The concluding paragraphs from Michael Klare’s Essay on the Coming Cold War 2.0.
“For those of us residing outside Washington, this choice may appear to have few immediate consequences. The defense budget will rise in either case; troops will, as now, be shuttled desperately around the hot spots of the planet, and so on. Over the long run, however, don’t think for a second that the choice won’t matter.
A stepped-up drive to counter Russia will inevitably produce a grim, unpredictable Cold War-like atmosphere of suspicion, muscle-flexing, and periodic crises. More U.S. troops will be deployed to Europe; American nuclear weapons may return there; and saber rattling, nuclear or otherwise, will increase. (Note that Moscow recently announced a decision to add another 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles to its already impressive nuclear arsenal and recall Senator Cruz’s proposal for deploying U.S. anti-missile batteries in Eastern Europe.) For those of us who can remember the actual Cold War, this is hardly an appealing prospect.
A renewed focus on China would undoubtedly prove no less unnerving. It would involve the deployment of additional U.S. naval and air forces to the Pacific and an attendant risk of armed confrontation over China’s expanded military presence in the East and South China Seas. Cooperation on trade and the climate would be imperiled, along with the health of the global economy, while the flow of ideas and people between East and West would be further constricted. (In a sign of the times, China recently announced new curbs on the operations of foreign nongovernmental organizations.) Although that country possesses far fewer nuclear weapons than Russia, it is modernizing its arsenal and the risk of nuclear confrontation would undoubtedly increase as well.
In short, the options for American global policy, post-2016, might be characterized as either grim and chaotic or even grimmer, if more focused. Most of us will fare equally badly under either of those outcomes, though defense contractors and others in what President Dwight Eisenhower first dubbed the “military-industrial complex” will have a field day. Domestic needs like health, education, infrastructure, and the environment will suffer either way, while prospects for peace and climate stability will recede.
A country without a coherent plan for advancing its national interests is a sorry thing. Worse yet, however, as we may find out in the years to come, would be a country forever on the brink of crisis and conflict with a beleaguered, nuclear-armed rival.”
The geopolitics of the future continue to darken as the interests of the state and corporate elites once again trump the interests of the people of the world. The elephant in the room, of course, is climate change and no one in power seems to care. I imagine, when New York is underwater – action might be considered.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
5 comments
July 6, 2015 at 7:46 am
robert browning
Don’t know of this Michael Klare and am not interested to know more than that he is another Colin Powell type CIA tool stirring it up, trying to keep it confusing and scary in the service of the Western capitalist elite. “American(business) Interests”, please.
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July 6, 2015 at 8:50 am
MoS
Mr. Browning admits he doesn’t know Michael Klare and then proceeds to demonstrate that ignorance with a dismissive assessment of this fellow as a “CIA tool.” I guess that shows, when it comes to the internet, you can actually have your slice of ignorance and eat it too.
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July 6, 2015 at 9:30 am
MoS
As for Mr. Klare’s prediction of Cold War 2.0, I don’t think it’s coming as it’s already here. Our side has marched NATO to Russia’s doorstep. Putin has predictably reacted with a massive rearmament effort – a new and apparently quite capable stealth fighter, a new strategic bomber in development, two new classes of nuclear submarines, a new family of ICBMs and new warheads to go with them, new and long-range cruise missiles, the S-400 long range surface to air missile, and the new Armata main battle tank.
China is about to equip its air forces with the latest Russian SU-35 super fighter and has also produced two stealth warplanes, the J-20 and what appears to be an improved version of the Lockheed F-35 that may have derived from the masses of data hacked from Lockheed’s computers, the J-31. China is focusing on space warfare. You don’t need nukes if you can take down satnav and long-distance telecommunications. Take down the satellite grid and you won’t find a working ATM anywhere. You can’t go into your local branch for a cash withdrawal because they won’t have any record of how much you own or how much you owe.
While America clearly has the most powerful military overall, its rivals are wisely not trying to match it in numbers of ships, aircraft or tanks. They’re focusing, quite successfully, on achieving superiority in critical, niche areas such as cyber-warfare or area-denial weaponry intended to mark out regions in which American vessels cannot expect to survive, as in the waters surrounding Taiwan or the South China Sea.
All of this has been going on for some time. The submarine arms race underway in Asia Pacific is illustrative of this. The city-state of Singapore is acquiring a fleet of six state of the art diesel-electric subs from, I believe, Germany. Vietnam is taking delivery of a similar fleet of the latest Russian diesel boats outfitted with Russia’s latest cruise missiles all aimed at deterring Chinese aggression. At my last count there are or soon will be over 200-submarines from fewer than a dozen countries prowling that relatively small patch of ocean. Thailand, while notionally allied with the West, has just ordered three boats from China. Several countries in that region are starting to lose confidence in America’s willingness or ability to defend them should they resist Chinese expansionism. America fears they might try to play it safe and reach an accommodation with China, gradually undercutting Washington’s postwar influence in the region.
Of course there’s a new Cold War underway. It won’t have a Berlin Wall with tanks lined up, muzzle to muzzle on both sides. There’ll be no need for that. It also won’t be fought through surrogates as we did in Cold War I. This time the prospect of peer on peer conflict is quite a bit greater. The technology exists today to permit a major power, non-nuclear war that will be more of a turf war than a war of conquest or total war.
If you still have doubts about Cold War 2.0, you can Google “Operation Chimichanga” or China’s “Century of Humiliation”
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July 6, 2015 at 6:17 pm
Sedate Me
“I guess that shows, when it comes to the internet, you can actually have your slice of ignorance and eat it too.” -MOs
Not only that, you can put it on an aluminum pie plate and mush it in the faces of all the other pie throwing Larries, Curlies and…(wait for it)….Shemps. (Thought I was gonna say Mos, didn’t ya?)
Robert Browning is right…whenever he agrees with me, that is. But I have less of an idea who Klare is than he does. But it doesn’t matter.
The producers of the first Cold War are going to try to make Cold War 2: Electric Boogaloo. But like most sequels, it will be at least twice as expensive and half as good. The Russians are still great villains and the racist component makes the Chinese good enemies too. But this Mutually Assured Destruction is a played out plot device.
They can build all the hi-tech weapons they want and get filthy rich doing it, but the public isn’t going to buy tickets to this bomb. The West is addicted to Russian gas. China’s expendable workers produce cheap goods so that mindless, debt-ridden, consumer-junkies can get their fixes. More importantly, American corporations are making bigger profits because of China. So, if the American Empire has to pick, they’ll choose Russia as an enemy…unless they decide to stiff China and renege on the massive debt America owes it.
They may move their pawns around and snatch territory (ie China in Africa) But how is anyone to believe their lives are under constant threat from either? How are we expected to think that either is crazy enough to launch now when they didn’t then? No. That ship has sailed. Especially when crazy, suicidal, off-white, folks of other religions are out to torture, mutilate and kill each and every one of us. (Ha Ha)
Nope. The REAL new enemy is us. The people. We’re the threat. We can’t be trusted. We need to be constantly spied on. We need to have militarized police up in our grills demanding ID and taking names, numbers & pictures. We need psy-ops to keep us docile and in the dark. We need drones overhead. We need strongmen like Stevie Herpes to keep us in line…for our own good.
And, as an extra bonus, we’re in no position to fight back.
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July 7, 2015 at 8:32 am
The Arbourist
@MoS
The American military also isn’t very good with asymmetrical warfare. It is like they did not take the lessons that Vietnam taught seriously and continue to create enemies for themselves where they project their military power.
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