U.S. Pushes Hegemonic Policy in Wake of Humiliating Defeat in AfghanistanThe U.S. rout and humiliation in Afghanistan, besides other things, seriously undermined confidence in the U.S. as a "reliable partner." As the U.S. scrambled to save itself, it abandoned all its NATO "partners" as well as collaborators, to fend for themselves. The U.S. started emphasizing plans to focus on the Indo-Pacific region, including efforts to integrate countries there into the U.S. military and financial machinery. U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris visited Singapore and Vietnam the week of August 23. It was her second international trip, having visited Guatemala and Mexico previously as part of contending with immigration issues. Part of the trip then was to direct considerable fire against China, engaging in a brinkmanship that is dangerous for all concerned. Conditions of humiliation and desperation drive thirst for revenge to the brink of war.
The U.S. considers Singapore the anchor of the U.S. naval presence in Southeast Asia and a main base for the Indo-Pacific region, along with Japan and south Korea. Two U.S. strike groups -- one centered around the carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the other around the assault ship USS America -- were in the South China Sea, an area of dispute, in June. The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group and USS America remained in the western Pacific. On August 10, 2021, the U.S. organized war games in the Singapore area involving the navies of 21 countries, 10 ships and more than 400 personnel. Military threats are integral to brinkmanship, a means to see how China and other countries will respond. The difficulty, as evident in Afghanistan, is that the U.S. has no ability to predict what will occur. Will "the enemy" submit or will the threats escalate the conflict and even unleash a war? Harris pushed things further. Referring to China's contested position in the South China Sea, she said: "[...] Beijing's actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations." At the same time the U.S. made efforts to further integrate Singapore into its military and security structures, a less obvious form of undermining sovereignty. On cyber security, the Treasury and Defense Departments, as well as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, secured a memorandum of understanding with their Singaporean counterparts to expand "information sharing and training" to combat what the U.S. deems are cyber threats. The White House also announced additional agreements fostering what they term cooperation on space exploration and defence issues. The Japanese, Koreans, Canadians and many other peoples are well-versed in the reality of what this "cooperation" means. When it comes to military matters, the U.S. calls foreign forces into action and embroils other countries in their war efforts and machinery. In addition, the U.S. organized to "create a partnership focused on strengthening trade throughout a handful of key industries," particularly as it related to supply chain issues for the U.S. Harris again emphasized that the partnerships are based on U.S. interests to "shape and dictate" in the region: "Our intention is to strengthen our partnerships and reinforce our shared vision, so that the United States with our partners can together continue shaping that history. In doing so, there should be no doubt we have enduring interests in this region, and we have enduring commitments as well. Those commitments include, of course, security. Yesterday I visited Changi Naval Base. The U.S. Navy ship, the USS Tulsa, is docked there right now, a symbol of a deep and enduring security partnership between our nations. A statement of America's security commitment to this region." The difficulties the U.S. is contending with to impose these partnerships were also evident in Harris' remarks. After threatening China she added, "Our engagement in Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific is not against any one country, nor is it designed to make anyone choose between countries. Instead, our engagement is about advancing an optimistic vision that we have for our participation and partnership in this region." Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in the joint press conference where the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan was referred to, publicly expressed doubts about the U.S. "What matters is how the U.S. repositions itself in the Asia Pacific, engages the broader region and continues to fight against terrorism, because that will determine the perceptions of the countries of the U.S. global priorities and of its strategic intentions," Lee said. In addition Lee warned the U.S. against pursuing an aggressive approach to China. Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in a recent interview prior to Harris' visit that Singapore will "be useful but we will not be made use of" in its relations with both countries. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin also countered, saying Southeast Asian countries are reluctant to choose sides between China and the United States. He said the U.S. approach is based on "outdated Cold War thinking and is intended to provoke troubles in their relations with China, create division and confrontation, and try to create a ring of containment" around China. The U.S. "can smear, suppress, coerce, and bully other countries at will in order to maintain America first, without paying any price," Wang said. Speaking to the U.S. so-called rules based order and its rout in Afghanistan, he added: "This is the order that the U.S. wants. The U.S. always tries to make use of the rules and order to justify its own selfish, bullying and hegemonic behavior, but who will believe it now?" In travelling to Vietnam, Harris persisted in her efforts to provoke China while also seeking to involve others in U.S. actions. At a meeting with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc she said, "We need to find ways to pressure and raise the pressure, frankly, on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to challenge its bullying and excessive maritime claims." Vietnam was not drawn in. Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Xiong Bo just before Harris' arrival. The Vietnamese government said in a statement, "The Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam adheres to an independent, self-reliant, multilateral, and diverse foreign policy and is a responsible member of the international community." "Vietnam does not align itself with one country against another," the statement said and added that territorial disputes in the South China Sea should be settled according to international law and "high-level common sense." Both the U.S. and China talk of this being a "new era" and both are striving to put in place a world order and structure which suits them. Harris put it this way: "I believe our world is embarking on a new era; an era with new challenges, like cyber security, and an era with new opportunities, like clean energy. The fact is, our world is more interconnected and interdependent, and in order then to embrace this new era, nations must be willing to take on challenges together and create opportunities together. That is why our partnerships in Singapore, in Southeast Asia, and throughout the Indo-Pacific, are a top priority for the United States." Despite its defeat in Afghanistan, the U.S. persists in threatening to use the most extreme violence and actually use it in the hopes of maintaining its role as "indispensable nation." Harris' comments could not erase the perception that U.S. use of violence determines what the U.S. says about rights and laws. With its rout in Afghanistan, great uncertainty and unpredictability continue to exist. The impunity and arbitrariness unleashed with the "war on terror" show that anarchy was raised to authority and this remains the case today.
Instead, the growing demand of the peoples of the world is for the right of the people to deliberate and decide on issues of war and peace, for an end to war governments and war economies and for the establishment of anti-war governments. The peoples of the region, including those of Vietnam, Japan, Korea and Philippines, with their long experience with U.S. military bases, occupations and wars, have taken the stand that the U.S. must close its bases, withdraw its troops and respect the anti-war stands of the peoples and their demands for relations based on mutual respect and benefit.
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
Stopping in
Singapore first, Harris met with Singaporean President Halimah Yacob and
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. She made a point of visiting the
warship USS 
The inability to
predict what comes next is being widely promoted. Various ruling
factions within the political establishment and media are saying the
military was incompetent, unable to predict the speed of the Taliban
takeover, etc. Promoting this high level of uncertainty and
unpredictability is partly to say that the world is unknowable under
the false hope and belief that this will make the people of the U.S.
and other countries and their military and policing agencies line up
with the U.S. military and economic blocs.