republic increasing respect and viability.

Meanwhile, desperation in the Trump administration is mounting, just as it seems to be in Israel. In the U.S., for example, there is worldwide disgust at twit Senator Marco Rubio’s tweet this week threatening Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela with Ghaddaffi’s cruel fate in Libya. And in Israel, Netanyahu, desperate to remain in power with the upcoming April 9th election there, has admitted in to his prospective Likud coalition people who even in Israel are considered by some the absolute worst kind of racists, even terrorists -- lingering advocates of those who long ago championed Meir Kahane and the Kach organization, now essentially reconstituted into Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”).

This move by Netanyahu, shifting Israel even farther to the fascist right, is even being condemned by many Jews in the U.S, and by the primary Zionist lobby, AIPAC, which is beginning to realize it is losing its grip on the Palestine narrative and its ability to advocate successfully for the Zionists in the U.S. But real danger exists.

Will Trump, if somehow regime change fails in Venezuela, as its been envisioned by the likes of Pompeo, Pence, Abrams and Bolton, then go for broke with the Zionists and the Saudis in a Hail Mary pass of sorts involving a military attack on Iran, where economic pressures and sanctions have so far failed to create the kind of chaos inside Iran that might destroy the Islamic Republic?

 Will the search for and demands for some kind of insane “victory” in the face of repeated failures by the Trump administration occur? It is possible, but even with that there would be no victory but rather further condemnation of U.S. foreign policy and further erosion of U.S. clout with countries increasingly eager to break with obeisance to U.S. diktat and the dollar, the source of U.S. economic power.

It should, at any rate, be obvious to anyone in the West that Iran does not intend to pursue nuclear weapons, unlike, perhaps Saudi Arabia, which reports suggest has allegedly been receiving or is going to receive critical nuclear technology from the U.S. The hypocrisy is almost unbearable given the fact that of all Middle East regimes, the least “democratic” and the most rogue, aside from Israel, happens to be the Saudis.

 Thus, it appears – as with Venezuela – the real aim of the U.S. is to prevent countries from pursuing independent energy and economic policies. Mounting efforts to conduct business by Venezuela, Iran, Russia and China, among other countries, without the use of the dollar, if successful, would likely crater some major Western banks and financial markets.

In some ways one might conclude that Iran so far has, despite the pain and the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, outwitted Trump and the Neocons by maintaining steadiness and cool – and this is increasingly appreciated and working towards the erosion of harsh views of the Islamic Republic globally.

 Anyone who was a child as I was during the 1950s when the U.S. was largely seen as a force for some good in the world has been thoroughly corrected in the past three decades: the U.S. is all out for itself and no one else, and more and more Americans are, in fact, realizing that if ever there was a rogue superpower, the U.S. is it. At the least citizens in the U.S. are incredibly tired of the various wars initiated by Washington and supported by small-minded psychopaths like Sen. Marco Rubio and his Neocon ilk.