Russia to Respond Militarily to US Aggression in Syria
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Does America’s agenda, especially post-9/11, reflect a declining world power’s desperate attempt to maintain supremacy?
China is a rising power, headed toward becoming the world’s largest economy, maybe in a few years.
Under Putin, Russia is resurgent - allied with Beijing, a formidable challenge to US dominance, waning while these and other nations are growing more powerful.
Post-WW II, US political, economic and military preeminence was at its peak. The late Gabriel Kolko believed its decline began after the Korean war, accelerated in Southeast Asia, further declining post-9/11.
US power is declining everywhere, he said, “no longer dependent on its economic might.”
China and India especially are growing dramatically, challenging US dominance, the 21st century perhaps their’s, matching or surpassing America economically.
Its “century of domination is now ending,” said Kolko.
Immanuel Wallerstein shares the same view, believing US dominance began declining in the 1970s, accelerating post-9/11, saying “the economic, political and military factors that contributed to US hegemony are the same (ones) inexorably produc(ing) the coming US decline.”
The late Chalmers Johnson earlier said the “combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency.”
Once a nation starts down this path and won’t change, its supremacy as a dominant world power is doomed, only the timing of events as they unfold unknown.
Soviet Russia was the last imperial power to implode, America next, hindsight to explain when and how.
Its endless imperial wars are counterproductive, waged to cling to what’s eroding, losing the battle for supremacy, making more enemies than friends.
Russia surpassed America as the world’s dominant military power, its super-weapons technologically superior to Washington’s, a reality not going down well at the Pentagon, struggling to cope with being number 2 militarily to a nation considered its top adversary.
According to Russian lower house State Duma Defense Committee chairman Vladimir Shamanov, “(t)he politics of double standards have hit rock bottom.”
“And here the United Russia party conscientiously states that all political, diplomatic and military measures if necessary will be taken. No illegal action will remain unanswered,” adding:
US officials should “not pin their hopes on their naval task forces and their deceptions. We are a sovereign country, and we have allies and guarantors for those events taking place in Syria. We won’t let the Americans hammer nails on someone else’s anvil.”
Strong remarks! Is Shamanov speaking for other MPs and Russia’s government?
Is attacking Syrian forces a red line for Moscow, forceful action to counter escalated US-led aggression, or are remarks by all Russian officials threats without follow-through like so many times before?
A US-led attack on Syrian forces appears likely. Much depends on how Russia responds.
Letting Washington get away with it like earlier assures more of the same, the stakes increasing at the same time.
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