A friend from the Dark Continent recently sent me a story about Communist China’s growing dominance in Africa. “Strange you don’t see that much protest from those who are against imperialism and war,” he noted ironically, “only if imperialism and war happens to be under the flag of a Western nation such as the United States.” When Europe built roads and mines and ports in Africa it was called “evil.” Now that China builds roads and mines and ports in Africa it is called “cooperation based on mutual benefit.” What is beneficial about the Maoist regime in Zimbabwe, or the Marxists of Namibia or Congo or the ANC? What good has come of the Chinese presence in Sudan?
Good relations between Africa and China supposedly began in the 1950s when Mao Zedong achieved the world record for mass killings. Now it is Africa’s turn to enter the record books. Some socialist regimes in Africa are models of oppression, corruption and genocide. Well done, Beijing! The investment in Africa is paying grim dividends. As a mineral-rich region sitting astride Europe’s oil lifeline, the Dark Continent is behind adding to a new anti-American bloc. And this is no accident.
China’s main partner in this venture is Russia. While China expands in Africa, Russia is colonizing banks in Germany. While China builds submarine bases along the vital shipping lanes of the South China Sea, Russia has been using organized crime to penetrate the West. The old lies have been supplanted by new lies. The old Communist Bloc has been expanded and upgraded without the Communist label. No dead weight this time. No useless satellites and less ideological baggage. It is time to go after capitalism in earnest. The offensive has begun. Russia’s new president, Dmitry Medvedev, blames the global financial crisis on American “selfishness and greed.” Capitalism is said to be evil. There is no oil shortage because rising oil prices are due to “speculators.” And we know how good Bolsheviks deal with speculators. They are put against the wall and shot.
As a popular and subversive propaganda documentary recently concluded: “THE REVOLUTION … IS NOW.” You might want to ask: whose revolution is it? We are told it is “the people’s revolution.” More precisely, it is “the people’s democratic revolution.” Does anyone remember what this phrase signifies? The Russian president talks of America’s “economic egoism.” What about Russia’s egoism? One has to watch carefully. One has to reckon how many journalists have died violently at the hands of the KGB “mafia,” how much dissent has been crushed, how many lies have flowed from Moscow since perestroika and glasnost began. President Medvedev has declared: “The aggressive financial policies of the biggest economy in the world have led not only to corporate losses; most people on the planet have become poorer.” The demagogue always talks of the poor. But what does the demagogue do for the poor? He denounces the one country that has given refuge to the world’s “huddled masses, yearning to be free.” The capitalists have failed to make heaven on earth. Down with capitalism!
“Russia is a global player and understands its responsibility for the fate of the world,” explained Medvedev. “We want to participate in setting the new rules of the game.” Perhaps the ruble should replace the dollar. This will not happen, we are told, but anything can happen when people are sufficiently afraid. In fact, on June 22 oil producing and consuming countries will meet in Saudi Arabia to figure out why oil prices have been climbing out of sight. Oh yes, you’re going to hear more about evil “speculators.” The fault, dear world, lies in your capitalists. And the sooner your would-be liberators “appropriate the appropriators,” the sooner they’ll declare Marx and Lenin’s “New World Order.” This is not the “New World Order” of open markets and rising wealth. It is the “New World Order” of permanent recession, empty shelves and long lines for stale bread and rotten meat.
Just so you understand: In Saudi Arabia on June 22 the leaders of the oil producing and consuming countries will meet to discuss why oil prices remain high. The relevance of “shortages” will be denied. There is no shortage, the national oil companies will say. The overall situation is due to “speculators.” It is not socialized energy that is the problem, but capitalist price speculation. The Soviet government told the Russian people the same thing when its policies produced shortages of everything from shoes and coats to cereal and fruit. Blame the speculators. Blame the capitalist conspiracy. Don’t blame us for nationalizing everything. Blame Western imperialism.
Besides discussing the future of oil on June 22, this gathering will unavoidably discuss the future of the dollar. One might ask: What future? Does the dollar have a future? The writing is on the wall. Whatever happens, the socialists will not only blame capitalism. They will blame U.S. imperialism. They will blame the dollar. And some will suggest there is a conspiracy in Washington to rule the world. Paranoia will take hold as the conspiracy theorists gain the upper hand. And today’s version of the conspiracy theory, borrowed from Adolf Hitler, blames the Americans as well as the Jews. All the world’s problems will be traced to the nefarious actions of Israel and the U.S. If only America and Israel were put down, what a paradise the earth would be!
If the oil countries are persuaded to refuse the dollar, if the dollar drops much further, the United States will be financially drained dry. The defensive bulwark of the West will be cut from its sources of supply. Try to imagine what happens to a carrier battle group without money. Do you think it can operate? If so, you’d better think again. What about America’s ICBMs? Imagine a ballistic missile submarine without logistical support or a paid crew. The collapse of the dollar isn’t a discreet financial or economic event. It is a link in a larger chain reaction, a catastrophic sequence of events. “I want to warn Americans,” said KGB/SVR defector Sergei Tretyakov. “You believe because the Soviet Union no longer exists, Russia now is your friend. It isn’t, and I can show you how the SVR is trying to destroy the U.S. even today and even more than the KGB did during the Cold War.”
And so they are.
