By Zahra Samimi
TEHRAN - American political analyst Martin Love believes that Washington has failed in West Asia and its allies are becoming world pariahs.
“The overall problem for the U.S. is that it is witnessing the birth of a multipolar world and does not know how to adapt any longer, or easily, to not being the sole hegemon, and the use of military power has failed both in West Asia and Southeast Asia (since Vietnam) And its allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel are fast becoming world pariahs,” Love tells the Tehran Times.
While the U.S. is striving to expand its influence in East Asia, Latin America as Washington’s backyard is progressively emerging from years of U.S.-backed dictatorships and right-wing governments.
Elected governments in Latin America and West Asia tend to adopt independent policies rather than following America’s dictates.
“Several countries in the U.S. ‘backyard’ continue to try to defy the U.S. Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and maybe even Chile with its new government and even Bolivia,” Love argues.
Following is the text of the interview:
Q: How do you see U.S.-Russia's recent escalation over Ukraine?
A: Russia is not in fact “escalating” much except moving a lot of troops near Ukraine but still on Russian soil, but the U.S. and minions want to think it is escalating to justify sending arms to Ukraine and maybe 8500 troops to eastern Europe and thus raising alarms.
Whatever, it’s a big distraction created entirely by the U.S., and daft Biden even allegedly threatened nuclear war, which I don’t think has been done before since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“Iran, China and Russia are continuing to develop and shore up their alliances in every respect at the same time that the U.S. begins to lose critical support in Europe for its postures.” The escalation seems entirely on the U.S. side unless one believes Russia moving troops around on its own territory near or at the Ukraine border is any kind of real escalation. Sure, it may look like preparations for an invasion of some kind but it’s hard to believe Russia would invade Ukraine over eastern Ukraine and its mostly Russian-speaking civilians whom the Russians do want to protect from attacks by Ukrainian forces. Rumors regarding Russian intentions, most of them anyway, are probably false. To demonstrate how bizarre Biden is: in a news conference Biden heard a question by a reporter asking about rampant inflation in the U.S., a concern for every American, and was heard commenting via a hot mic that the reporter was a “stupid son of a bitch”. Rumors are all over the map over Russian intentions. One has it that Putin wants to replace the government in Kiev with one friendly to Russia. However such may be welcomed by Putin, the Ukraine government is a mess, as is Ukraine, and it is doing a good enough job harming itself. But it’s hard to imagine Putin would take the bait and launch an invasion, as ever, the U.S. is desperately trying to stir up trouble. Biden was a leader promoting the coup as Vice President under Obama years ago.
Q: Do you predict NATO will surrender to Russia or it is going to surround it?
A: It depends on what is meant by “surrender” to Russia. Russia has not yet DONE anything that must be surrendered to. But in any case, if Russia invades Ukraine or crosses the border, it is going to be met with draconian sanctions and perhaps outright war, which will be a disaster for the U.S., for Ukraine, and for Europe. And perhaps for Russia also. Russians cannot forget what happened in Afghanistan years ago.
Q: What would be the U.S.'s reaction if another power tries to enter into its backyard or its sphere of influence?
A: Several countries in the U.S. “backyard” continue to try to defy the U.S. Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, and maybe even now Chile with its new government and even Bolivia. They all are tired of U.S. diktat over decades and just want to be left alone to develop as they see fit without the usual U.S. interference. There has been talk about Russia and China establishing a presence in Venezuela, assisting Cuba, extending the Belt and Road initiative of economic support to South and Central America. Moves by Russia and China to expand their spheres of influence may well occur or be occurring, but to be clear, it seems unlikely the U.S. can do much about this and are not going to invade Cuba or Venezuela one must presume. The U.S. does NOT itself have the power or influence it once had in its “backyard”. But the overall problem for the U.S. is that it is witnessing the birth of a multipolar world and does not know how to adapt any longer, or easily, to not being the sole hegemon, and the use of military power has failed both in West Asia and Southeast Asia (since Vietnam). And its allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel are fast becoming world pariahs.
Q: Why is the U.S. insisting on entering other powers' spheres of influence like what we see in escalation with Russia over Ukraine and China over Taiwan?
A: The “why” is obvious. The U.S. cannot fathom losing its perch as the unipolar behemoth. It is scared and seems to lack the creative thinking necessary to maintain the degree of influence it has enjoyed since World War II. A frightened U.S. blusters and threatens, as it always has for decades, but extant military power isn’t the key to maintaining real leadership across the globe especially at a time when the world is suffering a pandemic and its own economy and monetary system and the dollar are closer than ever to implosion. Some history is important: Germany and Russia built a gas pipeline that if it ever becomes operational it stands to benefit all of Europe. But then along comes the U.S. with its Empire in decline with interference and it tells Europe what it should do or not and Europe said until very recently “Okay”. Now we witness Germany but also France and Italy balking at the U.S. demands which suggest U.S. arrogance, hubris and even incompetence to some European leaders. A former CIA employee who used to brief Presidents, Ray McGovern, has provided his own view, too, that “Godot (from Harold Pinter’s play of long ago) is likely to arrive before Russia invades Ukraine!” Europe, in any event, seems to be wising up to a dangerous U.S. and the U.S. Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, seems well out of his depth and facing some rejection.
Q: How do you read new moves of Iran, China and Russia in inking strategic partnerships and exercising joint military exercises? Are they a reaction to U.S. interventionist policies?
A: Iran, China, and Russia are continuing to develop and shore up their alliances in every respect at the same time that the U.S. begins to lose critical support in Europe for its postures. Raisi had a very successful recent visit to Russia. Raisi told the Russians that Iran has been resisting the U.S. for over 40 years, and he was apparently well-received. Meanwhile, the U.S. has so far failed to give Iran guarantees over the JCPOA’s sustainability. Part of the problem is that President Biden is casting about in all the wrong ways to regenerate support at home, where his approval rating is only about 30 percent, and also abroad. Iran definitely seems to be on the right track, looking East, and China, Russia and They are developing a new bank clearing network to compete with the SWIFT system and has potential member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union on board with the idea. So far Biden’s major threat is cutting Russia off from SWIFT, but some Europeans are aghast at the idea and know quite well that such a move would well sink Europe’s and especially Germany’s economy and as well ultimately harm the U.S. In sum, it’s sad Biden never carried through on most of his campaign promises, even on the war on Yemen. His Presidency smells of utter failure after a year in the White House.
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