The US National Strategy Presented by President Trump

December 18, 2017

In a document read by the troublemaker Trump, US president since January 2017, but drafted by the intellectual US defense secretary, James Mattis, the most threatening countries to the political security and, more importantly, economic interests of the US are China (33 times cited), Russia (25), Iran (17) and North Korea (16).

One can hear it again and again, the voice of the stronger rising up arrogantly over the weaker, serenely demanding the use of diplomacy (the adjective “secret” is not obviously specified), military, and economic means, and so again and again one can expect the waltz of alliances of medium and small powers with one or another of the great imperialisms that are fighting for the world market. The great enemy of the US is clearly identified as China, overwhelmingly in the box office of the enemies of the great American nation. Let’s add that if the Chinese bourgeoisie were as frank as the American bourgeoisie, they would certainly put the USA at the top of its list of enemies!!

Regarding the Middle East, it is now becoming clear that the US is far from withdrawing from the region as it was promised by the “pacifist” Obama. Neither he nor the trumpeting Trump have touched on the imposing American military presence in the Gulf, and there are even more US troops in Iraq and Syria under Trump! Iran now becomes, for US diplomacy, the “man to oppose” in the Middle East. But previously, Obama’s more “courteous” diplomacy had the same purpose: it was and still is to counter the powerful Chinese dragon, often accompanied by the little Russian bear, sneaking around the world.

Trump and Mattis (former General of the Marines in the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq, with a gift for of arrogant frankness) denounce the regional expansion of Iran with its influence on a geographical band which crosses the Middle East, from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean: Iraq (the American intervention in Iraq has cleared Iran of its fierce enemy Saddam Hussein), Syria (by its support for Bashar Assad, and therefore its complicity with Russia), Lebanon (with the shiite movement Hezbollah, a de facto ally of Iran). Tehran would also be held responsible for the lack of resolution of the Palestinian issue (Iran’s support for Hamas). It is therefore for US diplomacy to encourage the ongoing rapprochement between Israel, which is still consolidating in its role as US fortress, and several Sunni Arab states facing “Iranian peril”.

We know that the reactions following the daring decision of the ugly duck Donald to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has met only hushed reactions among the Arab bourgeoisie of the region, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The “savior” Ben Salman in Saudi Arabia – who “generously” grants some rights to women, but accelerates imprisonment for not only economic but political crimes – was only waiting for that, Iran being the most dangerous regional power for his country (the two countries clash with each other in Yemen), far ahead of Turkey in this respect.

But Iran has other assets. For example, because of Saudi Arabia’s tactical diplomatic “mistake” with Qatar (Saudi economic blockade against Qatar for its support of the Muslim Brotherhood and the tone of the Al Jazeera television channel), Tehran, and also Turkey, are thus close at hand for Doha, with which Iran shares the largest natural gas field in the world. Moreover, Dubai in the Arab Emirates has been Iran ’s commercial center during the sanctions period and is today the financial capital of Iran!

Now the question of resolving the Palestinian problem is becoming more and more secondary for all the bourgeoisies, except for those represented in Brussels who still insist on claiming a Palestinian state that no one believes in, let alone a good majority of Palestinians, caught in the grip exterted by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and by Hamas in Gaza, on the one hand, and Israel on the other.

The icing on the cake, while not altogether a surprise, the intrusion of Turkish troops a few days ago in Syria, in Afrin (canton held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, close to the PKK since 2012) to prevent its seizure by the Kurdish militia on the Syrian border with Turkey, an action condoned by Putin, shows that the game of chess continues. Mattis declares that he “understands the legitimate security concerns” of Ankara (Le Monde, January 24, 2018), and that the American “ally” will not intervene and leave them to their destiny. Once more the Kurdish clans will realize that their mercenary condition exposes them to being exploited and betrayed by all.