US Plan for Deploying Missiles to Asia A Major Mistake: American Expert

“The US Defense Secretary's call for deploying medium-range missiles in Asia is a major mistake, which Trump would be wise to cancel,” Michael O. Billington, a senior editor with the Executive Intelligence Review, said in an interview with the Tasnim News Agency.

Billington is an activist in the LaRouche Movement, Asia editor for the Executive Intelligence Review, and author of Reflections of an American Political Prisoner: the Repression and Promise of the LaRouche Movement.

The following is the full text of the interview:

Tasnim: Some analysts and media reports suggest that the recent G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, ended in failure as deep divisions between the US under Donald Trump and its closest allies became more evident. For example, the US-Europe dispute over Trump’s trade war with China was not bridged even a bit in the summit. Do not you think these disputes indicate that the US allies are distancing themselves from Trump and his shifting policies?

Billington: The EU is crumbling, as the financial system in the west is ready to explode. China was not the issue at the G7. While nothing was done to deal with the financial collapse, the focus of the fight was Russia. Trump and Macron agreed that Russia must be at the table if anything is to be done about anything. Italy agrees, and the German business community agrees, despite Merkel's "lame duck" resistance. The neocons and neolibs in the US are getting hysterical since their Russia-gate hoax has been exposed as a British-run coup attempt. Russia's response was, correctly, to agree that they should be at the table, but that also China and India should as well. This getting at LaRouche's policy -- that the US, China, Russia, and India are the necessary minimum force to hold a new Bretton Woods, create a new financial system to replace the bankrupt City of London/Wall Street bubble with a creditary system to finance the required recovery -- the Belt and Road, the Moon-Mars mission, a crash fusion power development program, etc. 

Tasnim: It seems that even Asian allies of the US have also distanced themselves from the Trump administration. In the latest instance, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared in early August that his country would never allow the United States to deploy missile systems on its soil. Although there exists the Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the United States, Duterte said that he would bar the entry of foreign weapons, including nuclear arsenal in the country since this is considered a violation of the Philippine Constitution. What is your take on that? How do you assess the future of US relations with its Asian allies?

Billington: The Philippines is the key to US relations with Asia. Under Obama, Duterte denounced the US imperial effort to use the Philippines for a war with China. Under Trump, Duterte is friends with both the US and with China, and ASEAN is generally no longer falling for the British effort to make them "take sides," but is working with both the US and with China. I believe Trump will find a solution to the trade issue with China at the right time. It would be best for Trump to join in the Belt and Road in cooperative investments, as Japan is doing with China in Thailand and elsewhere. The US Defense Secretary's call for deploying medium-range missiles in Asia is a major mistake, which Trump would be wise to cancel.

Tasnim: The Trump administration has walked away from various international agreements, ranging from the Iran nuclear deal to the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation. In early August, the US formally withdrew from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia which was signed by the former Soviet Union and the United States back in 1987. What is your assessment of Trump’s policy on international agreements? Are the US moves to renege on its international promises aimed at boosting its global hegemony, which has recently declined very fast?

Billington: Most of the "international arrangements" were neo-colonial traps for the developing sector. The WTO is simply an enforcer of colonial looting; the trade deals (TPP, NAFTA) were Wall Street looting mechanisms to enforce austerity both abroad and at home. The Paris Agreement is an imperial, genocidal policy for stopping industrial development and reducing the population on the basis of a scientific fraud, that which falsely claims that carbon has an impact on the climate -- the only purpose of this hoax is to preserve the bankrupt western financial system for a bit longer by diverting credit into bailing out banks, rather than productive investments. A new paradigm of sovereign nations working together for development, for space travel, and for classical cultural advancement is required, as proposed by the Schiller Institute, as the only means of escaping the current threat of a new Dark Age.