How Far Can The Americans Be Pushed?

Authored by Ghassan Kadi for the Saker blog,

Inspired by the Saker’s article regarding how far can the Russians be pushed, I ask, how far can the Americans be pushed, not specifically only in Syria, but in general?

In his article, the Saker articulated in his regular rational and captivating style, the issue of Russian patience, or should we say frustration, with America’s actions and inactions in Syria. And, as I was reading the article, I began to think about looking at the situation from the other side of the mirror in a tongue-in-cheek manner; looking at it from the American perspective.

I thought back to an article I had written on the very same theme some years ago, focusing and predicting on what a desperate America would do.

The sad and ironic reality is that America does not walk the talk of competitiveness and level playing fields. America’s definition of a national threat is different from that of any other country in human history; except perhaps for ancient Rome.

For this reason, America does not believe that Russia has been pushed at all, but quite the contrary. America believes that is America that has been pushed; by not only Russia, but by many other nations. As a matter of fact, I started writing this article and I wasn’t going to finish it and submit it until President Putin pushed America even further towards the state of panic in his 1st of March speech.

American politicians operate on the pretext that America has a given right to be the greatest, wealthiest, most-developed, strongest unrivaled nation on earth.

Given its history and post WWII successes of being able to lure in the best brains of the world; not only from Germany, but the rest of the world, America believed that the homeland of any eminent scientist should be America.

Furthermore, with the multitude of defections from the USSR, not only Russian scientists were welcomed into America, but also musicians, scholars, athletes and other people of exceptional talents and capabilities.

And this list goes on, because Germany and Russia were not the only nations that exported excellence to America, but the whole world did, and perhaps for good reasons, because from the 1950’s onwards, everybody wanted to live in America; and many pop culture songs have recorded this phenomenon.

In little time, the best of the best in Europe and the rest of the world ended up in America. Not too many want to be reminded that that Wernher von Braun, the “American” rocket scientist who designed the Apollo program rockets, was a former Nazi, the same von Braun who designed the rockets that hit London in 1945.The prime reasons for his exodus and that of others, were poor living conditions, political persecution among other reasons. So if America managed to lure them in and find a way to capitalize on their great talents, then America has well and truly deserved the spoils of their genius.

But Trump’s America, even Obama’s, Bush’s and Clinton’s is not exactly that global brain and talent pivot any longer. As a result, America has changed the rules of the game in order to stay on top.

But this went further, according to the American way of looking at the rest of the world. During the Cold War, members of the former Warsaw Pact were considered as enemy states together with all other states affiliated with the USSR such as Cuba, Syria, Egypt and Angola, just to name a few. After the downfall of the USSR and the virtual elimination of serious adversaries, America “had to invent” new enemies. The post “Cold War” definition of an enemy morphed into classifying nations as members of the “Axis of Evil” if they did not kowtow to Washington’s definition of the so-called “New World Order”.

But as America grows weaker, financially, technologically, and even militarily, and as the world is beginning to look to China and Russia for the latest technology instead of America, for as long as America is able to stretch the definition of what constitutes a national threat, and for as long as the rest of the West will buy this definition, it will continue to do this.

Having lost its competitive edge and not yet being able to admit it, America is still desperately trying to cling to this edge by means that contradict with its stature as the leader of the free world and the nation that it alleges to be.

To this effect, and for America to be able to hold on to its leading position, it can no longer do this from any semblance of a position of fairness and real and honest competition. This is why America is now upscaling its enemy definition and resorting to what can be best seen as bullying tactics; thereby taking unfair advantage of other nations.

According to those new rules, now that they no longer can conceal or sugarcoat its true intentions, any nation that tries to develop itself is seen by America as a potential threat. And this applies to all aspects of development, because according to America, no other nation is allowed to be better or even close to where America is.

If America cannot compete against athletes of other nations, it will ban them.

If America cannot be trade competitive, it will impose sanctions on its competitors.

If America sees that a nation does not fully kowtow to its agenda, it will classify it as a terrorist state and tries to push it to its knees by putting a ban on international trade with it.

When the economy fails and America cannot generate wealth, REAL WEALTH, to stay on the top, it will print money.

And when American citizens turn into whistle-blowers, they are branded as traitors. So much for free speech. And where did Edward Snowden seek political asylum? In Russia out of all places. Will we in the future see a reversal of the former exodus of citizens of the USSR to the USA? We cannot say this can be ruled out.

One therefore does not have to be Kim Jong Un, sitting on a nuclear arsenal with a button in his hand threatening to hit American cities with, to be seen as a threat to America. Any person or any state touted to out-perform Americans or America now or in the future, in any field of endeavour, is considered by the American policy makers as a threat. But even speaking of Kim Jong Un, the question of whether or not his stand is offensive or defensive is quite diabolical. North Korea saw what happened to Vietnam, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. Most importantly, North Korea has not forgotten what happened to Korea itself. How can any rationally-minded person blame North Korea for developing nukes; if the sole intention is to stave off another American onslaught?

Back to the main subject. To put this into perspective, when America sees that anti-Russian sanctions are not working and that in fact the global Russian influence is getting stronger, when it sees Russia is in Syria making things happen, it feels threatened.

When it sees Russian state-of-the-art weaponry and electronic jamming devices in action, when it sees China building a huge fleet with two aircraft carriers and counting, when it sees Russia and China way ahead, each developing their own hypersonic, even orbital, fighter jets, which America itself does not yet have, when it realizes that it has to use Russian-made rockets to propel its satellites into space, when America knows that for all practical purposes, America is no longer the world’s strongest economy, then America feels that it has been pushed to the absolute limit that only further sanctions and war can remedy.

The 1st of March 2018 Putin speech will in the future be seen as a turning point. Even though President Putin did not mention electronic jamming devices and other Russian military technology that America is well and truly behind in, he will be seen in history as the first ever non-American leader to put American military on notice by saying to American policy makers that Russia is militarily more advanced than America in both defense and attack.

And if America brags its unrivaled huge fleet, the new technology Russia has developed has the potential to turn American naval vessels into ancient and expensive sitting, or should I say floating, ducks waiting to be sunk.

In retrospect, ancient Rome saw in rivaling Carthage an existential threat until the Romans pillaged Carthage killing every single man woman and child. We cannot expect annihilation of this magnitude in the time and age, or can we? Having said that, America’s nuclear power is a huge force to be reckoned with, and to expect America to accept second or third grade world status, without a bang, is no more than wishful thinking. But how useful and effective is this power?

In his recent interview with Sputnik, Ron Paul doubts that America will ever have a reasonable foreign policy, and argues that the fall of America will be financial, like other empires in the past, and that someday America will go broke and no longer be able to continue to run the world.

To put it bluntly, after the petro-dollar loses its world dominance, and this doesn’t seem very far away, a time will come when it will become virtually impossible to keep propping up the American economy with quantitative easing (aka printing money). And as America loses its economic stature, its only remaining prowess and might will be in its nuclear arsenal. The question is this. If America is imposing sanctions and bans right left and centre right now, and for no good reason at all, will a much more desperate America use its nuclear power to restore its dominion? Lately, America has been considering diluting its restrictions on the use of nuclear power by developing “more usable” nukes.

After all, using conventional weapons in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan etc didn’t win wars for America, despite the technical superiority they had over the conventional weapons of the adversaries. Is America simply looking for a new edge to use in its conventional wars against non-nuclear enemies? Is this new move of developing small and “more usable” nukes a prelude for a new age of nuclear confrontations? Or is it just the beginning of a new type of cold wars with “Cold War II” already underway? Either way, it is a race that non-nuclear nations cannot compete with, and this alone makes them much softer targets for America than before.

Will America go further and use its nuclear power in order to secure trade deals? Recources? Trade routes?

Far-fetched? Perhaps, but as America becomes more desperate finding that elusive “edge”, it will run out of options, and it has indeed run out of a few already. What if the implementation of the “America First” doctrine runs out of all options except the nuclear option?

Has President Putin’s latest speech stopped any such potential American nuclear plans and nipped them in the bud?

Inadvertently, President Putin’s 1st of March 2018 speech answers the question of The Saker in as far as how far can Russia be pushed.

The answer to the question of how far can the Americans be pushed is increasingly becoming more of what can they do, rather than what they would like to do.

Comments

Heros Dolar in a vortex Tue, 03/06/2018 - 02:30 Permalink

Once again, another irrelevant article that ignores the JQ.

US actions appear completely illogical until you realize that it is a brainless zombie being remotely controlled out of Jerusalem.  The heebs could careless about how self-defeating US actions are or how many stupid goy army thugs have to die.  The heebs are like Krangs brain in his new US body.

https://i2.wp.com/loyalkng.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Teenage-Mutan…

In reply to by Dolar in a vortex

Aeonios Heros Tue, 03/06/2018 - 02:50 Permalink

It's ironic how the rest of the world is a socialist shithole and it would take so little to turn the US around and become an uncontested world leader again. Of course that would require politicians to give up on their corrupt crusade against fair competition and a legitimate free market economy, so it'll never happen. It'd also require abandoning socialist handouts, and the gibs will never allow that. Maybe we'll have better luck when it becomes practical for states to secede.

In reply to by Heros

To Hell In A H… DJ Happy Ending Tue, 03/06/2018 - 05:12 Permalink

How the world has moved on and you still believe your own propaganda. Here's a bucket of cold water over your head. "Look at the USSA car industry, designed and made by exceptionalists, with manifest destiny?" Nobody outside of North America, buys your fucking shit cars. Oops!

In my wonderful English home in Central London, outside of 2 I-Phones my missus and daughter uses and the computer hardware, nothing is American. 

Definitely not the cars. German, Italian, Indian(yes Range Rover is now Indian, who bought it off the exceptional Americans who were driving the company into the ground and revived it) and Japanese. My computer is American designed tech, no doubt about that, but where is it all manufactured? Yeah, I thought so. 

The rest of my electronics, is Japanese and South Korean, that includes TV's, Printer, cable box, HI-Fi equipment, AV amp, tablets, speakers are British(we do design the best speakers), headphones (sorry forgot the X-box), PS4. My phone is a dual sim active standby Chinese HTC. My Kitchen has not one American product(Bosch, Siemens and toaster is Italian Dualit). Without going through every household item and accessories, less than 5 fucking percent is American and I'm being generous. I just looked at my business phone=Polycom trio is American and the webcam, Logitech is actually Swiss.

America rules in IT and silicon valley tech, but there are foreign alternatives coming. When ARM starts to challenge Intel and AMD, the truth will hit home. When America loses supremacy in IT and computer tech, Uncle Scam is in shit. Alternatives to Youtube, Facebook, Twitter et al are coming. When the rest of the world start to use continental favourite platforms, it will hit one place more than any? The USSA. To be honest, America is already in deep fucking shit and it's only the dollar world reserve with the ability to print it at will and everybody still accept it, keeping you alive.

I remember Japanese cars in the 70's, when they first came to the UK, because my dad bought a Datsun. People use to laugh, but do you know what? Compared to our previous cars, the Datsun never fucking broke down and my dad to his grave either bought Japanese, or German. My dad was extremely patriotic, but he like every intelligent Brit in the 70's and 80's and 90's, knew British made cars were a pile of fucking shit, compared to German and Japanese.

I also laughed at Korean cars and Korean electronic goods in the 80's and 90's. I don't fucking laugh anymore. Take airlines? The world does not need Boeing, when Airbus is just as good and Airbus fucking French. In fact Boeing resorts to bribes to get contracts. As for U.S airline services? http://www.airlinequality.com/info/top-100-airlines-2017/ http://uk.businessinsider.com/20-best-airlines-world-2017-skytrax-2017-…  Look at any survey and U.S airlines can't compete, but you continue believing the advertising propaganda. The emperor has no fucking clothes.

On a side note, I'm part of a pathfinder and working group for the past 10 months, regarding technology transfer to the MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa and believe me, outside of a few specialist companies, there is little need for us to use U.S companies. In fact, the only benefit in dealing with U.S companies at the moment, is to buy defaulting U.S companies for their I.P in certain sectors.

The MENA and Sub-Sahara Africa need their own heavy plant machinery. It's not difficult to transfer this technology. I.P is old and readily available. We are not talking about design tolerances to micrometres, so the Africans and Arabs can build and improve on some of the designs at a fraction of the U.S cost. We worked out once you write off the initial cost for infrastructure, equipment and machining tools etc $19 million(That's a days thieving in Nigeria and we know more than $6.9 billion a year goes missing in Nigeria, vastly more), they can build a mid-range digger for $26K, while the U.S equivalent is over $100K value added. Uncle Scam cannot compete with that.There is very little the world needs from America and the next few generations of American citizens will suffer knowing this reality. America has very little to offer anymore.

In reply to by DJ Happy Ending

DownWithYogaPants To Hell In A H… Tue, 03/06/2018 - 05:44 Permalink

Ok all you smart Alecs.  Show me one thing Russia or China came up with that is truly new. I really have not seen much new on the market in a long time.  Blockchain is the only thing recently that actually plowed any new ground.  For that matter U.S. has not done anything new recently if Craig the Aussy really is Satoshi.

Jammers don't count.  I have to assume U.S. is working on that and it will be a solved problem in relatively short order.  Probably would have been better not to tip hand on it.  These sort of advantages are quite fleeting.

In reply to by To Hell In A H…

Gravatomic DownWithYogaPants Tue, 03/06/2018 - 07:00 Permalink

Keep telling yourself that. To hell is right despite all the teeth gnashing you American old timers do, have to be because your so damn stubborn.

America, as was stated in the article, borrowed a lot of what it took to gain that momentary edge. Your rocket man was a German working for the Nazis. Clasp your hands around your ears and la la la la la la

In reply to by DownWithYogaPants

doctor10 Yellow_Snow Tue, 03/06/2018 - 05:53 Permalink

USD ain't goin' nowhere-provided the DC numbnuts keep their fat-fingers off the nuclear button.

The Euro will detonate itself first-and the Deutschmark 2.0 won't be able to replace it.

USD IS electronic currency.  All that is required is a modicum of Federal self-restraint and its future is golden. Perforce it will eventually be tied to a blockchain with a tinge of gold backing-but eventually the reality is that ALL hydrocarbon producing nations will need to economically unite themselves under a "hydro-carbon dollar" -and this does mean alliances with Iran and Russia. 

Ultimately there is NO other way to subordinate India and China

The DC crowd just needs to get over their block about  extending the historic "petro-dollar privilege" to the hydrocarbon producers. Economics will  force that -if the MIC doesn't first attempt to force a proof of nuclear survivability on the world.

In reply to by Yellow_Snow

Wicked Old People Tue, 03/06/2018 - 02:16 Permalink

 

. . . giant round mass . . . covered in water . . . racing through a vacuum . . .

 

 . . .short school bus . . . compressed helium . . . resting above a silent gas layer . . . radio technology . . . 

 

 

yarpos Tue, 03/06/2018 - 02:38 Permalink

" If America sees that a nation does not fully kowtow to its agenda, it will classify it as a terrorist state and tries to push it to its knees by putting a ban on international trade with it. "

Really?  how about those terrorist NZ'ers, not letting US nuke powered ships dock

USofAzzDownWeGo Tue, 03/06/2018 - 02:40 Permalink

Well, this is supposed to be one of the best alt news sites right? Yet, YOU fail to fucking call out the real perpetrators and the root cause of EVERYTHING going bad in the country and the world.....THE MOTHER FUCKING KIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Lokiban Tue, 03/06/2018 - 02:43 Permalink

I always thought it would be like will the elite take the world down in a blaze of nuclear fire dragging us into the pits of hell or will they go down themselves and free humanity of the parasites that nearly killed its host and got exterminated right in time. We will see, time is the best truthteller out here in 3d.

desertboy Tue, 03/06/2018 - 02:52 Permalink

Simply way too much of the sloppy generalizations and authoritarian claims in this article to be mildly insightful, much less breaking any new ground. 

The author is as simpleminded as the most simple-minded nationalists that he is criticizing. 

Poor quality.

soyungato Tue, 03/06/2018 - 03:22 Permalink

The US average IQ ranks #24 in the world at 98.
The country is becoming more and more like a police state and the average joe has no say in anything.
The US high school is a joke and increasingly its university ( no? who organized a " cry in " after Hitlery lost ?).
More than 35% of the population are on welfare.
The country's debt exceed its GDP by a wild margin.
The country is controlled by the chosen ones and the purpose of the existence of the country is to fight wars for Israel. It is clear to everybody this particular parasite does not care if the host can survive.
Now you tell me, how is America going to revive ?

Easyp Tue, 03/06/2018 - 03:33 Permalink

Empires come and go, the USA will bankrupt itself by printing money to throw into the bottomless pits of defense spending, health and welfare.

The Chinese are using their wealth to build infrastructure and buy assets.  

NuYawkFrankie Tue, 03/06/2018 - 04:13 Permalink

"How far can Americans be pushed?"

As far as the 'Edge Of The Abyss' - as in 'The Abyss Of Atomic Annihilation' - where all it'll take then is one more gentle nudge from the NeoCon Nutters to push them, blissfully - and "forever & eternally" - unaware, over the 'Edge Of Oblivion'... which was "The Plan" all along

not-me---it-wa… Tue, 03/06/2018 - 04:21 Permalink

snowden sought refuge and asylum in russia?

pretty sure he was headed for latin america

(ecuador perhaps?) via moscow from hong kong,

as the mighty obama cancelled his passport.....

leaving him........stranded......back in the ussr.

WTFUD Tue, 03/06/2018 - 04:23 Permalink

Don got in on a tide of reversing predecessors failed foreign policies and draining the swamp. Alas on opening the door, the true state of affairs emerged and an about turn was hastily made in order to keep the giant turd of the USSofA from sinking into a sea of piss, for a few more years.

lakecity55 Tue, 03/06/2018 - 05:38 Permalink

Like Perot warned, only worse, the US Offshored everything it had going for it.

MAGA includes a lot more than Trump's simple definition; we offshored our values and have reaped progressive Marxist Humanism and Islam.

To return to Greatness, Americans must Offshore the Globalist Oligarchs who have a stranglehold on our Republic.

 

Expat Tue, 03/06/2018 - 06:12 Permalink

but, but...'Murica???  The land of the free, home of the brave?  Guns, guns, guns and more guns?  We eat what we kill? 

All you dickhead like lakecity who really believe that America is Marxist or Muslim are too stupid to be allowed to live.  First of all, you have no clue what those words even mean.  You hear them in the hate speech that soothes your ego when you get home from a day of hard work at Taco Bell.  America is built upon and keeps the same principles it has had since its inception: violence, empire, war, and exploitation.  The ruling classes are no different today than they were before the Russian Revolution.  Islam is about as much a factor in American politics and life as Zoroastrianism.

You can try to blame your problems on the Jews, the Niggers, the Muslims, or Europe, but it still boils down to you.  You are a bunch of under-educated, willfully ignorant, violent, mullet-headed sister-fuckers...at least that is what you look like to the rest of the world.  Try learning to read.  Try some geography so when you spout bullshit about Iraq you can at least find it on a map.  Try learning about government.  Bet most of you have never read the Constitution.  Try voting for someone who is honest instead of your favorite scumbag you support because he claims the democrats will take away your guns (see my point about the Constitution).

America sucks ass.  It has terrible healthcare.  It has terrible education.  It has crappy employment.  It has invaded most of the world.  It is violent and dangerous.  It has the most prisoners in the world by population and by absolute numbers.  It has an income distribution on par with 3rd world shitholes.  Socio-economic mobility is far worse than in so-called socialist countries in Europe (that means you are born poor and stay poor...yes, I am talking to you).

And to solve all this you hire a narcissistic New York elite (Jew) with Daddy issues, a history of infidelity, no experience in running anything except to bankruptcy, who brings along the most outrageous assortment of lunatics and billionaires to staff his administration and who can't keep a single thought in his brain from one moment  to the next.  If you were serious about MAGA, you would also toss out all the other scumbags.  But you aren't serious.  you are just partisan and willing to look like assholes just to have a Republican, any Republican, if office.

And before you start crying, I don't like Democrats either.  All the same bunch of scumbags...but hey, that is what defines America.

Debt Slave Tue, 03/06/2018 - 06:43 Permalink

Not to worry. America has a perfect plan to regain status as undisputed leader in research and technology. The importation of thousands of dindus from the shithole third world will make us great again. You’ll see, Putin will be shaking in his boots.