S.L. Kanthan
Is America an empire? Does the United States practice imperialism and colonialism? These simple questions would yield surprising – and wrong – responses from most people in the world.
The lack of understanding of the true nature of the American Empire is a testimony to the extraordinary sophistication of the empire’s operations and propaganda. Unlike the European empires of the past, the US does not directly rule countries around the world. Instead, the neo-colonialist tentacles take the form of finance, media, technology and so on; and when everything fails, the imperialist military comes knocking on the doors to spread “freedom and democracy.” Let’s take a deep dive into the secrets of the full-spectrum dominance of the largest and smartest empire in human history.
Evolution of Colonialism
When people think of colonialism, they think of one country invading and defeating another country, deposing the leader, installing a leader from the invading nation, and ruthlessly exploiting the new colony. The old form of colonialism was blatant and visible. However, it was also limited in its efficiency, since it required immense resources. For example, to colonize what’s now the Americas, more than 60 million Europeans had to relocate between 1492 to 1930.
Such a brute form of colonialism was not sustainable, so smarter techniques were invented. In India, for example, it took only 100,000 British to rule the colony. By the time the Europeans got to China, they had run out of manpower, and thus had to devise a new strategy of a European coalition controlling just a handful of cities, but ensuring that the Chinese emperor stayed subservient and the entire country could be exploited.
Since the end of WW2, the American Empire has taken over the role of the European empires, and has further transformed the practice of neo-colonialism into a fine art and science. While the foundation of American primacy consists mainly of banking and military, there are many more critical pillars to support this imperial edifice.
In this Dec. 7, 1941 file photo, smoke rises from the battleship USS Arizona as it sinks during a Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
© AP Photo
Let’s take a look at all the holistic imperialist tools that allow the US to enjoy such an unprecedented full-hegemony around the globe.
Big Picture – The Tools of Modern Imperialism
If you want to control billions of people, you cannot resort to brute violence alone. This sort of control requires mastery of multidimensional skills. Henry Kissinger once said, “Control oil, you control nations; control food, and you control people.” There’s truth to it, but there’s a lot more in this tool kit.
Here are the eight crucial tools of American imperialism:
Money (dollar’s privileged status, central banks, sanctions, Wall Street)
Corporations (to control the economy)
Technology (lifeblood of modern nations)
Media (includes internet, social media, education, think tanks, entertainment etc.)
Military (wars, proxy wars, selling weapons)
Intelligence (spying)
Geopolitics (various strategies including elite capture and divide-and-rule)
Subversions (coups, color revolutions, assassinations etc.)
The US empire offers carrots and sticks. If a country follows all the commands of the US and Western institutions, the country will usually do okay and will be left alone. Of course, at times, it may be called upon to sacrifice itself on behalf of the American empire – for example, Ukrainians are forced to fight Russia.
Money
Let’s start with Money or King Dollar. The fact that the dollar is the dominant global currency – in trade as well as foreign exchange reserves – gives the US enormous power and exorbitant privilege. All the commodities in the world markets are denominated in USD, which means countries need the dollar to trade with one another – this is slowly changing due to dedollarization efforts.
So, how do these countries get hold of US dollars? By selling goods and services to the US. This arrangement gives the US overwhelming advantage in negotiations. For example, India cannot grow without importing oil, gas and many other goods. However, other countries will not usually accept Indian rupees as payment. Thus, India needs to go to the US – figuratively speaking – for billions of dollars every year. Then, the US will say, “Do tech support and write software for American corporations for low wages.”
You can see how this situation can be extrapolated around the world. People in developing nations must sell natural resources, goods, labor and other services at low costs. This exploitation is very similar to European colonialism, except that Americans do not directly rule any country.
And when a country runs out of US dollars, the IMF – which is based out of Washington DC – will come as a savior and lend money. However, the IMF will demand a pound of flesh in the form of privatization “reforms,” which is a euphemism for letting Western corporations buy everything for pennies on the dollar. This shock doctrine has been applied to developing nations all over the world.
Euro and dollar banknotes
© Sputnik / Nina Zotina
The US dollar is also a powerful weapon. Any country, corporation or a person that disobeys the US empire will face sanctions, which will shut them out from the US banking system, and thus much of global trade, payments and investments. On the other side, if the political and business leaders of a foreign country are good puppets, they get to stash millions or billions of dollars in US/UK banks – usually in offshore havens – around the world.
The common person around the world accepts this rigged system and assumes that there must be something special about America and its currency.
Corporations
In some sense, much of the world has “corporatocracy” – rule by corporations. The market capitalization of the top 5 American corporations is $12 trillion. One corporation, BlackRock manages $10 trillion of assets. These are stunning numbers, considering that the GDP of India, Japan and Germany are each less than $4.5 trillion.
The world is corporatized – banks, food supply chain, healthcare, education, utilities such as water and electricity, infrastructure technology, media etc. are all run by giant corporations. (China is an exception where many critical industries are run by state-owned enterprises. Russia also has a similar structure for oil and gas companies. This is one reason why the US hates China and Russia so much). More importantly, all these corporations are deeply interlinked in terms of the largest shareholders and boards of directors. Thus, there is a “swarm effect” and they all work in tandem, similar to how birds of a large flock fly in unison.
Consider the Indian tech startup companies, most of whom have American investors. This is colonialism from afar. Not only does the US get to reap profits from the Indian market and innovators, but is also able to control the future of the Indian economy. How about Indian banks? Looking at HDFC, the largest private bank in India, the two largest shareholders are… Morgan Stanley and Fidelity, both American! But how many Indians know this fact?
Similarly, giant corporations around the world are controlled by American investors. Take Samsung, the giant conglomerate of South Korea. It is controlled by major American shareholders and also infiltrated by US deep state – and this is why the US does not mind that Samsung smartphones are #1 in the world, while the US tried very hard to kill Chinese Huawei.
Technology
Without better technology – guns, ships, steel, industrial revolution etc. – Europeans would have never been able to colonize much of the world. The strategic importance of technology remains true today. Better technology means bigger market share, larger economy, better productivity, and more influence around the world.
Since WW2, the US has dominated technology, mainly because of stolen patents from Germany after the war, and the influx of the smartest minds from a war-devastated Europe. Later, when Japan became too successful, the US waged a geopolitical and economic war, forcing the Japanese to hand over their precious semiconductor technologies to the US.
Since the Great Financial Crisis that was orchestrated by Wall Street, Europe’s economy has stagnated. Taking advantage of this, the US has bought hundreds of extremely successful European startups. Note also how Europe has been left behind in the dust in the digital/internet revolution. There are no European counterparts for Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft etc. Europe has fallen behind in critical technologies such as cloud computing, e-commerce and AI. Of course, Germans are as smart as the Americans, but the US empire cleverly suffocated European tech sovereignty.
The US also greatly influences and controls the science behind modern medicine, which was really distorted and corrupted by the world’s first billionaire – John D. Rockefeller.
Thus, the broad strategy of the US is to never let anyone else have independent or better technology. Again, China is starting to beat the US in technology, patents, scientific papers, and innovation. Hence all the American sanctions and economic/tech wars to contain China.
Media (Mind Control)
By media, I am referring to all the tools involved in shaping people’s opinions – i.e., brainwashing. Yes, the biggest propagandist in the world is the USA. I wrote an entire article on it: Propaganda and Censorship: How America Dominates the Information War.
Edward Bernays is considered the father of modern mass propaganda. He was the nephew of Freud, who developed some quirky theories about individual psychology. Bernays, however, developed accurate theories and practices, which are still used effectively all over the world. Regarding how propaganda works, Bernays wrote:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”
The US holds enormous control over information all over the world through mainstream media, social media, internet search engines, fake neutral sites like Wikipedia, apps for mobile phones etc. Even education in schools and universities as well as think tanks around the world are monitored and controlled by the US.
Of course, the US soft power is enormous, thanks to Hollywood, the music industry etc.
This is the main reason why billions of people around the world are clueless about how the American Empire works.
Military
The US empire used to work in traditional ways – waging wars of conquest. That’s how the modern USA was born and then expanded. In the beginning of the 20th century, the US even colonized the Philippines, claiming that the Filipinos were savages, and it was the “white man’s burden” to civilize them.
After WW2, the US was dealt two embarrassing defeats in Korea and Vietnam. After that, the US has resorted to only proxy wars – such as using Afghanistan against the USSR and Ukraine/Europe against Russia – or wars against truly weak countries such as Panama, Libya, and Iraq, which was weakened by a decade of severe sanctions. Using Islamist extremists and terrorists for proxy wars has been a go-to strategy for the US since the 1950s.
However, the US still has 800 military bases and “lily pads” in 140 countries, including all the strategic regions. While the US military is now unable to defeat even the Houthis, the US military played a significant role in its imperialist power for eight decades since WW2.
More consequential are the weapons sales, through which the US gains the trust and alliance of countries around the world. This also creates dependency, since the countries cannot even operate most American weapons – even during a crisis – without the approval of the Pentagon.
A U.S. Navy fighter jet is about to land on the flight deck of USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015
© AP Photo / Marko Drobnjakovic
Intelligence (Spying)
Spying is probably the most underestimated geopolitical tool. If you can listen in on all the phone calls and read all the emails of leaders around the world, you can control the world, since you know all their secrets, skeletons, and plans. Blackmailing is a powerful weapon.
This is why all the US software giants and hardware vendors work closely with the CIA and NSA. Edward Snowden revealed many shocking details, but countries are still putting up with the US empire, since there is no strong alternative yet.
Geopolitics
There are many geopolitical theories and strategies that are employed by the US empire.
First, the classic divide and rule. We can see that in numerous US-engineered conflicts: Europe v. Russia, Iran v. Iraq (1980s), Sunni v. Shiites, India v. Pakistan, and the attempts to turn many Asian countries against China.
The second major strategy involves creating geographical blocks that would impede a country’s trade and military. Examples include the attempt to block Russia’s access to the Black Sea, destabilizing Afghanistan to block China-Iran link, trying regime changes in Iraq and Syria to disrupt the Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon crescent etc.
Subversion and Sabotage
This is another long topic that needs an entire article. The US engages in constant subversion and sabotage in all its rivals and some of its allies, if the latter is becoming too independent or prosperous.
The arrows in this imperialist quiver include coups, assassinations, election interference, false flag attacks, color revolutions, fueling civil wars, and much more.
During the Cold War, the CIA assassinated leaders of other countries in the name of fighting communism. Later, the US shifted to using sleeper cell NGOs to create useful idiots in strategic countries. These NGOs can start massive protests against any leader who is not a puppet of the American empire. Of course, the foolish members of these NGOs believe that they are fighting for “freedom and democracy.”
What the US has been doing to destabilize China for decades is astonishing – for example, supporting separatists in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang. In South Asia, the US has supported Sikh separatists in India, staged a successful color revolution in Sri Lanka in 2022, and the current protests in Bangladesh. In Pakistan, the US simply instructed the military and the parliament to stage a soft coup against Prime Minister Imran Khan, when he displayed too much independence.
In countries all around the world, the US has managed to fund opposition parties if a leader refuses to kowtow to American diktats.
Conclusion
It is a vital imperative for every person to understand how the American empire works not only in his/her country or the region but worldwide. The US empire deploys many of the same playbooks like a scripted Hollywood movie over and over in different countries. However, since people do not follow events around the world, they fall for the same tricks and harm their own countries.
The good news is that the US empire’s tactics are starting to fail. People and nations are waking up and starting to rebel against the empire. This is the story of the emerging multipolar world and multilateral organizations like BRICS. There is hope in the air.
How the American Century Will Come to an End
30 June, 20:25
Almost 200 People Died Due to Heavy Rains in Pakistan Since July 1 – Reports
MOSCOW, (Sputnik) – At least 195 people died as a result of heavy rains and subsequent floods in Pakistan since the beginning of July, while another 362 people received various injuries, the Express Tribune reported, citing the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The NDMA report describes the widespread impact of the rains, including the destruction of more than 2,000 houses. The flooding has also damaged more than 44 kilometers of roads and 30 bridges across the country.
Bangladesh: A US Coup with Profound Geopolitical Repercussions – OpEd
S.L. Kanthan
Military coups, Counter-coups, assassinations, treachery… the history of the young 53-year-old Bangladesh has more intrigue than a Shakespeare novel. While the repercussions of all the drama have been restricted to South Asia so far, the recent coup has direct involvement of the US.
Now, the regime-change will have profound impacts on geopolitical power balance and military strategies in the region. China and Myanmar will be affected; and the US-India relations will likely suffer, as India’s national interests and sphere of influence are imperiled. This is a complex issue, so let’s break it down into several topics.
Why target Bangladesh?
Bangladesh is a country of 170 million – larger than Russia, Japan or Germany. And it’s strategically located right next to India. While the US has encircled China in the east, the US has no presence in the south. Moreover, the Bay of Bengal region is close to the Malacca Strait and can be theoretically used to disrupt China’s trade. See map below:
© Photo
Ideally, the US would like to use Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to control the Malacca Strait and contain China. However, all those ASEAN countries have refused to be America’s geopolitical pawns, and have explicitly told the US to take a hike in this matter.
The next best option for the US is to build bases in the Andaman Nicobar Islands, which overlook the Malacca Strait. These islands, of course, belong to India, which has also staunchly refused to allow foreign military bases in its soil.
What is next for the US empire? Myanmar, as you can see in the map above. Here, the US worked very hard to court the nation. Once upon a time, the US even managed to give the leader – Aung San Suu Kyi – the Nobel Prize. But when she slowly changed her mind and leaned towards China, the West revoked her Nobel Prize. How petty!
Myanmar has immense strategic importance for China. Why? Because Myanmar provides a vital escape route for Chinese trade (see red arrows on the map above) – as an emergency plan, in case Malacca Strait gets shut down.
China has spent a lot of money on infrastructure in Myanmar and is working on a deep-sea port – as part of the “string of pearls,” which also includes Sri Lanka. The Myanmar military and the political class have definitely shifted towards China over the past few years.
Thus, having lost all its battles in the region, the US had one last target: Bangladesh. Specifically, the US wants to build a military base in the Saint Martin Island of Bangladesh. Hence the coup.
Why target Prime Minister Hasina?
Hasina was the PM of Bangladesh for a total of 20 years – including the last 15 years. Her father – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – was the founding father of Bangladesh. He was assassinated, along with much of his family. Hasina survived only because she was on vacation in Europe. She then spent many years in India before returning to Bangladesh. She has also survived four assassination attempts over the years.
The person who was convicted of trying to assassinate her in 2004 – Tarique Rahman – has been living in London for the last sixteen years. He is also the acting chairman of BNP, the opposition party, which is now poised to rule Bangladesh. This reveals how the West has taken a clear position in the internal affairs of Bangladesh.
Hasina’s biggest geopolitical “crime” – according to the US – was to embrace strategic autonomy. Her government was equally friends with India, Russia, China and the US.
In 2016, Bangladesh joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Since then, China has spent tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, loans and aid in Bangladesh. Hasina also enhanced defense cooperation with China – she bought a couple of Chinese submarines and built a naval base with China’s help.
Hasina also invited Russia to build a nuclear power reactor in Bangladesh; and when the US threatened sanctions, she used Chinese yuan to pay Russia. Overall, in just 14 years of Hasina’s rule (from 2008 to 2022), the GDP of Bangladesh grew a whopping 360% – from $100 billion to $460 billion.
Along with that, Hasina wanted to join BRICS. If all those “crimes” were not enough, she refused to let the US build military bases in Saint Martin Island.
In summary, she welcomed neutrality and the multipolar world with too much enthusiasm, which was unacceptable to the US Empire.
How the coup threatens India
In summary, a pro-India government in Bangladesh has been replaced by a pro-Pakistan regime.
When Bangladesh got independence from Pakistan in 1971, not everyone was in favor of it. The people, who opposed separation from Pakistan, created the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), which has been the leading opposition to Hasina and her party (Awami League) for decades. (Interestingly, the US also vehemently opposed Bangladesh’s freedom movement in 1971 and even threatened India with a naval fleet, which was repelled by the USSR).
Thus, it is not surprising that Pakistani officials have had many kind words about the protesters in the last couple of weeks. Pro-Hasina groups have repeatedly called the protesters “razakars,” a sort of derogatory word to describe the pro-Pakistan movement.
Plus, the opposition party (BNP) is aligned with Jamaat-e-Islami*, which is classified as a terrorist group by India, Russia and others.
In addition, while Hasina was a secular Muslim who protected Hindus and other minorities, the BNP and its allies such as the Jamaat-e-Islami are quite anti-Hindus. The cynical Western media is desperately playing down the atrocities committed against Hindus in Bangladesh, since the US needs the narrative of “freedom and democracy.” This situation is very similar to how ethnic Russians in Ukraine have been facing violent persecution for the last decade, but the US completely ignored it.
There is a possibility that a large number of Hindus may flee Bangladesh and cause a refugee crisis in India.
Moreover, Bangladesh shares a staggering 4000 km of border with five Indian states. Thus, if the new government in Bangladesh allies with Pakistani intelligence and Islamist terrorist/extremist groups, India could face serious problems.
In the long term, if India-US relations worsen, the US could use Pakistan and Bangladesh to harass India from two sides. Remember that during the 1980s, the US trained the Mujahideen and Kashmiri separatists and supplied weapons, which destabilized Kashmir. The US also has a long history of arming Islamic terrorists over the decades – Libya and Syria being the recent examples.
The US has no permanent friends, only permanent interests.
Why US-India relations are souring
“We are not true allies; our interests are not fully aligned,” – USA to India.
The deterioration of the US-India relationship over the last year has been stunning. After all, late last year, Biden tweeted the following: “The friendship between the United States and India is among the most consequential in the world. And it’s stronger, closer, and more dynamic than ever.”
So, what happened?
Bottom line: Both India and the US were disappointed in what the relationship could achieve. India was hoping that it could become the “next China” with the help of the US and its allies – Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc. And that did not happen. India’s manufacturing did not take off; and India’s dependence on China has only grown more rapidly since 2020 (when COVID was supposed to have made the world decouple from China).
On the other hand, American elites had hoped that India would become an ally – i.e., a vassal who would agree to American demands 100% of the time. The US had two reasons to be so hopeful:
The successful Indians immigrants in the US would be able to persuade the Indian government’
The enormous American control over Indian media in India will shape the public opinion
Alas, but for cultural, political and pragmatic reasons, India was not able to ditch Russia or allow US military bases on Indian soil or agree to go to war with China.
However, the American Empire is not used to countries saying, “No.” Thus, the US warned India that there is no such thing as strategic autonomy, and then proceeded to overthrow the democratic government in Bangladesh.
The big mistake that the US might be making is to push India into the arms of China. Imagine if Russia, China and India work together! That will be the end of American influence in Asia.
How the US orchestrated the coup
By early 2021, US media started writing negative articles about Hasina, and started calling her a “dictator and her government a “regime.” That world always means that the US is going to try a “regime change.” For more than two years, the US media has been demonizing PM Hasina, including the Time magazine putting her on the cover page. The propaganda was consistent, whining about “authoritarianism” or the need for “free and fair elections.”
In Dec 2021, Biden had a “Democracy Summit,” but refused to invite Hasina.
For the next two years, various US officials – including infamous Victoria Nuland – flew to Bangladesh and met with the opposition party. Donald Lu, who orchestrated the soft coup in Pakistan two years ago, also came to Bangladesh and met with the opposition leaders. The US ambassador to Bangladesh played a prominent role in the coup, and swiftly left the country a few days before the coup ended.
The US has been grooming college students in Bangladesh for years. Dhaka University gets a lot of funding from the US — especially the political science department, which is the hotbed of radicalism. Most professors there also have gotten their doctorates in the US, UK, or Canada. Thus, through money and ideology, these educators become the “useful idiots” for the American empire.
The NED also funds numerous NGOs in Bangladesh. All these people are brainwashed about democracy, freedom, transparency, justice etc., which they will not enjoy under the new regime either. The bright college students with leadership skills will get jobs with the NGOs, where they may earn a few hundred dollars a month – more than the media wage in the country. Thus, such kids will work very hard to spread the American ideals, recruit other students, and organize protests.
The truly talented students will get scholarships to study in the West. Take Yunus, the new leader of the interim government in Bangladesh. He got the Fulbright scholarship to study in the US back in the 1970s.
Yunus was such a perfect student that he went on to develop strong relations with Western elites such as Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates and Tony Blair. Yunus even got the Nobel Prize for peace and the Congressional Gold Medal, which is the highest civilian award of the United States.
In 2007, Yunus went to the US embassy in India and told the Americans that he was planning to run for office. In essence, he was seeking the blessing and help from the US. That patronage system eventually paid off this year, when just two days after Hasina was ousted, Yunus was made the leader of the interim government.
By the way, there is no country in the world where a bunch of students can simply riot and replace their leader. A regime change cannot be accomplished without the blessing of the police, military and media at the highest levels. And that requires enormous sophistication and vast sums of money, which are the forte of the US.
The color revolutions are the velvet gloves over the iron firsts of imperialism. If the US simply orchestrated a military coup – like it did during the Cold War era – there would be a lot of outcries from the rest of the world. Thus, training and radicalizing a few thousand students and using them to stage violent protests help camouflage the American subversion of the establishment institutions in the targeted country.
This is why Alan Weinstein, the founder of NED, confessed in an interview in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
Conclusion
The managers of the American Empire are on autopilot. The “blob” simply keeps moving forward according to the plans laid a long time ago. These self-appointed exceptionalists don’t have a reality feedback loop to comprehend that global domination is not possible or that a multipolar world is emerging.
Decades ago, they decided that they would expand NATO and conquer Russia. So, they keep doubling down on Ukraine and pushing the conflict towards a nuclear war. They dreamed of a Greater Israel and conquest of the Middle East about a century ago, so they will pursue that goal now regardless of the cost. They want to contain China, so they will do whatever it takes, even if it means antagonizing good friends like India. Thanks to American hubris, the possibility of an India-China-Russia alliance is growing every day.
The globalist blob will continue to be a clear and present danger to humanity, including the American people, until it is totally defeated. And that momentous occasion is not far away.
* Terrorist organisation banned in Russia
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