By Chris Kanthan

Although the Syrian war is almost over, many Americans still don’t understand what transpired over the last seven years, because the mainstream narrative has been an embarrassing mix of propaganda, half-truths and lies. Three versions of the conflict are presented here and the reader can choose the one that makes the most sense to them.

Disney Version

Once upon a time, a country called Syria was ruled by a ruthless dictator named Bashar Al-Assad. He was a cruel man who gassed his own people. His actions caused a civil war in Syria. America and Europe tried their best to stop the devastating civil war, and even generously accepted many Syrian refugees. Eventually America went to Syria, defeated ISIS, and is now trying to restore stability.

This above version is quite popular among many Americans and Europeans.

High School Version

Oppressed by Assad’s brutal regime, the Syrian people longed for freedom and democracy. One day, people started protesting in a small city. In response, Assad killed many peaceful protesters. However, this backfired and the entire country was engulfed in protests. Soon a civil war broke out, which led to millions of refugees fleeing Syria.

America was appalled and, for humanitarian reasons, decided to help the Syrians who were fighting Assad. When Assad gassed his own people, America intervened and removed all his chemical weapons. Unfortunately, Assad managed to gas innocent civilians again after a few years. Then, America went to Syria, defeated ISIS, and is now trying to restore stability.

The above version is presented in most mainstream media.

College Version

Simply put, the Syrian “civil war” is an illegal, proxy war waged against Syria. In defiance of international laws, many countries have been sending weapons and terrorist mercenaries into Syria for the last six years (if you want to gain a deeper understanding of who wants to topple Assad and why, please read my article: “Chaos in Syria: Part 1 – Three Motives and Seven Countries”.

2011

In early 2011, US/UK special forces used Jordan’s military base to organize protests against Assad in a border town called Daraa. With Muslim Brotherhood’s organizational skills and Saudi Arabia’s deep pockets, violent protests spread thru Syria. Soon, an organized and armed militia known as Free Syrian Army (FSA) was created by the outsiders.

After the fall of Gaddafi in late 2011, deadly weapons such as Stinger missiles and Sarin gas were shipped from Libya to Syria, via Turkey. Even with all this help, FSA couldn’t win the war. At this point, NATO and Neocons wanted to bomb Syria, but Russia and China vetoed the motion in the UN, so the war of attrition moved on to the next phase.

2012

In early 2012, someone dialed Al Qaeda (referred to as AQ or AQI in government documents). Zawahiri, AQ’s top leader, called for help and experienced Islamic terrorists from all over the world rushed into Syria. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, received an email from her chief adviser, saying that “Al Qaeda is on our side.”

Al Qaeda rebranded itself as Al Nusra, and fearsome weapons such as grenade launchers, mortars, tanks and anti-tank missiles started pouring into Syria via Turkey and Jordan.

The CIA spent $100,000 to train each rebel. Billions of dollars were wasted once again on terrorists.

Watching the Western media, one wouldn’t know that we were supporting Al Qaeda or how heavily armed these “rebels” were.

Western media and politicians also stuck to their talking points and referred to all these fighters as “moderate rebels.” However, many of them are ruthless Islamists who use suicide bombers, behead even children, and commit unspeakable atrocities. They are also religious fanatics who seek out and kill Christians and Shiites. I describe this in details in my book, Deconstructing the Syrian War.

At this point, the Syrian war stopped being a civil war and turned into an invasion. A Pentagon memo warned against this reckless policy and precisely predicted the rise of groups such as ISIS. Obviously the memo was ignored by the White House and other officials.

2012 was also the year when the refugee crisis started to become real. By the end of the year, almost 200,000 people had fled Syria. In the coming years, it would swell to five million.

2013

When FSA and AQ failed to oust Assad, the powers-to-be started recruiting Sunni extremists in Iraq. In April 2013, ISIS was officially created. In the next year, these barbaric Salafists would capture much of eastern Syria.

This was also the year when Obama’s red-line was crossed – use of chemical weapons by Assad. UN experts who went to the site soon found that it was actually the rebels who had likely used the chemical weapons. The report was quickly drowned by the Western propaganda machine.

2014-2016

The next two years were just repetitions of the daily brutality of war, with ISIS making huge gains in the east. Whenever the rebels started to lose, either more weapons would flow in, or Israel would fly into Syria and bomb the Syrian army.

In late 2015, the Syrian government sought Russia’s help. Within a month, Putin weakened ISIS by destroying most of the oil tankers that ISIS was using to transport oil to Turkey. By the end of 2016, the Syrian government had the upper hand – Aleppo was liberated from Al Qaeda, and ISIS was running out of cash and morale.

2017

2017 was turning out to be a great year for Assad. By March, ISIS had lost over three hundred towns to the Syrian army.

Secret $1.8 Million Cryptocurrency Script

Al Qaeda was facing a similar demise, losing one big city after another.

Furthermore, Trump had stopped arming the rebels in February. In late March, Trump and Tillerson dropped the slogan “Assad must go.”

Finally, Assad was getting ready for a EU-UN peace conference on April 4-5.

This was the moment – when everything was going in favor of the Syrian government – that the alleged chemical attack occurred in an area controlled by the rebels. Plus it happened on the very day that the peace conference had begun.

Without any investigation, within an hour after the pictures and videos came out, the Establishment concluded that Assad was responsible. No independent doctors or experts were sent to the site. If one took the time to critically analyze the situation, they will see that the chemical attack was was either a hoax or a false flag attack.

2018

After defeating ISIS, the US didn’t just leave Syria, since the real goal is to Balkanize Syria and prepare for a war against Iran. Thus the globalists are now trying to use Kurds as a proxy tool in this effort. It’s likely that the US will have military bases in Syria for a long time. As long as the US government can keep borrowing money, such wild adventures will continue.

In their quest for hegemonic geopolitical goals, the elites are sowing more chaos around the world and irreparably damaging the Western moral compass. The global mafia’s rule seems to be this: if you play by our rules, we will be nice to you. Or else.

Those are the three versions of the Syrian civil war. Which one will Americans believe?

P.S. Here are some links to read if you would like to gain a Ph.D. version of the Syrian conflict:

1. 1956: CIA plot to overthrow the Syrian government


2. 1983: CIA document on plans to obliterate Syria to enable an oil pipeline


3. 1986: CIA document on how to use Muslim Brotherhood to fuel a sectarian (Sunni v. Shiite) civil war in Syria


4. 2001: Wesley Clark told that USA will take out 7 countries in 5 years (Libya, Syria, etc.)


5. 2005: CNN Interview. Christiane Amanpour tells Assad that the western governments are plotting a regime change in Syria


6. 2006: State Dept cable: Detailed discussion of various strategies to enable regime change in Syria


7. 2009: State Dept Email: Saudi Arabia is worried that a Shiite crescent is turning into a full moon (referring to a possible Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon coalition)


8. 2009: State Dept Cable: Saudi Arabia is the #1 source of funding of terrorism worldwide


9. 2012 State Dept Email: Conquest of Syria means a weakened Iran and this is important for Israel


10. 2012: State Dept Email: Use Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to arm/train rebels


11. 2014: Hillary Clinton admits in an email that Saudi Arabia and Qatar fund ISIS


12. 2015: Joe Biden says Saudi Arabia and Qatar arming/funding Al Qaeda in Syria


13. 2016: John Kerry in a leaked audio recording explains how the US trained/armed the opposition and was hoping to use ISIS to force Assad into negotiation


14. 
    Israel’s Mossad chief admits helping Al Qaeda and says that it’s because Al Qaeda never attacks Israel.

Chris Kanthan is the author of a new book, Deconstructing the Syrian War. Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has traveled to 35 countries, and writes about world affairs, politics, economy and health. His other book is Deconstructing Monsanto. Follow him on Twitter: @GMOChannel

By Chris Kanthan

Globalism is just like the mafia, but with lot more complexity and respectability. If you have watched mob films such as The Godfather, you can understand how the world works. For example, in Godfather II, a bunch of mobsters get together in Havana, Cuba, to celebrate Hyman Roth’s birthday. As the birthday cake is symbolically cut into pieces and distributed, Roth tells the group how Cuba will be split up amongst the guests. Extrapolate this scene to the world, you can visualize how the world works.

Corporations to Central Banks

The power structure of global elites is like nested Russian dolls made up of corporations. How many people realize that KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are owned by the same corporation? Or that HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network all report to the same boss? Or that whether you drink Budweiser, Corona, Stella, Busch or Michelob (and dozens of others), you end up paying one giant corporation?

Who controls these corporations? It’s not the CEO, as most people believe. The real control lies in the hands of the largest shareholders and/or the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors of all giant corporations are linked to each other by one or two degrees of separation. Some elites even sit on multiple boards at the same time. For example, Rochelle Lazarus sits on the boards of Merck, GE and Blackstone; Jon Huntsman sits on the boards of Hilton, Ford, Caterpillar and Chevron; and Timothy P. Flynn is a director at JP Morgan Chase, Wal-Mart, Alcoa and United Healthcare. Think for a moment how all these corporations would seem totally unrelated to a regular person.

Below is an image that show how the Boards at Netflix and Procter & Gamble are linked to some other popular corporations. (Note: this is a partial list of connections).

The Board of Directors report to the next level of bosses, the financial overlords. All the public corporations in the West – and much of the world now – are controlled by large shareholders, who are giant financial corporations. Thus a study in 2011 showed that fewer than 150 mega corporations pretty much control all the corporations in the world! Some of these have recognizable names such as Barclays or JP Morgan; other names such as State Street or AXA are hardly known outside the financial circles, yet they have incredible influence and wealth.

For these people, it doesn’t matter if you buy Pepsi or Coke; cars from GM or Ford or Toyota; or produce from Walmart or Safeway. It also doesn’t matter to them if you watch ABC or NBC or Fox. Your money goes to the same place.

By Chris Kanthan

It’s never fun to warn people about an imminent crisis, especially at peak euphoria. Trump and his voters constantly boast about the economy and the stock market and, of course, Obama and his fans did the same during his tenure. This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding about the driving factors behind the deceptively good numbers since the last financial crisis. Let’s deconstruct the fake news about the fake economy.

Let’s start with the stock market. Does this chart of S&P 500 index like a bubble? That’s 250% growth in 8 years!

Since all the Central Banks around the world are linked, the Global Dow has also tripled in the same interval:

Not having learned the lesson from the housing bubble that crashed the global economy, the elites have created a sequel. Here’s the Case Schiller Index for various cities in the US. Do they seem frothy?

The commercial real estate also looks and quacks like a duck:

Around the world, there are massive real estate bubbles in Canada, Australia, UK, etc. (Since the global economies are all linked, you should care.) And Sweden tops them all:

Then there is a new asset bubble: auto loans, which is up 50%.

Another debt bubble that has reached insanity is the student loan, which now stands at $1.4 trillion (doubled since 2009). The student loan was a desperate scheme by the government to reduce the official unemployment rate after the economy tanked in 2008.

The US non-financial corporate debt ($8.7 trillion) and household debt ($13 trillion) are also at record levels.

The federal government has doubled its debt since 2008 and the debt-to-GDP has gone from under 70% to more than 100%:

Three Types of Bubbles: Bad, Worse and Ugly

Bubbles are always bad because they are illogical and, when they burst, cause a lot of pain. A bubble depends on the “greater fool theory,” whereby each person hopes that there will be a bigger idiot who will pay even more for an asset. Bubbles also appeal to the get-rich-quick fantasy.

There are three different types of bubbles.

Irrational Bubble: This is the simplest one that’s caused by hype, herd mentality and greed. Without any change in the fundamentals, the price of a product keeps going up. Whether it’s the Tulip Mania of the 17^th century or the Bitcoin bubble of the 21^st century, the principle driving the irrational exuberance is the same: human psychology.

Debt-driven Bubble: This is worse than a simple bubble, since people get into debts, hoping for a massive return. Mortgage, of course, is the biggest debt for most people. American middle class lost 40% of their wealth after the great financial crisis of 2008, but they forgot all about it a few years later. When the bubble bursts, everyone – families, corporations and governments – are left deeper in the hole (except for the few lucky ones and insiders who make it like bandits).

Bubble Fueled by Debt, Money-Printing and Loose Standards: This is akin to that bartender who seems to have a lot of energy. Then you find out that he had coffee at 9 pm, Red Bull at 10 pm, Ecstasy pills at 11, cocaine at midnight and meth at 2 am. The current bubble is fueled by money-printing by the central banks, artificially low interest rates set by the central banks, and loose standards for loans.

Since the 2008 crisis, the big central banks in the U.S., EU and Japan – Fed, ECB and BOJ respectively – have (digitally) printed more than $10 trillion out of thin air. Then the commercial banks turned them into $100 trillion or more, thanks to the fractional reserve system.

The Fed and other central banks also coordinated their actions and reduced the prime interest rates to virtually zero (“ZIRP” policy) and held it there for 8 years.

Easy money meant that big corporations spent trillions of dollars – including massive debts – to buy back their own shares. The ECB has spent billions buying corporate bonds and the BOJ has spent billions buying stocks. Of course, the stock market has tripled.

Financial engineering also created Housing Bubble 2.0 and other newer bubbles. Keep slashing the required down payments, incomes and credit scores, you will get more new buyers for more expensive homes and cars. Creating a bubble is not rocket science.

Wealth versus Wealth-Effect: Somewhere along the way, we collectively lost the notion of what true wealth is. Earning and saving have been replaced by borrowing, spending and speculating. In this environment, the entire nation has turned into Las Vegas, and Casino Capitalism has become the norm.

Disregard for Fundamentals: Since 2008, the US GDP grew by 35% while the stock market grew by 250%. Does that sound reasonable? Tesla has lost more than $3 billion in the last five years, but its stock price went up 10-fold during the same time. If you invested money in Amazon shares, it will take 250 years to get your money back through its earnings. Australia’s housing market is 4 times its GDP. There’s no logic when the society is caught up in a frenzy.

What’s Next?

This time is not different. All we have done since 2008 is rinse and repeat. We replaced the housing bubble with Everything Bubble. The bubbles will soon start popping all over the world (except for a few countries like Russia that has very low debt). The timing depends on how fast and how much the central banks will raise the interest rates. Even a 2% point rate hike is enough to pop the bubble, since bond markets, housing and stock buybacks are all very sensitive to interest rates. However, even without the interest rate hikes, the debt binge is coming to an end, as households and corporations are close to being maxed out. When there are no more new buyers, there will be a stampede towards the exit door. 2018 might very well turn out to be the year when the house of cards collapses again.

Chris Kanthan is the author of a new book, Syria – War of Deception. It’s available in a condensed as well as a longer version. Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has traveled to 35 countries, and writes about world affairs, politics, economy and health. His other book is Deconstructing Monsanto.

By Chris Kanthan

What’s happening in Iran? Are the protests genuinely spontaneous? Are the grievances authentic and deep-rooted? Or is it a drama created by covert, regime-change puppeteers? And what are the geopolitical implications of the success or failure of these events?

The main purported reason is a failing economy, but some of the protesters are even calling for the end of Islamic Republic.

Undoubtedly, the college-educated, Iranian Middle Class wants to get rid of Sharia Law. After all, Iran was quite secular before 1979.

However, the narrative about the economy makes no sense. Iran’s economy has been booming for the last two years since the US/EU sanctions were removed. If there was an ideal time for an economic uprising, it would have been between 2012 and 2015. Below is a picture of real GDP growth in the last seven years:

As for high unemployment, it’s caused by U.S. sanctions that decimated Iran’s exports; and the high inflation is a result Wall Street’s war on Iran’s currency (Rial). In 2012, Obama also cut off Iran from the world banking system (SWIFT) and froze $100 billion of Iran’s foreign exchange reserves.

However, Iran has managed to thrive by developing new relations and striking lucrative economic deals with many countries.

• 
  China has agreed to invest $25 billion in various projects within Iran


• 
  Qatar is partnering with Iran on the largest natural gas field on earth
  


• 
  Russia has agreed to build a 1200-km gas pipeline from Iran to India; and Russia is working with Iran on linking their banking systems (which means freedom from international bankers)


• Iran is poised to join EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union) and the powerful SCO (Shanghai Co-op Org) in early 2018, and so on.

In foreign affairs, Iran won the Syrian war, defeated ISIS, and successfully negotiated the nuclear deal (JCPOA) with Obama. Even mainstream US media has declared that Iran is the new superpower in the Middle East.

Thus, in domestic and foreign affairs, there are plenty of reasons for Iranians to be hopeful and proud.

What’s Next? The CIA and Israeli agencies have been openly planning regime change operations against Iran for the last year. All the current events are just replays, if you remember the sequence of events in 2011 in Libya and Syria.

Things are escalating rapidly, protesters are turning violent, and terrorist attacks are aimed at crippling the economy. There are videos of protesters burning police stations and attacking government buildings and throwing grenades. Sunni jihadists — favorite proxy soldiers of globalists —blew up oil pipelines on the third day of protests. The next couple of weeks will determine the fate of this attempted coup.

Geopolitical Importance of Iran: There are numerous reasons why Iran is geopolitically pivotal. To start with, Iran has the 4^th largest oil reserves in the world and also shares the largest natural gas reserves with Qatar. A sanction-free Iran will be a serious competitor to Saudi and US oil/gas corporations.

Second, the Persian Gulf is the conduit for 40% of all oil tankers in the world. A war with Iran has the potential to devastate the world economy.

Then there’s the Shiite Crescent that comprises of four contiguous countries: Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon. (Oh, translate Lebanon into Hezbollah). Two countries who fear this reality are Saudi Arabia and Israel. And the failure of Neocons to conquer Syria after six years of proxy wars has only reinforced the urgency to neutralize Iran, which plays a major role in defending Assad.

Geographically, Iran is the link between the Middle East on one side and the Caucasus, Central Asia and South Asia on the other side.

With a large, well-educated middle class population and massive reserves of oil/gas, Iran has the potential to become a powerful economy and a dominant nation, if given a chance. It has been isolated for 38 years and is ready to sprint. That’s where Russia and China come in.

Iran-Russia-China Alliance: Labeled as revisionist powers by the Trump administration, Russia and China are working to empower Iran and win the Eurasian game.

For Russia, a friendly Iran means more influence in the Middle East and a secure Russian military base in Syria. Putin has also brought Turkey and Iran together, both of whom are now customers of Russian weapons and missile defense systems.

For China, Iran is a key component of the new Silk Road, as freight trains from China go through Iran to various destinations in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Iran is also willing to forego the U.S. dollar and accept Chinese Yuan for its oil. China can use this to force Saudi Arabia and other countries to do the same, which will help Yuan (Renminbi) transform into a global reserve currency. This is a nightmare situation for petrodollar, Wall Street, and the US government.

With Iran in its pocket, China’s next goal will be Afghanistan, which is sandwiched between Iran and Pakistan. Pakistan has pretty much left the US orbit now, having embraced China’s CPEC project that promises $60 billion of infrastructure spending. CPEC has been so successful that Afghanistan is holding talks to join that project. Imagine the U.S. losing Afghanistan after wasting $1 trillion there in the last 17 years.

So, this is the worst-case scenario: Russia-China-Iran alliance ends up kicking the US out of all the countries from Turkey to China. According to geopolitical experts, who controls Eurasia, controls the globe.

To understand Iran’s skepticism towards the West, one must look at the last 150 years of Iranian history.

Colonialism: Iran was coveted by the Russians, British and others for a long time. In 1872, Baron Reuter – founder of Reuters news – purchased a vast portion of Iran, only to give it back after a huge outcry! In 1909, the British discovered oil in Iran, kept 90% of the profits, and ruthlessly exploited the Iranian workers, who had to live in slums. Later, in 1951, a popular Iranian Prime Minister nationalized the oil industry.

Outraged(!), British spy agency, MI6, then sought out CIA’s assistance. Together, in 1953, they spent millions bribing the right people to stage a fake revolution and got rid of Mossadegh, the democratically elected PM. In return, U.S. oil corporations got 40% of Iran’s oil. (A declassified CIA document from 1953 has the following title: “Campaign to install pro-western government in Iran.”)

The autocratic Shah of Iran protected the Western oil firms and bought a lot of US weapons. Thus he was loved by the US/European elites who turned a blind eye towards his human rights violations and political oppression. He wasn’t all bad, since he embraced secularism, built successful car manufacturing companies and modernized Iran in many ways.

US Switched to Saudi Arabia & Betrayed Iran: However, during the oil crisis of the 1970s, Kissinger and other globalists found a new partner: Saudi Arabia. The Saudis agreed to sell oil only in US dollar and also recycle much of the oil profits back to the US. Perhaps there was also a discussion of Saudis helping recruit jihadists for anti-USSR wars in Afghanistan. In return for all these, the US agreed to drop Iran as an ally and make Saudis the King of the Middle East.

By Chris Kanthan

We may never know what exactly President Trump said during a meeting on immigration, but many Americans – including popular media figures such as Tomi Lahren – overwhelmingly relished the use of the word “sh*ithole” to describe poor nations. Whether viewed through the perspective of diplomacy, Christianity or common decency, such a sentiment is obviously wrong. However, there are many people who seem to only understand the language of money and self-interest. They also seem to believe that America is the center of the world, and they don’t comprehend how the US is extremely dependent on the rest of the world.

Haiti and Congo

Take, for example, Haiti and Congo – two sh*thole countries. These two countries can quickly threaten America’s economic and national security. Haiti can cut ties with the US and strike a deal with Russia to create a military base or a missile defense system. It will be a sweet revenge for Putin who’s threatened by US missile systems in Eastern Europe.

As for Congo, it’s a major producer of many valuable minerals such as copper, tin, gold, diamond as well as a humble metal called cobalt. What is not widely known is that cobalt is an essential component – comprising 30% – of all the rechargeable batteries used in smartphones, tablets, laptops, electric cars, etc. Cobalt has become one of the most coveted commodities in the world and its price has quadrupled in the last two years. Guess who controls 60% of global production of cobalt? Congo, in sh*thole Africa! Needless to say, even a temporary disruption of Congo’s cobalt supply to the US will crash our stock market; and a sustained disruption will wreck our economy.

But They take Our Money!

Many Americans bring up the fact the US gives aid to the poor countries. First of all, giving aid doesn’t mean we have the right to abuse and humiliate them. Moreover, people should read or listen to John Perkins to understand how foreign aid really works. Most of the aid goes straight to US corporations – for example, to buy US weapons, or pay one US firm to build roads that will benefit another US firm (such as a mining company). The rest of the money goes to bribe a corrupt leader whose job is to assure continuous supply of raw materials or cheap labor.

Now, let’s take a quick look at how the US depends on under-developed nations.

Natural Resources: Since the 1980s, mining activities in the US have dropped significantly. Now we import about 100 critical minerals/metals from other nations. These are raw materials without which we can’t produce cars, planes, satellites, military jets, electronics, medical instruments and so on. For 20 of those minerals/metals, the US is totally (100%) dependent on other countries. For example, China supplies 100% of indium that the US consumes. Without indium, there won’t be any touchscreens (on smartphones, tablets and kiosks). We also depend on our rival, Russia, for critical minerals such as palladium and titanium, without which there won’t be any Boeing planes or US fighter jets.

Trump is trying to reduce some of these dependencies, but it will take a decade or more to make a dent. Let’s not forget that mining activities are extremely toxic to the environment. We should be grateful that sh*thole countries are shouldering the burden of pollution so that we can enjoy clean water and air.

Imports and Exports: The US imports almost $1 trillion of goods from Latin America and Asia. In case people haven’t noticed it, we don’t manufacture a lot of things these days. US exports also sustain millions of jobs. Without trade, there’s no economy. Also, let’s not forget tourism: 73 million foreigners visited the US last year and spent $250 billion!

Supermarkets in the US are full of grains, vegetables, fruits and oil from developing nations. Coffee and cocoa are almost exclusively from Africa and Latin America. Imagine what will happen to Starbucks’ market cap of $85 billion if coffee bean growers from sh*thole countries boycott the US.

Revenues from other nations: More than half of the revenues of S&P 500 US corporations comes from outside the US. General Motors, for example, gets almost 2/3^rd of its revenue from overseas. In fact, GM sells more cars in China than in the US! Also, think about the tens of thousands of Starbucks, McDonald’s and other US retail stores located around the world.

Emerging Markets Becoming Powerful

Although the average individual in developing nations is not wealthy, collectively those nations have a $31 trillion GDP, and that’s a lot of economic power. More than 70% of the growth in global GDP comes from developing nations (the US accounts for 18% and the EU 8%). If we want to benefit from their prosperity, we need to learn to be polite and friendly.

Labor from Poor Nations: People in poor countries work for $1 an hour so that US corporations such as Nike, Walmart, Macy’s and Apple can make billions of dollars. Without people in Africa working in mines in horrible conditions, we wouldn’t have shiny smartphones. We get to enjoy a high living standard only because someone else lives in a sh*thole. Perhaps our feelings should be gratitude or empathy rather than disdain.

UN Votes: We need more allies and real partners to support us in the UN. Although many Americans look down upon the UN, the US cannot succeed without diplomatic cooperation from other nations. When Trump announced the move of US embassy to Jerusalem, 128 countries voted against us. Only seven countries supported the US and Israel, and those included tiny islands like Palau with a whopping population of 20,000. Let’s hope there aren’t more such diplomatic fiascos.

US Military Bases and Special Forces: The US has military bases in every corner of the earth; and the US Special Forces operate in 140 countries. Insulting other countries only puts our soldiers in danger. Although it would be nice to shrink the American Empire, it should be a voluntary and a diplomatic move, instead of getting unceremoniously kicked out.

Dollar Hegemony: One of the pillars of American strength is the Petrodollar, whereby other nations agree to buy/sell commodities in US dollar. This is why our currency is so valuable and why we can impose sanctions on other countries. However, if enough sh*thole countries start using gold, Chinese Yuan or cryptocurrency, the value of US dollar will plunge, the interest rates – for US treasury bonds, mortgages, etc. – will spike, and the the US economy will suffer a great deal.

America’s soft power is more effective than dollars and bombs. However, thanks to Trump’s callous attitude, America’s standing in the world has plunged. As a recent Gallup poll revealed, 43% of the world disapproves America’s leadership now, putting the US below Russia (36%) and China (30%). Our net approval rate has gone from +20 to -13 in a single year! Americans must also realize that their words on social media are seen by people all around the world. We can have prudent immigration policies, while being kind and diplomatic. America’s prosperity and security are greatly dependent on the goodwill and cooperation of other nations, developed and emerging markets alike.

Top image credit: Anthony Freda Art

Chris Kanthan is the author of a new book, Syria – War of Deception. It’s available in a condensed as well as a longer version. Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has traveled to 35 countries, and writes about world affairs, politics, economy and health. His other book is Deconstructing Monsanto.

By Chris Kanthan

Every 80 years, nations often experience colossal events. There are different theories about this cycle – for example, the Fourth Turning theory focuses on the cyclical strengths of institutions versus individuals. Others surmise that four generations after a major crisis, there are no more older people to warn the society, and the younger people take peace and prosperity for granted.

Well, exactly 80 years ago, America was mired in the Great Depression, and World War II was about to begin. Yet, predictably, most Americans and Europeans now cannot even fathom such scenarios repeating in their lifetime.

There are two major catalysts that can ignite catastrophic wars in the next decade: debt/economic crisis in the West and the great-power rivalries (US + EU versus Russia + China). Geopolitical tensions that are simmering now will reach a crescendo very soon. Without extraordinary caution and prudence, we’re destined to become another victim of history’s inexorable cycle.

America is #2

How many American politicians and elites can say, “America is the second largest economy in the world”? How will Americans react when they hear it for the first time? There will be shock, anger, denial and a lot of blame and finger-pointing. However, most Americans fail to realize that not only is this scenario almost inevitable, but it will happen within the next 8-10 years.

Consider that China’s nominal GDP grew 200% since 2008, while the US grew only 35%. Even if China slows down a lot and grows only 100% and the US continues at the same pace, China will be #1 before 2028.

What does China’s rise mean to Western corporations and the globalists who control them? Loss of power and wealth. And that’s something the globalists aren’t going to just let happen.

There’s more to China’s rise than just GDP. In late 2017, US News and World Report ranked China’s Tsinghua University as #1 for computer science and engineering, dethroning MIT. In hi-tech areas such as 5G, driverless vehicles, electric vehicles, passenger drones (“flying cars”), 3D printing, artificial intelligence, super computers, quantum computing and numerous other fields, China is #1 or #2.

Throughout history, an established power has never passively watched a rising power take its spot. As Harvard Professor Graham T. Allison points out, 75% of the time, the established power goes to outright war with the rising power.

Zombie Bear Comes Back to Life

After the fall of the Soviet Union, American intellectuals’ favorite phrase was “the end of history.” And John Bolton famously claimed that there should be only one country in the UN’s Permanent Security Council: USA! America has the won the Cold War and will stay as the hyperpower forever! Everyone will embrace America’s exceptionalism and remain submissive.

Alas, Putin came along and resuscitated the Russian bear that was on life support. He thwarted the globalists in Ukraine and Syria, survived a Wall Street-engineered drop in oil price (from $115 to $45 in mere six months), prevented the collapse of the Russian economy in spite of severe sanctions, shored up enormous gold and foreign exchange reserves, and even managed to develop hypersonic ICBMs that can evade America’s vaunted missile defense systems.

Worse, Putin is working with the Chinese on US-independent versions of the Internet, banking system, credit card system, etc. All these have turned Putin into the globalists’ public enemy #1.

In the 1960s, the CIA came up with all sorts of false flag attacks to blame Russia – killing Cuban refugees in Miami, buying Russian planes to attack US military installations, etc. Now, the Russia hacking/interference claim and the spy-poisoning drama are just the previews; expect much more in the coming months and years.

Middle East Powder Keg

In the 1990s, Neocons in Israel and the US – remember PNAC? – dreamed of hegemony over the Middle East. Take out Iraq and Iran, the domination is complete. Imagine controlling all that oil and the strategic portions of water through which much of global trade passes.

And if Western firms can construct oil/gas pipelines from the Middle East to Europe, the latter can say, “Nyet” to Russian oil/gas. Without Europe as the customer, Russia will suffer immensely and surrender.

Controlling the Middle East also means controlling the land and the sea routes of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. A few “moderate rebels” in strategic locations can greatly disrupt China’s Europe-bound trains.

This is why Syria and Iran are so important to all sides of the geopolitical struggle.

With Neocons and pro-Israel warmongers filling up Trump’s cabinet, a war on Iran is more likely than ever before, which will definitely draw Russia, and possibly China, into the conflict.

Asian War to Contain China

China’s Achilles’ heel is that it’s surrounded by America’s vassal states – Taiwan, Japan and South Korea for now. The Philippines used to be America’s puppet, but it’s now leaning towards China and Russia, thanks to Duterte. How North Korea will turn out is yet to be seen. India, which was colonized by the British for 200 years, is experiencing amnesia and is quickly ceding its sovereignty to the US.

Japanese elites – under pressure from globalists – are trying to change their constitution so that Japan can build up its military again. This is obviously an ominous sign.

Thus globalists have a lot of options to wage a proxy war on China. Asia has been growing rapidly and enjoying unprecedented prosperity, but there’s a good chance they will screw it up by becoming sacrificial pawns in the geopolitical chessboard.

Financial Wars

If the globalists have mighty military and vassal states to impose their hegemony, they have one tremendous weakness: a fake economy based on debt and money-printing. America’s enormous strength is based on the petrodollar – an unfair system that forces other countries to buy oil and other commodities in US dollars. Take that away, the American Empire starts to wobble. Without enormous demand for the US dollar and treasuries, interest rates will go up, debt will become expensive, and interest payments on existing debt will skyrocket.

Secret $1.8 Million Cryptocurrency Script

This is why China, the largest importer of oil, just started oil futures that trade in Yuan. Before the end of the year, China plans to announce systems where one can directly buy and sell oil in Yuan. If China were to get out of the globalist hegemony, there’s no better way than to establish petroyuan, especially if it’s backed by gold.

What’s Next?

Thanks to the Deep State and Democrats, US-Russia relations will continue to deteriorate as sanctions pile on. Globalists will also use the anti-Russia hysteria to create an EU army, bolster NATO, and provoke Russia with missile defense systems and military build up on its borders.

The US will continue to build its troops to encircle China, saber rattle in the South China Sea, incite Muslim separatists in Western China (Xinjiang), and try to turn Asian countries against China.

There will also be endless economic, propaganda and hybrid wars against both Russia and China in the coming years.

Conclusion

America is 5% of the world’s population. It cannot expect to rule the other 95% forever. America’s unipolar dominance is a blip in history. We have to learn to coexist with other great powers and focus on creating a peaceful, prosperous world.

Instead, America’s elites are filled with hubris and hegemonic fantasies. Americans – and sadly most Europeans now as well – are ignorant about geopolitics, easily swayed by propaganda, and programmed to accept wild stories without demanding proof or evidence. The combination of ruthless elites and gullible masses is extremely dangerous. Without great restraint, diplomacy, wisdom and compromises, we will be sleepwalking into a nuclear disaster in the next decade.

Chris Kanthan is the author of a new book, Deconstructing the Syrian War. Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has traveled to 35 countries, and writes about world affairs, politics, economy and health. His other book is Deconstructing Monsanto. Follow him on Twitter: @GMOChannel

Top Image Credit: Anthony Freda Art “11th Hour”