Defending Against a Supertyrant

As I’ve written before, one of the predictable effects of U.S. foreign policy under George II is the drawing together of other nations in defensive alliances against the Americans – and the heightening of military defenses by individual countries. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin spoke on the latter point in Munich yesterday, blaming U.S. policy for inciting other countries to seek nuclear weapons to defend themselves from an "almost uncontained use of military force.”

"Unilateral, illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem; they have become a hotbed of further conflicts," Putin said at a security forum attracting senior officials from around the world. "One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way."

“It is the almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations" that is forcing countries opposed to Washington to seek to build up nuclear arsenals. "It is a world of one master, one sovereign. ... It has nothing to do with democracy," he said. "This is nourishing the wish of countries to get nuclear weapons. This is very dangerous; nobody feels secure anymore, because nobody can hide behind international law."

"What is a unipolar world? No matter how we beautify this term it means one single centre of power, one single centre of force and one single master. It has nothing in common with democracy because that is the opinion of the majority taking into account the minority opinion. People are always teaching us democracy but the people who teach us democracy don't want to learn it themselves."

So true. Putin spoke bluntly, but even diplomatic words can’t disguise the natural law that nations threatened by a strong potential aggressor (“You are either with us or against us, and you’ve seen what we do to countries that are against us”) seek to increase their strength in order to defend themselves.

One way to increase defensive strength in today’s world, as Putin said, is acquire or increase nuclear arsenals. North Korea reacted to fear of a U.S. attack by taking that route, and it may have been effective. Iran is threatened overtly by nuclear-armed Israel as well as by Bush. Iran knows that Israel has never shown the slightest respect for international law and has aggressively bombed not just neighbors like Lebanon but also countries as far away as Iraq. Just as Putin knows that the Bush United States wants to be the uncontested bully of the world, Iran knows that Israel wants to be the uncontested bully of the Middle East. We see the “Putin Principle” in action as Iran builds up its military power and seeks at least civilian uses of atomic energy. Iranian officials are saying on this day that Iran has no aggressive designs against Israel, and that is no doubt true, but Israel does not respond with similar reassurances to Iran.

The Bush/Israeli way is to use deadly force unrestrainedly against any challenger or even potential challenger, without regard to how many people are killed. World politics have sunk to the lowest possible level: The strongest country openly declares that it, and its dwarfish Iago astride Palestine, will dominate all the other countries of the world, attacking them with nuclear weapons if necessary.

Faced with that situation, nations which feel threatened will increase their strength not only by adding muscle to their own military, but also by forming alliances. The main area of alliances which I see in the making is that part of the Earth which includes Russia, China, and Iran. Afghanistan and Pakistan are in the same geographical area, which includes the potential power of the “Heartland” of Geopolitical theory. Those countries don’t have to love one another to draw together for mutual defense. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Another area for natural alliances for defense against U.S. abuse of power is Latin America. The seeds are visibly sprouting now.

This is going to be a long-term process. We shall see.