US Trying to Launch Cold War against Russia, China as Losing Credibility Worldwide

Pepe Escobar who is a Brazilian journalist, author, and geopolitical analyst, has shared his views on the decline of the United Sates in an interview with the secretariat of the 2nd International Conference on the Decline of the United States: The Post-American World.

“Since August 15, we have entered a new paradigm with the famous previously advertised, Saigon Moment,” Escobar said, “But we never thought it would happen so fast. America’s debacle in Afghanistan happened in 11 days when the Taliban conquered the whole country, except for a tiny fraction in the Panjshir Valley. So we have the American loss of a key strategic base i.e. Afghanistan.”

“They needed a base in this intersection between Central Asia and South Asia as a forward observation and surveillance post on Russia, China, Iran and of course all of Central Asia. They lost it on August 15 and they're never going to get it back. They call it the strategic repositioning, which is partly true, because the withdrawal from Afghanistan coupled with coming withdrawal from Iraq--which we still don't know how is going to happen-- is part of the general repositioning. Against what? The number one threat, as they put it: China.”

“Immediately afterwards we had the Aukus scheme,” Escobar continued, “which has bypassed France and NATO, and showed that America's number one obsession from now on officially and unofficially is the “Indo-Pacific,” itself a Pentagon-made denomination obviously because they needed to attract India.”

Referring to the “very important” interconnection between the Chinese New Silk Roads, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as “strategic partnership,” Escobar emphasized, “they now have the initiative, not America. The Americans are counter-acting and trying to create new facts on the ground with their Cold War 2.0 mentality.”

On Iraq and Syria, Escobar maintained, “a little over a week after the fall of Baghdad they started to lose the war. And also they started losing it for good in 2004 when they were fighting not only the Sunnis in the Golden Triangle, especially in the triangle of death, but also Shiites and specially Muqtada al-Sadr. They started to lose the war for good one year after the bombing and the invasion in 2004. Actually by bombing and occupying the cultures, they bombed into democracy, essentially. In Syria, it was even worse, because they were not physically there. They were there via their proxies, Takfiris and so-called moderate rebels.”

“In 2001 in Afghanistan,” he added, “America lacked ground intelligence and reliable allies, and because of a cultural block they didn't know how to cultivate allies.”

Noting that the “Americans don't have credibility on the ground for two decades now. Their credibility in Africa, in Latin America, for instance, is less than zero. And now, their credibility in the Middle East is even lesser than zero,” Escobar said. “When we look at the broader picture now, you have a fragmented empire, internally and externally, thinking that they can launch a successful Cold War 2.0 against China and also against Russia, and, in fact, against the Russia-China strategic partnership. Well, our only plausible reaction [to that thinking] is to laugh about it”.

“The situation inside the US is reaching an extremely critical point, I would say sooner rather than later,” he went on to say. “Over half of the population now is speaking openly about succession. It's not only the latest polls, but this is something that was being discussed even before the final results of the latest presidential elections; so since late last year, they started to discuss it openly through this year, between red states and blue states, saying that the agendas of red and blue states are irreconcilable.”

“This is also reflected in the circles of power in the Beltway, among different Deep State factions fighting among themselves,” he added. “And the only thing that they practically agree on is this Cold War 2.0 against China. They disagree about everything else, including the role of Russia.”

“Americans know that their military predominance all over the world is simply erased,” Escobar stated, “by what Russia has in terms of first class weaponry, hypersonic weapons, and China is also getting closer.”

“That myth of the 'greatest military in the world' is completely shattered,” he added. “Add to it the humiliation in Afghanistan, where they basically lost the war. It was not only the Americans that lost the war in Afghanistan, it was NATO as a whole. They were booted out by a guerrilla movement. And this was the second time in the past few decades. First time was in Vietnam, now in Afghanistan. And that’s the end of their military predominance. And that’s the end of their credibility.”

“We can have a multipolar world in geopolitical terms,” Escobar believed. “The internal rot of the US in terms of geopolitics and military is going much faster than in geo-economic terms. And in terms of control of the world financial markets, it's going to happen eventually, but it's going to be very traumatic.”

“The role of Iran from now is going to be absolutely crucial,” he asserted, “so crucial that Russia and China noticed it years ago. Now finally, with Iran as a full member of the SCO, the potential can be fully exploited; especially with the new Iranian presidency that understands this perfectly. I would say that President Raisi completely understands the concept of Eurasian integration, and the place of Iran which is at the forefront, as one of the top three players of Eurasian integration: Russia, China, and Iran. Iran's relations with Russia and China are close and can get even closer. Moreover, the Iran-china deal, the $400 billion deal over 25 years has multiple possibilities of expanding and bringing excellent fruits to Iran and its development.”

“The new presidency in Iran completely understood that you simply cannot rely on the Western powers to be at least "aligned" with Iranian interests,” said Escobar. “Everybody thought that the JCPOA would solve a lot of Iranians' problems, especially economic, and it was in fact the opposite. Then we saw how the Europeans are extremely cowardly when it comes to defending their own strategic and geo-economic interests.”

“We're going to have a closer deal between the Eurasian Economic Union and Iran as well,” he concluded. “Iranian presidency totally understands that we are entering a new cycle and Iran is going to be one of the main protagonists of this new geopolitical and geo-economic cycle. So from the point of view of Iran, and all of us who are fond of Iran, we have every reason to be very pleased with the way things are going.”

The 2nd International Conference on the Decline of the United States: The Post-American World will be held on November 2, 2021, by Imam Hussein Comprehensive University (pbuh) and the Secretariat of the Expediency Discernment Council, in cooperation with the universities and research institutes.

For more information, interested parties may see the conference website at www.usdecline.ir and the virtual pages of the conference secretariat on social media at @usdecline.