A most definite theme continues to emerge in the daily news and it's all about war. The financial war being waged against the U.S. and the "west" is well underway as preparations continue for military wars. At the same time, Russia and China are emerging as world powers while the U.S. continues its unabated decline:
Latvia has confirmed more than 120 armored units, including tanks, have been delivered by the US. According to the Latvian Ministry of Defense, these include M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2A3 Bradley armored vehicles.
The move to deploy yet more tanks and armored vehicles was welcomed by Latvian Minister of Defense Raymond Vejonis."The presence of our allies (US and NATO) in Latvia is a confirmation of solidarity and security in the region," Vejonis said in a statement on Twitter.
The tanks were delivered to Latvia via Riga Freeport after being offloaded from the carrier ship Liberty Promise on Monday. US Army General John O’Conner who witnessed the tanks arriving on Latvian soil said, “Freedom must be fought for, freedom must be defended," as reported by the US Embassy Riga Twitter feed.
He also added their delivery would "demonstrate resolve to President Putin and Russia that collectively we can come together," while General O’Connor also mentioned, they would stay "for as long as required to deter Russian aggression,” as reported by AFP.
Following the secession of Crimea to Russia, the US has been keen to boost its presence in the Baltic States and Poland to help guard against ‘perceived’ Russian aggression. There are currently more than 150 American troops in Latvia.
On March 6, NATO forces carried out drills with their Latvian counterparts. As part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, Canadian and American soldiers, in cooperation with their Latvian partners conducted exercises in winter conditions. These included training to spot enemy positions as well as calling in indirect fire support. They took place at the Adazi training grounds.
China’s development activities on disputed territory around the Spratly Islands are feeding suspicions that Beijing aims to establish military bases across the South China Sea, according to US Department of State spokesperson Jen Psaki.
“China’s land reclamation and construction activities are fueling greater anxiety within the region about China’s intensions amid concerns they may militarize outposts in disputed land features in the South China Sea,” Psaki said on Monday.
Psaki noted the United States are aware of recent reports about China intensifying construction around the Spratly Islands, and called on all claimants within the region to avoid provocative actions.
“We [the United States] are watching these developments closely, and will continue to raise our concerns with China and urge all parties to avoid destabilizing activities,” Psaki concluded.
The United States is sending 3,000 troops to the Baltic states to partake in joint military exercises with NATO partners in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania over the next three months, US defense officials announced Monday.
The mission, part of "Operation Atlantic Resolve" is designed to reassure NATO allies concerned over renewed Russian aggression amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Around 750 US Army tanks, fighting vehicles and other military equipment arrived in Latvia Monday, and US ground troops are expected to begin arriving next week, US Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters.
According to a US military source speaking on condition of anonymity, the military equipment will remain in the Baltics even after the US troops return to base.
The deployment is designed to "demonstrate resolve to President (Vladimir) Putin and Russia that collectively we can come together," US General John O'Connor said.
The military equipment, including the tanks and fighting vehicles will stay "for as long as required to deter Russian aggression," O'Connor said.
British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon recently said Putin represented a "real and present danger" to the Baltic nations, warning that the Russian leader could launch an undercover campaign to destabilize Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
The Baltic nations have been members of NATO since 2004, and the military alliance is seeking to counter potential Russian aggression by developing a rapid reaction force of 5,000 troops, to be stationed in the Baltic states as well as Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby called on Monday for the creation of a unified Arab force to battle the spread of Islamic extremist groups.
“There is an urgent need for the creation of a multi-purpose common Arab military force… able to intervene rapidly to fight terrorism and the activities of terrorist groups,” Araby told a meeting of league foreign ministers in Cairo.
He also stressed the importance of “cooperation in areas related to security protection and the exchange of information between Arab countries.”
Arab League deputy chief Ahmed Ben Helli told reporters last week that the bloc’s leaders are expected to focus on the creation of such a common force when they meet for its annual summit on March 28-29 in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has also called for such a force, saying it is needed to confront security threats in a region where the jihadist Islamic State group holds swathes of Syria and Iraq and has gained a foothold in Egypt’s neighbour Libya.
He has suggested that a number of Arab League members, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, are considering supporting the idea.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former National Security Advisor, urged US policy-makers to bolster NATO military presence in the Baltic states and provide military aid to Ukraine, by falsifying facts and history, an American political analyst said.
At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on threats to US national security, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski repeatedly claimed that Russia "seized" Crimea and could soon attack the Baltic states, urging American policy-makers to increase NATO military presence in Latvia and Estonia.
The former national security advisor stressed that "the only sensible step" was to amass NATO military forces near the Russian border. He said that he also considered some "actions of a semi-military type" as well as "occasional military engagement" of NATO's forces in armed confrontation with Russia.
According to Brzezinski, deterrence is the only way to peace, so far Washington should send arms and troops to Eastern Europe in order to prevent World War III.
The analyst emphasized that what Brzezinski called the "seizure" of Crimea by Russia on March 16, 2014, was in fact an act of aggression of the United States, that backed a military coup in Kiev. The so called "Maidan revolution" resulted in ousting of democratically elected president Viktor Yanukovych.
Eric Zuesse cited the founder of Stratfor, "the private CIA firm," who dubbed the event as "the most blatant coup in history." Predictably, Washington's move was qualified by Moscow as a hostile action directly threatening Russia's security. Surprisingly, Zbigniew Brzezinski did not say a word about it, although he had repeatedly claimed in his publications that without Ukraine Moscow would be unable to ensure its security and would lose a chance become a truly global player.
The analyst even went so far to claim that Brzezinski could have intentionally deceived US congressmen, by not shedding light on the historical background of the event.
In addition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is now being hailed as the new "Leader of the Free World," a position always held by American presidents (even Jimmy Carter), President Obama is also petulantly ignoring Egyptian President General Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, as he moves to demonstrate leadership on the world stage.
Bassam Tawil of the "Gatestone Institute" reports: "The Muslim Brotherhood knows that behind the scenes U.S. President Obama supports their movement, especially the branch in Egypt seeking to overthrow President Sisi. This approval from the U.S. encourages the Muslim Brotherhood to be even more determined to subvert and undermine Egypt's stability, sabotage its economic rehabilitation, and destroy the el-Sisi regime.
And while US influence in the Middle East dwindles,
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait, have pledged billions of dollars in aid to the new Egyptian government, and Russian President Vladimir Putin found time for a two-day visit to Cairo, presenting a special token of his appreciation, a Russian-made Kalashnikov AK-47, to his host, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait, have pledged billions of dollars in aid to the new Egyptian government, and Russian President Vladimir Putin found time for a two-day visit to Cairo, presenting a special token of his appreciation, a Russian-made Kalashnikov AK-47, to his host, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
In the meantime, All is Quiet on the Western Front. The President leaves for another fundraising trip in California and a round or two of golf. The First Lady will be spending the children's spring break visiting Japan and Cambodia, promoting the cause of education for girls.
On March 9, sources within China provided new information that validates that the Far Eastern economy is now ready to compete with, or even supplant, the dollar as the sole global reserve currency as early as September of this year. Having already completed a message interchange system that mirrors the same one in the West, the Chinese equivalent of SWIFT is now ready and is expected to be fully operational by the 3rd quarter of 2015, which will allow other nations to transact with the world's largest economy without the need to purchase dollars as a medium of exchange.
Additionally, there has been a great deal of speculation over the past two years that China might back their currency with gold once they are fully ready to float it as a global reserve, with strong indications showing that at the very least, China will be calling for the use of international letters of credit or trade notes that are backed by gold to help stabilize transactions using this historical form of sound money.
Today, we got proof that it is the second outcome that is about to prevail following a Reuters report that China's international payment system, known simply enough as China International Payment System (CIPS), which serves to process cross-border yuan transactions is ready, and may be launched as early as September or October.
According to Reuters, the launch of the will remove one of the biggest hurdles to internationalizing the yuan and should greatly increase global usage of the Chinese currency by cutting transaction costs and processing times.
Less than a month ago, China's close partner in Eurasia, Russia, implemented and brought online their own SWIFT alternative after economic sanctions by the U.S. continued into their second year, and information was discovered that pointed towards the NSA monitoring all messages going through the Western controlled SWIFT system.
Even without a complete global float of the Yuan through their own message interchange, China has grown over the past few years to achieve 9% of all global transactions using their national currency. And with dozens of swap lines already in place in banking systems around the world, as well as London banking centers now able to issue Yuan denominated bonds, nearly everything in the global financial system has been mirrored by China to allow them to compete with, or replace, the dollar's function as the reserve currency.
The average lifespan for any purely fiat currency is around 30 years, with the dollar surpassing this by more than a decade due to its place as the global standard for trade and oil purchases. However, now that the world's financial system has become saturated with overwhelming debt, and most economies solidly entrenched in currency wars, the world is about ready for a return to sound money and a gold backed currency, which China may be providing to their trading partners within six months.
One of the recurring threats used by the western nations in their cold (and increasingly more hot) war with Russia, is that Putin's regime may be locked out of all international monetary transactions when Moscow is disconnected from the EU-based global currency messaging and interchange service known as SWIFT (a move, incidentally, which SWIFT lamented as was revealed in October when we reported that it announces it "regrets the pressure" to disconnect Russia).
Of course, in the aftermath of revelations that back in 2013, none other than the NSA was exposed for secretly 'monitoring' the SWIFT payments flows, one could wonder if being kicked out of SWIFT is a curse or a blessing, however Russia did not need any further warnings and as we reported less than a month ago, Russia launched its own 'SWIFT'-alternative, linking 91 credit institutions initially. This in turn suggested that de-dollarization is considerably further along than many had expected, which coupled with Russia's record dumping of TSYs, demonstrated just how seriously Putin is taking the threat to be isolated from the western payment system. It was only logical that he would come up with his own.
There were two clear implications from this use of money as a means of waging covert war: i) unless someone else followed Russia out of SWIFT, its action, while notable and valiant, would be pointless - after all, if everyone else is still using SWIFT by default, then anything Russia implements for processing foreign payments is irrelevant and ii) if indeed the Russian example of exiting a western-mediated payment system was successful and copied, it would accelerate the demise of the Dollar's status as reserve currency, which is thus by default since there are no alternatives. Provide alternatives, and the entire reserve system begins to crack.
There were two clear implications from this use of money as a means of waging covert war: i) unless someone else followed Russia out of SWIFT, its action, while notable and valiant, would be pointless - after all, if everyone else is still using SWIFT by default, then anything Russia implements for processing foreign payments is irrelevant and ii) if indeed the Russian example of exiting a western-mediated payment system was successful and copied, it would accelerate the demise of the Dollar's status as reserve currency, which is thus by default since there are no alternatives. Provide alternatives, and the entire reserve system begins to crack.
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