New U.S. military strategy: USA shifts from Russia to China

It is clear in the Pentagon’s new shift in military policy that Russia is not any more seen as an “enemy”, that Iraq, Iran and North Korea are, and that China, while enjoying a healthy commercial exchange with the USA, is being eyed with suspicion. It is in the light of the arrogance shown by Washington, in continuing to perform reconnaissance missions off the Chinese coast, weeks after a serious incident involving the US EC3E aircraft (provoking the death of a Chinese pilot) and the sale of 4 billion USD of military equipment to Taiwan, regarded by Peking as a rebel state. Insensitivity of this kind has produced the obvious result : China is not going to give the USA its plane back so easily. The Xinhua News Agency quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Sun Yuxi, as stating that the USA “should correct its mistakes. The Chinese side stated clearly that it is impossible for the American EP3 to fly out of Hainan. China has constantly complained about American spy flights and will continue to discuss the restarting of such flights by the USA”. The reaction from the White House, however, is peremptory. Ari Fleischer, White House spokesperson, stated that “it is the prerogative and right (of the USA) to make flights over international airspace which preserve peace”. The Pentagon’s strategy follows the conception within the USA today that it needs to adopt a changing policy in a changing world. A top-level US team flew into Brussels yesterday, where it claimed in the NATO meeting that “the world has changed” and that there are “new threats”. Marc Grossman, of the US Department of State, told Lord Robertson, Secretary-General of NATO that “The world of 2001 is not the same as the world in 1972. Russia is not our enemy any more”. It is a fact that since the explosive interview given by US National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice to a French magazine, reported by Pravda.Ru, in which it was claimed that Russia continued to be a threat, has been constantly played down by Washington since Pravda.Ru’s position was made public. Washington insists that Moscow will be consulted on the Star Wars plan. “We want to reflect together on the way we want dissuasion to function in the 21st Century. The decisions on how, when and how much have not yet been taken”, said Marc Grossman. It is incredible how the mechanisms of today’s world work. First, the plot, second the stage, third, the actors and fourth, the sponsor. The fact is that today’s world is a comedy of errors, a theatre of the absurd, a virtual Greek tragedy which has become real. While billions of dollars are spent on weapons systems, children in Brazil are sniffing glue to avoid hunger, more money is involved in drugs, arms and human trafficking than in protection schemes for those who are dying of hunger. More is spent on international meetings of executives who go globe-trotting with no clear purpose in mind, than would be necessary to secure safe sanitary conditions for whole countries in the developing world. If the United States wants some cheap advice on how to manage dissuasion, the answer is very simple. Go home, and stay there.

TIMOTHY BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.RU LISBON