Signs of the Times – part 7
Quotes of the Day:
“We’re in the early stages of what I would describe as the third World War…” Newt Gingrich, former Republican leader of the US House of Representatives.
“During the Cold War, the concept of ‘mutual assured destruction’ (MAD) was put forth. An understanding of the devastating consequences of nuclear war largely contributed to avoiding the outbreak of war between the US and the Soviet Union. Today, in the post-Cold war era, no such understanding prevails. The specter of a nuclear holocaust, which haunted the world for half a century has been relegated to the status of “collateral damage” Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics (emeritus), University of Ottawa.
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Albert Einstein.
The World is preparing for WWIII. In former times when nations were maneuvering for war, it was important to seize control of the ”high ground” – this is because the high ground would dominate the battlefield. In this modern era, the high ground is no longer control over physical height, it is control over resources. All the nations of the world have recently become obsessed with accumulating and controlling resources. China for example has a vociferous appetite for resources. Some countries are doing very well out of the demand – in Australia for example, they cannot dig the country up fast enough and ship it off to China. But access to resources is not the primary concern – it is control over resources the nations are competing for. Again China has been very active, it has managed to secure 90% control over all the rare minerals and metals in the world, and it recently announced that it was placing restrictions on releasing them into the marketplace. China has also replaced the Western Alliance as the donor of choice for most African nations. This is because China does not attach conditions when it negotiates aid and trade agreements with third world countries, such as improving human rights. [For example China has no qualms about dealing with Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe]. Therefore China has been welcomed in Africa. And China is not only securing control over oil and other resources, but it also buying land for food production. They have Chinese ”boots on the ground” all over Africa. I myself was recently in Uganda and I witnessed the Chinese building a road through difficult terrain into the Congo. It is naive to think that this was being done simply for altruistic aid. The Congo is one of the richest prizes in Africa as far as resources go, and the Chinese will use the road to bring the resources out and ship them to China.
Another necessary preparation for war is to have secure lines of supply. So, after China has secured control, how does it plan to transport the resources home? In order to accomplish this China has been building what the American Department of Defense calls a ”string of pearls.” These are strategic spots on the sea route from Hong Kong to the coast of the Sudan in Africa. The most important of these pearls is the Pakistani port of Gwadar. This is because China is building into its supply route a back-up plan. China is well aware that the American navy rules the seas – so when it comes to the most vitsl resource of all, oil, China is planning to build an oil pipeline from the port of Gwadar, through Pakistan, to China.
Which is where the story gets interesting because this same port used to be the key to America’s plans as well. One of the sub-plots (maybe even the main plot) to the American intervention in Afghanistan was to build an oil pipeline from the oil rich central Asia area, through Afghanistan to the port of Gwadar. The company that was going to build this pipeline was Unocal [Hamid Karzai, the man who was installed as president of Afghanistan, was a former high level executive at Unocal]. If you look at a map of where this pipeline was to be built, you will find that this is also where most of the American military bases have been built – [in order to protect the pipeline – are we surprised that the military is used to protect big business? – we should not be – have you ever heard of the military/industrial complex?].
Unfortunately, for America, as the road to WWIII is trod, Pakistan will go with China. Pakistan and China are natural allies because of their mutual hostility to India. The Arabs have a proverb that says: ”the enemy of my enemy is my friend” – and this is what pushes Pakistan and China together. In fact, Pakistan has become so vital to China, that after the ”we finally found Osama bin Laden hiding in Pakistan – and we killed him” episode – China formally warned America that meddling in Pakistan’s internal affairs was tantamount to declaring war on China. The problem is, Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and they have to be”neutralized” preferably before WWIII starts. [Interesting note: a helicopter was recently shot down in Afghanistan with large American casualties– the Navy Seal team, that led the operation in Pakistan, against Osama bin Laden, were all on that helicopter and they all died. This is contrary to their own internal rules and regulations – they are such valuable special forces that they are never supposed to travel together as a group, in order to avoid the very thing that happened to them].
So what is the Western Alliance doing to counteract Chinese expansionism? They are doing plenty. The policy they are following is similar to the same policy that they followed during the cold war – containment. But this time it is ”containment plus.” We can illustrate by looking at two African countries which have been much in the news recently – Sudan and Libya. What do Sudan and Libya have in common? Answer: they are both oil producing countries, they are both Muslim and they are both very important to China.
In Sudan China, has invested billions in the oil industry, including a 40% stake in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co., and in pipelines that take the oil to the coast, for shipment to China. However, as soon as China became active in Sudan, the country basically blew itself to pieces. All sorts of internal strife was exacerbated and increased dramatically, and new conflicts started. The end result is that, in the Sudan, where there was once one nation, there are now two. And it just so happens that most of the Sudanese oil is now located inside the newly established borders of the new nation of South Sudan –effectively shut off from Chinese control – access to the oil yes – but control? No!
The same scenario is being played out in Libya. Here are some little known facts about Libya: Libya has a sovereign fund of over US$50 billion. After Libya lost its pariah status (because of Gaddafi’s support for terrorism) and Libya was accepted back into the community of nations in 2006, the money in this fund was largely invested overseas. The Libyan dictator, Colonel Gaddafi, recently proposed to give most of the profits from this fund and other oil revenues directly to the Libyan people [the reason for this was because he was sick of the corruption of the officials in his own regime – he actually proposed sacking his whole government and replacing the officials]. Now that Gaddafi is about to go – who gets the money? Answer: whoever is powerful enough to seize it. My guess, is that NATO will hand the new Libyan regime a bill of US$50 billion, for bombs and other services, and the $50 billion will disappear into hands that desperately need it. [The only difference between the poor and the super rich in the Babylonian system is this: the poor people worry about where their next $50 is coming from and the super rich worry about where thier next $50 billion is coming from. Well in this case it will be coming from Libya – but it will not last them very long – soon they will have to look elsewhere – because the appetite of the ”beast” is insatiable]. Another interesting fact about Libya is that some years ago Libya found massive reserves of fresh, pure water, under the Sahara desert. Since then equally massive infrastructure has been built to bring the water to the coastal areas of Libya [this is truly one of the greatest engineering feats of modern times – they are constructing ”man made rivers”]. In the coastal areas equally massive food production was being planned, and had in fact already begun. The desert was about to bloom and Libya was poised to become a much bigger player on the international scene [because water is also becoming a scarce resource – especially in that part of the world].
Guess who has been helping Libya with all this development? China has approximately 50 different development projects in Libya worth about US$20 billion dollars. China was forced to organiize a massive evacuation of over 34,000 Chinese company workers from Libya. So, once again with the latest developments in Libya, as in the Sudan, China loses – this is ”containment plus.”
The problems facing both Sudan and Libya, are obviously complex with many interweaving causes. But these problems have been manipulated and used to ”role back” Chinese influence in Africa and prevent China from gaining control of resources. The strategy behind Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Grand Chess Board is not just applicable to Asia but also Africa. Both the situation in Sudan and Libya, have worked out to the Western Alliance advantage and to the detriment of China. I guess this is why the Western Alliance has been bombing Libya and not China.
To be continued…
God bless, Bruce Telfer.
