As the United States squanders the enormous good will and respect it once had by marching forward on the tired legs of a dying empire, the U.S.’ enemies-of-its-own-making are beginning to forge new alliances that might not have been a reality had the U.S. at the very least pursued a strategy of positive reinforcement and cooperation as opposed to a policy of tension, pillage, and war.
The first major crack in the iron curtain of the Anglo-American world hegemon started becoming apparent with the emergence of the U.S. destabilization and proxy war against Syria. While the NATO/American proxy war has left hundreds of thousands of Syrians dead, hundreds of thousands more displaced, and destroyed much of the Syrian infrastructure as well as crippled the Syrian economy, another result of American policy in Syria is that it has strengthened and even created alliances that otherwise may not have existed not only between Middle Eastern countries but European, Asian, and African nations as well.
Unfortunately for the United States, these new alliances of its targets were created out of a political, economic, and military necessity by which to survive the Western onslaught of destabilization, sanctions, and war aimed at these respective nations. Thus, if the West wanted to break resistance to its hegemonic system, it has managed instead to encourage the opposite.
While already an axis of mutual interest, the crisis in Syria has resulted in the strengthening of ties between Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah. Not only a strategic alliance, this arc of resistance has solidified ties that are slowly pulling Iraq away from the influence of the United States. Indeed, the Iraqis are still tethered to the United States due largely to bribery, deception, economic threats, and the decreasing dependency on the United States for military assistance to combat ISIS.
Syria itself is spreading its wings as it mops up America’s terrorists. Reaching out to not only the nations of the resistance axis and Russia, it is reaching out and solidifying relationships with Russia and China as well as with other European and African nations like the Czech Republic and Egypt.
Likewise, if the ties between Iran and the Houthis were not strong enough before the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition, they certainly are now. Despite no credible evidence that Iran is providing weapons to the Houthis, there is little doubt that the Iranians are providing whatever support they can in whatever form that can take and that they will do so in the future.
Russia, of course, factors in as the biggest and most important player in the strategic realignment with its insistence (which has come as a result of the U.S. aggression across the planet) in the emergence of a “multi-polar” world. Russia’s reunification with Crimea, support of the Ukrainian rebels, as well as its support of Syria is only the tip of the iceberg. A growing cooperation with China and with a host of other nations throughout the world – by virtue of the carrot as opposed to the stick – is rapidly drawing more and more nations into the Russian fold.
Iran, too, having not expressed a desire for empire, nonetheless is now beginning to express interest in stretching its muscles and expanding its own influence. How much of this newly expressed desire is innate and how much is simply a necessary act of self-defense against and encroaching war machine that sees Iran as next in line for destruction is unclear. The fact that it is happening, however, is not in doubt.
These new alliances may not have ever taken shape and solidified had the United States not insisted on acting as the battering ram for the Anglo-American system across the world and squandered all the respect and good will that existed for it in so many nations. The U.S. could easily have won many nations over by using positive reinforcement and enticement such as development, higher living standards, and peace. Instead, it has bombed, burned, bribed, and destabilized itself across the globe to the point that it has become the number one threat to world peace, a reality that is being acknowledged by more and more countries by the day.
What could have been the greatest force for peace, stability, democracy, and high living standards has been utterly squandered into being the greatest force for the opposite. If the United States continues down this path of imperialism, it will soon find itself not only hated the world over, but collapsed, weak, and bitter while the nations it has targeted in the final days of its war push have united against it. We can only hope that they have more restraint, good will, and compassion than what the U.S. has shown to them.