Dying Of The (US) Light

My first visits to the United States of America, in the late 1980s, were the happiest of times. I had never felt so liberated. The summer sun shone every day; the Ohio countryside stretched to a hazy infinity; stars and stripes flags hung in silent majesty from the covered bridges of Ashtabula County (Figure 100.1); and, each night, I would fall asleep listening to the sound of crickets chirping in the grass outside. This was, quite evidently, the land of the free.

Figure 100.1: Root Road Covered Bridge in Northeast Ohio, USA

Copyright © 2016 Benjamin Prepelka

These were also the latter days of the Cold War, where the democratic, freedom-loving USA stood toe-to-toe with the authoritarian, clapped-out socialist republics of the Soviet Union. It was an easy dichotomy to grasp: USA good, USSR bad.

After two decades of reduced tension between West and East, the old foes are once again squaring up to each other. Today’s potential battleground is Syria, and Western propaganda is being ratcheted up to new levels. USA still good, Russia incurably bad – or so we in the West are being led to believe. This time, however, it is a lie.

The facts speak for themselves. The stand-off revolves around the supply of natural gas. Europe depends on Russian gas, and the USA is desperate to reduce Russian power over European nations. Two new gas pipelines have been proposed, linking the Persian Gulf to Europe. One is designed to transport gas from Qatar (where the USA has a military base), the other from Iran, a Syrian ally. In order to access Europe, both pipelines would need to pass through Syria. Understandably, Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, refused the first (Qatar) but accepted the second (Iran) (Figure 100.2). This wholly legitimate strategy reassured Russia but infuriated the USA, and Syria has since morphed into the horrific geopolitical chessboard that we see every day in the news.

Figure 100.2: The two proposed trans-Syrian gas pipelines

Copyright © 2016 news.au.com

Since the turn of the millennium, the USA has shown itself to be a psychopathic brute on the world stage. When Saddam Hussein threatened to trade oil in Euros, as opposed to US dollars, the Americans launched an illegal war, and subsequent occupation, of Iraq. When Muammar Gaddafi proposed a gold-backed pan-African currency, in defiance of the petrodollar standard, it was Libya’s turn to be ransacked. Thanks to the USA’s megalomania, both have become failed states. Millions have been killed.

True to form, proposals to invade Syria, and remove President Assad from power, were put forward a couple of years ago. Only with Assad gone could the USA get its way with regard to the Qatari pipeline. The proposal, endorsed with mindless enthusiasm by the UK’s former prime minister, David Cameron, was rejected by people who were at last beginning to see the USA for the hideous bully that it has become.

A different strategy was demanded. Instead, but also true to form, the USA covertly armed terrorists to do their dirty work in blatant defiance of international law. Thus, ISIS was born, and it quickly turned into an uncontrollable monster. US president, Barack Obama, then pretended to change his tune: military action in Syria was necessary to defeat ISIS, he claimed. This was simply a clumsy pretext, and anyone with more than a single brain cell could see that his sole aim was in fact to remove Assad.

Under siege from ISIS, Assad consulted Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and invited Russian military assistance to help Syrian forces to defeat the USA’s proxy of murderous Islamists. At this juncture, Western propaganda went into overdrive. The evil Russians, led by the evil Putin, were now massacring innocents in rabid pursuit of their unlawful aims. How any intelligent person could believe such a transparent untruth is beyond me by some distance.

Recently, US Secretary of State and presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, has even proposed the (illegal) establishment of a no-fly zone within Syrian airspace to resist Russian forces. President Putin, however, is standing firm (Figure 100.3). He knows that his forces have every right to be where they are, and that the USA is yet again breaking all manner of laws in order to get its own way.

Figure 100.3: The intellect gap between Vladimir Putin and his Western tormentors should be obvious to all.

Copyright © 2016 Free Syrian Press

Why, America, why? It is an easy question to answer, but one that pains me to admit it. This once-beautiful nation, founded by the likes of Thomas Jefferson (1723-1826) and helped on the road to greatness by Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), is in its death throes. Today, it rages against the dying of its own light. Economically, it is beyond redemption. Its national debt has doubled (to $20 trillion) in the last ten years; it has printed its precious paper currency like never before in order to stave off national bankruptcy; and a huge proportion of its inhabitants could not survive without welfare support.

Desperate predicaments bring about desperate survival measures. As the USA’s predicament deteriorates terminally, what measures might it take? On November 8th, hundreds of millions of Americans must ask themselves: Is Hillary Clinton spoiling for a fight with Russia? It is a fight she would not win, but might she nevertheless be sufficiently delusional to try?

God bless you, America.

Copyright © 2016 Paul Spradbery