Marching to Armageddon

Headlong towards World War III?
By Ramón Santiago writes from Mexico City
Mar 28, 2007, 03:07

The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) – Rebuilding America’s Defenses published in September 2000 and authored by infamous hawks and neo cons such as Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle is the blueprint for the US world domination and the wars of the future and now, those of the recent past. The PNAC was founded in 1997 by well-known Zionist neo-conservatives Robert Kagan and William Kristol of the Weekly Standard. It is almost the operational stage to implement in the real world George H. W. Bush’s idea of a New World Order proposed after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Without wanting to be “corny” or “alarmist” and be accused of using the following comparison to “demonize” the Bush regime, the only other blueprint for world domination in recent history was Hitler’s Mein Kampf written in 1923–24 when he was in jail.

Hitler came to power democratically and constitutionally in 1933 and six years later plunged the world into a conflict which cost 50 million lives and destroyed most of Europe and Japan, as well as western parts of the Soviet Union. The PNAC blueprint for world domination has now been activated in 2001 with the invasion of Afghanistan. Iraq followed and there have been threats to Syria and Iran.

In an interview with John Pilger, PNAC co-author Richard Perle stated on the US war on terrorism,

"No stages, this is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq . . . this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war . . . our children will sing great songs about us years from now."

Diplomacy is out of the window since all the plans have been laid about which countries to invade next. Members of PNAC are so self-assured they are advancing the US best interests that they publish policy papers specifically outlining their plans, plans that many fear may be laying the groundwork for a Third World War.

In the original PNAC document the following quote is telling:

“The process of transformation is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.” The “new Pearl Harbor” came and went as the Twin Towers were demolished (“pulled” in demolishment jargon) and within hours both Wolfowitz and Cheney were calling for an invasion of Iraq, even before anyone knew who had been responsible for the attacks.

Since that time five and a half years ago, no WMD’s have been found in Iraq, no nuclear weapons, no link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden is still as elusive as ever. So, the justification for invading Afghanistan and Iraq was based on lack of evidence, outright lies, spun and diffused by the corporate media in the pay and at the service of the GOP dominated by hawks and neo cons – especially Fox News. The motivation was not revenge since there’s no proof that Saddam or Osama had anything to do with the attacks on the WTC. The justification was, and still is, the blueprint of the PNAC since these plans have to be executed. This is US foreign policy under the Bush regime and will probably be the same under the “Hillary regime”. The underlying reason is oil and the sustainability of the American Way of Life meaning US world domination.

In a similar way Hitler followed his blueprint using the catalyzing event of the Reichstag fire in 1933, later revealed in declassified documents to have been set by Hermann Goering, to blame this on Jews and communists and so launch a witch hunt against these undesirables. The Lebesraumpolitik (living space policy) described in Mein Kampf led to the conquest of other nations and the demonizing of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other minorities who had to be exterminated to “cleanse the world of such filth”. Nowadays, the corporate media demonizes Arabs and Muslims as “terrorists” as an adjunct to justify military invasions in terms of public opinion and thus the media play their insidious role in furthering the PNAC.

The next PNAC target is Iran. As usual Iran is being painted as a “nuclear threat” since it is enriching uranium to generate electricity. Iran has to do this now since its oil reserves will be almost depleted by 2020. This is like the Iraq-WMD pack of lies so as to justify any attack in the eyes of US public opinion and look as if the US is acting in the interests of “national security” since Iran is now a nuclear threat and could build the Bomb. It is strange that India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons and are not seen as a menace by the US, when neither country has signed the nuclear non proliferation treaty!

At the time of writing the crude oil price has risen to around US$64/barrel due to tension with Iran. This time 15 British sailors were arrested and taken prisoner after violating Iranian territorial waters. This incident may not mean very much but the British navy vessel involved, HMS Cornwall, is filled with the latest electronic gadgetry and the captain must have known where his sailors were. Today Blair said that “efforts to release the 15 Royal Navy personnel will enter a "different phase" if diplomatic moves fail.” Does this sound like a veiled threat?

After Blair’s statement and coincidentally or otherwise, the US Navy has begun its most extensive maneuvers in the Gulf region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but denies saber-rattling aimed at Iran.

Two days ago, on his weekly TV program, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez read an article aloud and on air from the Russian media which stated that “the US attack on Iran was slated for 4am on Friday (Good Friday) April 6th and is due to last until 4pm the same day. 21 nuclear facilities would be targeted, but not the atomic reactor being constructed jointly by Iran and Russia.”

Let’s all hope that the Russian piece President Chavez read aloud is based more on rumor and speculation than facts. But when he read out this news, the US maneuvers in the Gulf has not begun. Involved in what are hopefully just maneuvers are two aircraft carriers, plus their strike groups in the region and war games have begun involving as many as 100 US war planes.

An attack on Iran and a possible land invasion to take oil installations would place the US Empire on the doorstep of both Russia and China – the main obstacles to US world domination. The closeness of the US to these countries’ borders in Iran and Afghanistan could generate a standoff. In contrast to the nations already invaded, Russia and China possess nuclear weapons and have the delivery systems to launch the missiles.

However, PNAC member Richard Perle, when he was in the Reagan administration calling for coups in Central America, claimed that a nuclear war with Russia could be "winnable”. This attitude is highly dangerous for the whole planet, and with US nuclear hegemony greater than ever, there is no reason to doubt that Perle and his cohorts are even more convinced that a nuclear conflict could be “winnable” twenty years later if a conflict were to arise with either China or Russia. PNAC implicitly foresees this possibility if either country is a threat to US global preeminence. It is unrealistic for the US to fight a conventional war in either of these countries due to the geography and demographics of both.

Assuming the Iranian adventure goes ahead – and we sincerely hope and pray that common sense prevails and it does not – the next target could be Venezuela. With the largest oil reserves of any country on the planet, these resources are just a few hours tanker ride away from the Gulf of Mexico coast and vital as US supplies dwindle. The Bush administration has been at loggerheads with President Chavez for almost 7 years.

Chavez’s vision of integrating Latin America and the Caribbean basin, a multi polar world as opposed to a PNAC unipolar one, plus ideological differences in terms of fair trade versus free trade, socialism versus capitalism and his emphasis on national sovereignty are all anathema to the neo con mindset. In no way do they dovetail with US national interests or “US preeminence” in PNAC speak.

Pressure is continually brought to bear on Venezuela using the corporate and international media misrepresenting and manipulating the reality of the Bolivarian Revolution. The next two years will signal what plans the US has for Venezuela, but that is the subject of another article if and when tensions and US threats are stepped up.

The Bush regime will end in early 2009 and perhaps a more moderate president will be elected and diminish world tensions by replacing PNAC with a more “realpolitik” foreign policy. The hawks will definitely try to push their PNAC plans forward in the coming two years while Bush is still in the White House. This could mean that the world will be heading into a more dangerous phase than at anytime since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

© Copyright 2007 by AxisofLogic.com

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