us: losing influence on all fronts

NSS commentary.

Anton Orlovsky in his op-ed below provides details showing that, in his opinion, the US has lost control over the Far East. And this comes in the wake of the US colossal failure in the Middle East, where US coalition members, notably the Kurdish SDF, have recently tried a ploy to keep Syrian troops out of certain parts of their own country, in the vicinity of the hotly contested Deir Ezzor governate, home to the richest energy deposits in the country which the US covets.
Just this week, Syrian ambassador to the UN Walid al-Muallem told the UN: "Syria reserves the right to respond to any violation by the other party.”

This is a clear warning to the US and its proxies to keep clear of Syrian-Russian operations in Deir Ezzor, where Kurdish US proxies have recently attacked their troops fighting terrorists.
In all the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has never been such a frank warning from a Russian ally to the US military to stand clear. BTW, it was really difficult to find any report of this speech online. The West has all but censored this news – understandably because, as Orlovsky states below, the US is fast losing ground everywhere and is desperate to keep this news under wraps. (I finally found it at a web site in Lebanon, where it is still ok to talk about these things).

But the Neocons are nonetheless busy keeping all news less than complimentary to the US Establishment away from the plebes. For instance, the usual anti-Russian subjects senators McCain and Graham, along with another Neocon senator, have managed to ram through a piggy-back provision in a defense bill that will prohibit obliging cable TV companies to carry programming from the Russian Federation. This is a cagey form of soft censorship aimed at further hermetically sealing off their fiefdom, the US territory, from news embarrassing to the US elites – and that would be almost everything of importance that is happening outside US borders. It is amazing what you can’t find these days.

The US is like a landed white shark. It is not going anywhere and is flopping about helplessly at the bottom of the boat, but it still has its teeth.
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Orlovsky’s last sentence at the end of the op-ed about the possibility of Europe changing preferences is not just idle talk. The EU has long been playing ball with China and Russia. Years ago it established yuan clearing centers at key European capitals with a view to accumulating the Chinese currency for settlements of debts – a practice that can only weaken the dollar. Europe also invested heavily in the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and, unlike the US Establishment, which has its head in the sand, is interested in investing in the Belt and Road Initiative Belt and Road Initiative aimed at connecting Asia to Europe and Africa.
 
NSS translation from the Russian of an op-ed in rusvesna.su.

Hegemon crushed: Russia and China "drop the hammer" at the UN

Anton ORLOVSKY

09-17-2017 - 5:30

When Donald Trump entered office, he promised a whole lot. The American argued that the US is an international superpower whose decisions are unshakable. But, as time has shown, this omnipotence is actually gone.

One of Tramp's bold and boisterous statements was the assertion that Pyongyang would not acquire intercontinental missiles that could threaten the United States in the future. But in the issue of North Korea, the Americans had to make concessions to Beijing and Moscow, because there was a high probability that China or Russia would impose a veto on the US resolution and would not allow the document to go forward.

Moscow and Beijing managed to remove from the document the provocative details of the resolution, which could only provoke Pyongyang, and not force it to start thinking about it. So, Russia and China did not allow the Americans to introduce any oil embargoes, stop ships on the high seas, or deport labor migrants.

This is despite the fact that Russian and Chinese missions to the UN supported sanctions against the DPRK. To a lesser extent, they pressed on the DPRK, so as not to cross the "red line", possibly provoking Kim Jong-un.

And this date - September 11, can be safely entered into the annals of history as a day when the US finally lost influence in the Far East.

It is noteworthy that the inability of the United States to contain the "North Korean regime" and force it to abandon the development of nuclear weapons is not the only time in recent years that the US has failed to assert its own position.

The North Korean failure was preceded by three other setbacks: at the Russian borders, where the US supported the color revolutions (Georgia, Ukraine), the Americans failed to foresee Russia’s reaction, thus preventing them from achieving their goals; in Syria, where Washington intended to curtail the "Assad regime", but achieved nothing; in Central Asia, where gross mistakes by the United States and indulgence towards Pakistan led to the strengthening of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In the big geopolitical game, Washington is giving up its positions, and the firmness, determination and steadfastness they once had are moving to the second and third rung. And Russia and China are already applying for the position of world leaders. And not as international hegemons, but as states offering to work on mutually beneficial terms. Together, and not dictated, as the US has always demanded.

Further it is obvious that in this scenario, it is on Donald Trump’s watch that Washington will finally lose the political gravitas that it once had. It is possible that even Europe will change its preferences after a while.

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