U.S. and China Watch Darfur and Iraq Burn in Oil Blaze

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U.S. and China Watch Darfur and Iraq Burn in Oil Blaze

Thursday, 23 August 2007

China and America have adopted an alliance of competitive equals, and Russia finds itself increasingly irrelevent. Indeed, the Elder Bush predicted sagely that a New World Order was upon us and the last decade has done nothing but prove him right.

Clinton's military expiditions ignored old cold war soviet bloc borders and set the stage for the current Bush to act as if Russia was completely invisible in regards to Afghanistan and Iraq. After fifty years of stalemate under the threat of mutually assured destruction, the United States of America boldly made the first expansionist move in claiming Afghanistan and Iraq. The move is nothing short of a complete re-writing of global political strategy and the international status quo, and a quiet reminder that China and the United States are allies in competition, in the sense that only they have been able to expand their extra-national influence.

And victory in Iraq would be a powerful triumph in the ideological struggle of the 21st century. From Damascus to Tehran, people will look to a democratic Iraq as inspiration that freedom can succeed in the Middle East, and as evidence that the side of freedom is the winning side.
-President George W. Bush, 8/31/06

But the New World Order does not mean America is invincible or alone in the world. Bush's words not only provide context for explaining the wars outside of an expansionist or imperialist paradigm, it provides foreshadowing to prepare the world for the Pentagon's futrue plans for Syria and Iran. The rhetoric of freedom and democracy is mostly for the American public, unless Bush and his advisors were actually so naive to believe that Russia and China would not take notice of an historically opportunistic moment.

Both China and Russia seek to establish themselves as military and economic powers worthy of rivaling the United States, and to do so in global politics means to beat the leader at their own game. While Putin has been limited to literally rebuilding his centralized government by seizing industry and capital from newly privatized companies and staking claims in the middle of a frozen ocean, China has been quite busy and successful in expanding its spheres of influence across continents.

"China National Petroleum Corp. has a 40 percent share in the international consortium extracting oil in Sudan, and it is building refineries and pipelines, enabling Sudan to benefit from oil export revenue since 1999."
http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/cohenr/20040805.htm

This is where Darfur comes in - and why America has been so keen to stay out. Not only has Bush failed to act on the genocide and civil war occuring there, none of the major presidential candidates will support action in that region. Every one of them is fixated on Iran, and for good reason. China has established itself as the heir to the French empire as the major financial power in much of Africa and southeast Asia much like America inherited control of the British Empire following World War II.

For now, America and China have every incentive to come to peaceful terms when it comes to dividing the world up as economic colonies. Not only are the finances and productive capability of the two deeply intertwined, but by working in cooperation they can deflect much of the negative press that might otherwise accompany the process of acquiring undue influence and promoting violence and chaos in extra-national territory.

Russia is busy pondering ice cubes, but its also stretching its muscles a little bit and toying with Chechnya. Putin knows that if Iran falls, the Soviet Empire is nothing but a map in a history book.

With Sino-Russian war games currently active, it may seem that they only need to ally to defeat the U.S., but I will say it won't happen. Russia and China have fundamentally similar territorial interests. It is not possible for the both of them to be content as super-powers without conflicting on large amounts of agricultural land, resource-rich land, and their shared desire to dominate financial and political developments in southest Asia.

So America continues to stay silent on Darfur, as we establish our own new highways and pipelines across the Middle East. China is busy doing the same in Africa, and together, we're putting a serious limit on Russia's ability to expand its power. Barring any dramatic changes to the trade flow between China and the U.S., or erratic behavior from satellite allies such as Taiwan or North Korea, it seems as though this global balance of power can persist for another ten to twenty years before the spheres come into contact. The thing to watch is the jealousy of the other significant powers, Russia and the EU - this is the most likely anti-American alliance, if Russia can put away the pride and admit it is part of the European tradition.

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