Wednesday, February 26, 2014

US WESTWARD IMPERIALISM, PACIFIC OCEAN, EAST ASIA NEWSLETTER #11

OMNI
US WESTWARD IMPERIALISM, PACIFIC OCEAN, EAST ASIA, NEWSLETTER #11.  February 26, 2014.

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.   (#1 May 8, 2012; #2 August 22, 2012; #3 Nov. 25, 2012; #4 Jan. 12, 2013; #5 March 27, 2013; #6 July 5, 2013; #7 August 12, 2013; #8 Nov. 8, 2013; #9 Jan. 2, 2014; #10 Feb. 3, 2014). 

See US Imperialism, US Westward Imperialism Continental Expansion.doc,  Nuclear Free Independent Pacific Day.doc, No Bases Network, WWII, Nuclear Weapons,


"To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
- Robert H. Jackson, U.S. Prosecutor, Nuremberg Military Tribunal 




http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2013/03/colonial-pacific-world-war-ii.html

Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:

http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/   For a knowledge-based peace, justice, and ecology movement and an informed citizenry as the foundation for opposition to empire, militarism, and wars.   Here is the link to the Index:  http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/   See: Continental US Westward Expansion, Genocide, Indigenous People of Americas, Pentagon, TPP, US Imperialism, WWII Colonial Pacific, and more.

My blog:
It's the War Department
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/

Nos. 7 - 10 at end



Contents #11
TRANSPACIFIC US GET TOUGH MISSILES, AMBASSADOR, AND CONGRESSMEN
Gagnon, New US First Strike Threats by Military-Corporate-Congressional Complex
Dick, New US Ambassador to China Ready for Battle
Frank Olliveri/Dick, Militarist Rationale Analyzed

TRANSPACIFIC PARTNERSHIP:  SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter: Petition, Protest TPP
Lee Fang, Corporate Control of TPP

TRANSPACIFIC CONTAINMENT ALLIANCES
China Breaks Through Double and Triple Containment, Sails Toward Seattle
 US Military Alliances Pacific, S. E. Asia, and Beyond, a Reference Library Under Construction, a Call for 100 Humorous Scholars.
             S-E Asia Google Search
             Indonesia Google Search

TRANSPACIFIC 19TH CENTURY: MELVILLE’S BENITO
Tomgram, Greg Grandin:  19th Century Slave Trade, Melville’s Benito Cereno, US Extractive Industries, US Empire

Write or Call the President


MORE FIRST STRIKE WAR PREPARATION FOR MARCH WESTWARD
The Pentagon in classic  “duh” thinking, instead of invitations to cooperate in shared initiatives,  has asked for more billions to increase US missile “defense” (that is, first strike preparation for war, that is, offense, but also Orwellian threatening is “defense” is peacemaking), because it has finally occurred to them that the over 50 years of US military buildup throughout the Pacific and E. Asia against diverse “threats” (and no counter threats to the US from the Reds, as they were once called) might have aroused China and North Korea (and throw in Iran another evil but not Red nation farther  westward)  to think of actually defending themselves from tangible, factual threats .    So their response to real threats justifies counter-response, and the military-industrial-congressional complex dances its deathly jig.   –Dick

Global Network [globalnet@mindspring.com]
To: GN List Serve ‎[globenet@yahoogroups.com]‎ 
 Saturday, February 01, 2014 10:29 AM
Four 'Missile Defense' Sites Chosen for Study (Maine, Ohio, Michigan & New York) by Bruce Gagnon
  
The Department of Defense, directed by Congress, is undertaking the completion of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for a potential additional 'Ground-based Mid-Course Missile Defense' (GMD) site in the continental United States. (The other current GMD site is located at Fort Greeley in Alaska.) . . . .
There are several types of "missile defense" systems today.  Some are on Navy Aegis destroyers (testing quite successfully), some are deployed on Army mobile launchers, while the GMD system is based underground.  The GMD system, whose mission is to have an interceptor missile hit an "enemy" nuclear missile in deep space, has not had any real success in their testing program - many of the tests have been scripted to appear successful.

A new GMD site could cost more than $5 billion to build.  Boeing manages the GMD program while Raytheon and Orbital Sciences Corporation build the interceptors ('kill vehicles') and the rockets.
 These "missile defense" systems are key elements in US first-strike attack planning.  Each year the US Space Command runs a computer war game where China and Russia are attacked with hypersonic global strike weapons that attempt to take out their nuclear capability.  After that initial attack China or Russia would attempt to fire their remaining nuclear forces at the US.  It is then that the triad of US "missile defense" systems (ship-based, mobile, and GMD) would be used to pick-off those retaliatory strikes.  One should call "missile defense" the shield that is used after the US first-strike attack sword lunges into the heart of China or Russia.  This is what the Pentagon and the Missile Defense Agency are now developing.

Maine State Rep. Andrea Boland (Sanford) told me last week that North Korea, Iran and Russia are eager to attack the US.  The liberal Democrat wants this GMD base in our state.  Better us, she told me, than someone else. I don't see it that way.  The aerospace industry in Maine wishes to expand their operations across the state....this GMD site appears to be their major effort to make a big splash.
 Now is the time for public outcry against this East coast GMD site.  Activists in Maine, Ohio, Michigan and New York must speak out against the madness of US first-strike attack planning and the colossal waste of our $$$$$ at a time of austerity cuts in social spending.

In the end "missile defense" is destabilizing as it forces China and Russia to make counter-moves that are then used by the Pentagon to justify even more of these kind of programs.  New arms races are fueled by deployment of so-called "missile defense".  It truly should be called missile offense. 

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/  (blog)

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.  ~Henry David Thoreau 


New US Ambassador to China Ready for Battle
By Dick Bennett
     Remember John Bolton, US Ambassador to UN?   He entered UN Headquarters like a soldier landing at Anzio: armed and shooting at a dangerous enemy.  Cooperation was the last thing on his mind.
     Now look at the new US Ambassador to China, former Senator Max Baucus, at least in the initial report in my state news paper (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Jan. 29, 2014, Compiled by Democrat-Gazette Staff from Wire Reports).   The title tells all: “Ambassador Pick Vows Rigor with China.”   If you have been following my newsletters on the US in the Pacific and E. Asia, you will be as astonished as was I by this declaration.  The US has not been rigorous with China?  Our governments have confronted China with the Pacific Ocean as our militarized lake containing some of the largest concentrations of lethal weapons on the planet, from Hawaii to Guam to Japan (Okinawa) South Korea north, while developing alliances with the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and other S. E. Asian countries, and Australia as back-up.   The US has not been rigorous with China?  We need to be tougher?
     The report opens:  “The Obama administration’s choice to be the next American Ambassador to China. . . signaled a tougher public stance on simmering commercial and security disputes, pledging to tell Beijing,’Uh-uh, we won’t be taken advantage of.’”  What?  China has taken advantage of the US?  .    They have military alliances with Canada and Mexico (and Guatemala and Panama)(and Peru and Chile, and Iceland and Ireland), including air bases nuclear armed and ready?   Simmering disputes?  Who is stirring that pot?  The Pentagon has divided the planet into US Commands.  US has Africom and China is building railroads.  The Obama administration doesn’t like the commercial competition? 
     The rest of the brief, 3-paragraph report blames China.  Senator Baucus, D-Mont., speaking for the administration, claims the US wants to be “fair but firm,” wants “trade, engagement, and international cooperation with China but will stand firm on principles” (can you guess?) “of human rights” (I gagged here, inconveniently remembering the Guantanamo decimation of the Bill of Rights and the decimation of Iraq by a decade of blockade—500,000 children dead in consequence—and the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq).   
     It happens that I have recently re-read J. William Fulbright’s book, The Crippled Giant, which includes a chapter titled ”The Truman Doctrine in Asia.”  Fulbright exposes the 180 degree turn by the US from ally to enemy of China, after Mao’s communists’ defeated Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang party, as a series of disastrous errors deriving from hysterical, bigoted, false assumptions toward communism.  Over and over, facts were crushed by the anti-communist ideology and dogmas of the Cold War, embodied in the imperial Truman Doctrine.
     As I read Fulbright, I began to compare his analysis of the absolutist Truman Doctrine with the post-9/11 “War on Terror.”  Like US leaders during the years of the Cold War Truman Doctrine, nuclear buildup, and counterinsurgency warfare,  leaders after 9/11, despite impressive evidence to the contrary, embraced assumptions about Islam, Arabs, swarthy people, Pashtuns, and Taliban, that led to a crusade of endless war against “terrorists.”  Fanatical anti-communism and anti-terrorism overwhelmed facts, reason, and the rule of law.
     Anouar Majid’s We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and Other Minorities (2009) provides some of the historical contexts for understanding the crusades that have marred Western culture and its leading spear for the last half-century, the United States of America, and contexts too for Fulbright’s liberal advocacy of internationalism, cosmopolitanism, and global interdependence.  
    And we the people, what can we do?  Read my essay backwards, and call out Max Baucus, the new US ambassador, to seek enlightenment while he is in China, and cooperation, instead of US military muscle and dominance around the world and around China. 
511 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510 
(202) 224-2651 (Office) 
(202) 224-9412 (Fax)



THE US MILITARIST ARGUMENT ANALYZED
Can We Afford Pivot to Asia?
Global Network [globalnet@mindspring.com]
Tuesday, January 28, 2014 4:03 PM
CQ NEWS – POLICY
 
“McKeon Questions Whether Military Can Afford Pivot to Asia” By Frank Oliveri, CQ Roll Call  [with Dick’s comments in bold]
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who has criticized the administration in the past for underfunding its planned rebalance to the Pacific, questioned the wisdom of pulling resources from the Middle East and Africa to send them to Asia given the military’s current budget constraints.
“When the president framed rebalance, he discussed how we could now safely turn our attention to Asia because the war in Afghanistan was receding and al-Qaida was on the path to defeat,” Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calf., said in his opening statement during a hearing on the rebalance. “I’m concerned those conditions haven’t panned out. Violence and instability rage in the Middle East and Africa.”
[“rebalance”:  “Balance” is a venerable warm word used to justify all kinds of good things (“balance” means sanity etc., see your thesaurus) and bad.  Here, “rebalance” well-illustrates chicanery.   The Pacific and E. Asia were out of balance for the US military; the US lacked sufficient military force there?   It’s such a preposterous idea, that we wonder if Obama and his Republican militarist minion Congressman McKeon  think the public suffers from epidemic stupidity.   As my newsletters on US westward imperialism emphatically show, the only thing out of balance is the preponderance of US military power over all the other countries combined.  
“framed”:  This technique familiar to students of the over 2000 years of rhetoical study is perfectly illustrated by the word “balance.”  The President did not want to say, for example, “reinforce the Pacific/E. Asian military” or “transfer troops from the illegal and failed Afghan and Iraq wars.”  Of course not, such expressions would state the truth.   . He sought a warm-sounding “reframing” to try to obscure reality of empire, of threatening, of aggression.   “Pivot” is the same kind of hoaxing word any half-awake citizen sees right through, though apparently not most of corporate media reporters.  George Lakoff is a contemporary promoter of the importance of framing your language and argument in order to reach your audience’s sympathy, not antipathy.  That’s what the ancient art of rhetoric is about:  knowing your audience and selecting the linguistic devices and tactics that will persuade not dissuade.   The problem is that the devices and tactics are also used by people—and people with boatloads of money—to win hearts and minds by deception.  Orwell is famous for his writings about the dark side of “framing.”]
He said that preserving forces, readiness and capabilities for U.S. Pacific Command would mean less for the areas managed by U.S. Central and Africa Commands, as the Defense Department’s budgets have declined.
“Can we afford to take risk in CENTCOM or AFRICOM?” McKeon asked rhetorically. “Budget cuts only exacerbate the problem. There is some stability for the next two years, but what happens after that? We’re back to sequestration levels and military leaders are left with no choice but to cut end-strength, readiness, and capabilities.”  [See Gagnon’s comment on his State legislator’s support for missile “defense” in a state with large aerospace industry.]
The 2011 debt limit law (PL 112-25) and a budget deal reached late last year (PL 113-67), set new funding levels for defense in fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2015. That agreement eliminated a significant dip in defense spending. After fiscal 2015, the defense budget would increase at levels just above inflation.
“That has consequences for our security and military commitments in PACOM and across the globe, unless we adequately resource defense,” McKeon said.
Ranking Democrat Adam Smith of Washington said the Asian region remains critical to U.S. interests.  [We should keep in mind the bipartisan makeup of Congress, and  label it for it is: the Corporate Party.]
He said the rebalance “is done at a difficult time. Budget challenges remain. I share the chairman’s concerns that we pass budget in FY 14 and FY 15. That does not change the fact that cuts will come and sequestration is still out there after FY 15.”
Smith said the administration does not contend that other regions are less important, but when one considers the U.S. interests in Asia, it makes sense to refocus on being a Pacific power.
“The Asia-Pacific region is vital to our national interests, and it includes many essential allies and partners,” he said. “Without question, U.S. servicemen and women play crucial roles in maintaining these vital relationships and in promoting peace in the Asia-Pacific region.”  One third of the world’s trade is done in the Asia-Pacific region.
 [“Vital” has gained an enormous power in the world despite its bogus quality.  It is now a key justification for empire.  Why did we invade Guatemala, Panama, Grenada, Nicaragua, Iraq, Afghanistan and all the other at least 40 countries after WWII?  Why did we spend 10 years destroying Vietnam, slaughtering two or three million people, bombing it back to the stone age?  Why, it was each time “vitally” necessary, our “vital interest.”  But then Democraat Smith reveals his real interest: trade.  We can arme the Pacific and East Asia and all around China.  Why?  Because we fear Chinese economic competition.  And if the nation of ruthless competition cannot compete with the Chinese, then ride into town with the heat.]
Question of Resources  [I won’t spend anymore time on McKeon and Smith; what follows in just same old same old of the militarist brain, including Smith’s mouthing of J. William Fulbright’s cooperative values while supporting the opposite.]
During a hearing on the rebalance of forces last July, McKeon expressed concerns about the effects budget cuts would have on the Asia-Pacific rebalance of U.S. forces.
“Can the rebalancing be effective without additional resources?” he said. “How will sequestration impact the capabilities and capacity of the U.S. military to rebalance to Asia, especially when we’re still drawn to respond to crises in other regions? And if the U.S. can’t effectively and fully execute the strategy, how will the region’s militaries view us?”
On Tuesday, he said the Asia strategy still has its merits.
“I welcome the focus on the Asia-Pacific,” he said. “However, time will tell whether words and promises are followed by action. There are some positive signs that U.S. forces in the Pacific are receiving less cuts and readiness is being maintained, but I am concerned about the total force.”
McKeon’s concerns about the current shift are based on rising instability in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring. Further, the civil war in Syria and rising sectarian violence in Iraq, as well as continued tensions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions further threaten U.S. interests.
Additionally, continued instability in Afghanistan creates challenges for the United States, which plans to draw down most, if not all, combat forces by the end of 2014.
The United States currently is awaiting approval of a bilateral agreement with the Afghanistan government that would allow for a token force of about 10,000 U.S. troops remain behind after 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, however, in recent months deepened fissures with the Obama administration, which is threatening the future of a bilateral agreement. That country will hold new elections in April, when Karzai is expected to step down.
Nonetheless, Smith, who supports the administration’s approach, emphasized that the Asia-Pacific area remains a primary concern.
“As the rebalance gains momentum, the United States should continue to provide and maintain collective security; peaceably address concerns and mitigate disputes; promote shared interests and objectives; and cultivate healthy multi-lateral exchange,” Smith said.
He said the United States should work to establish a stable and mutually beneficial relationship with China; continue to contain and marginalize the dangerous and unpredictable North Korean regime; further develop a security relationship with India; encourage regional democratization efforts; and strengthen enduring ties with allies in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.
Smith said transnational threats, such as violent extremism, and illicit trafficking in persons, narcotics, and weapons continue to threaten the region.
“Unfortunately, disease, malnourishment, environmental degradation, resource scarcity, and natural disaster also persist,” he said. “The more we can do to defuse tensions and to avoid conflict through cooperative efforts with our allies and partners, the more we can help to realize growth and prosperity in the region.”

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/  (blog)


    

Rep. Louise Slaughter via CREDO Mobilize via uark.edu 
8:20 AM (45 minutes ago)


to James

The email below is from Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, a true progressive champion in Congress. Congresswoman Slaughter started a petition on sign Congresswoman Slaughter's petition and help her build pressure on the media to stop ignoring the Trans-Pacific Partnership.


Sign the petition: Tell the media to stop ignoring the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Dear Dick,
The Obama administration is negotiating a massive new trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that would threaten American jobs and rewrite laws governing our food safety, access to medicine and intellectual property rights. Yet the negotiations have been shrouded in secrecy. Special access has been given to corporate lobbyists, but the American people and members of Congress have been shut out.
The television news media should be playing a vital role in informing the American people about the far-reaching and troubling implications of the TPP, but a recent study by the public watchdog group Media Matters found that there has been virtually no televised news coverage of the TPP in the past six months.
That's why I started my own campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, which allows activists to start their own petitions. My petition, which is to the news directors at CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC, reads in part:
The TPP would undermine our nation’s environmental, labor and intellectual property standards and ship American jobs overseas while dumping our wages and benefits overboard along the way. We respectfully urge you to give this massive trade agreement the critical attention it deserves in order to inform the American people and shine a light on an agreement that would fundamentally alter the American economy and threaten American jobs.
Our nation must have a thorough public debate before Congress votes on another NAFTA-style trade deal. But given the secret nature of the negotiations and the virtual blackout from television news networks, the American people remain largely unaware of the potential legislation and its effects on our country.
It is vital that the mainstream television news networks provide full and balanced coverage of this major legislation so that the American people are informed about the potential impact of the TPP.
Recently, a bill was introduced in Congress to give the Obama administration so-called “fast-track authority.” If approved, fast-track authority would prevent Congress from fully debating or amending the TPP before a required up-or-down vote.
So far, the Obama administration is facing stiff opposition to its proposal from Democrats in the House and Senate. Proponents of fast-track embarrassingly could not find a single Democrat to co-sponsor the measure in the House. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have joined me and 150 of my Democratic colleagues in declaring our opposition to fast-track authority.
While Democrats have been joined by 23 House Republicans, there is still a chance that proponents can push fast-track authority through. As some in Congress contemplate their position on fast track, it is more important than ever that their constituents be informed of this legislation and their representative’s stance on the issue.
Please join me in urging the mainstream news media to use their unique position as a trusted source of information in order to inform the American public and allow democracy to work its will.
Thank you for your support.
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter
CREDO Mobilize helps activists like you make progressive change and fight regressive policies by creating online petitions. Click here to start a petition today.

© 2013 CREDO. All rights reserved.



INVESTIGATING HOW MONEY CORRUPTS DEMOCRACY


·                                
Media Companies Lobby for Trans-Pacific Partnership

·                               
"Free Beacon" Fronts For Taiwan Lobby

·                               
Steve Law's Contradictions

·                               
Bribery Scandal Bigger Than Just Countrywide?

·                               
New Record On Anti-Health Reform Spending
TRENDING TOPICS: 
·                            APSCU
·                             \ 
·                            INFLUENCE PEDDLING
·                             \ 
·                            CITIZENS UNITED
·                             \ 
·                            ALEC
·                             \ 
FEBRUARY 17, 2014

Obama Admin’s TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks


POSTED AT 9:00 AM BY LEE FANG
Officials tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations have received multimillion dollar bonuses from CitiGroup and Bank of America, financial disclosures obtained by Republic Reportshow.
Stefan Selig, a Bank of America investment banker nominated to become the Under Secretary for International Trade at the Department of Commerce, received more than $9 million in bonus pay as he was nominated to join the administration in November. The bonus pay came in addition to the $5.1 million in incentive pay awarded to Selig last year.
Michael Froman, the current U.S. Trade Representative, received over $4 million as part of multiple exit payments when he left CitiGroup to join the Obama administration. Froman told Senate Finance Committee members last summer that he donated approximately 75 percent of the $2.25 million bonus he received for his work in 2008 to charity. CitiGroup also gave Froman a $2 million payment inconnection to his holdings in two investment funds, which was awarded “in recognition of [Froman's] service to Citi in various capacities since 1999.”
Many large corporations with a strong incentive to influence public policy award bonuses and other incentive pay to executives if they take jobs within the government. CitiGroup, for instance, provides an executive contract that awards additional retirement pay upon leaving to take a “full time high level position with the U.S. government or regulatory body.” Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, the Blackstone Group, Fannie Mae, Northern Trust, and Northrop Grumman are among the other firms that offer financial rewards upon retirement for government service.
Froman joined the administration in 2009. Selig is currently awaiting Senate confirmation before he can take his post, which collaborates with the trade officials to support the TPP.
The controversial TPP trade deal has rankled activists for containing provisions that would newly empower corporations to sue governments in ad hoc arbitration tribunals to demand compensation from governments for laws and regulations they claim undermine their business interests. Leaked TPP negotiation documents show the Obama administration is seeking to prevent foreign governments from issuing a broad variety of financial rules designed to stem another bank crisis.
A leaked text of the TPP’s investment chapter shows that the pact would include the controversial investor-state dispute resolution system. A fact-sheet provided by Public Citizen explains how multi-national corporations may use the TPP deal to skirt domestic courts and local laws. The arrangement would allows corporations to go after governments before foreign tribunals to demand compensations for tobacco, prescription drug and environment protections that they claim would undermine their expected future profits. Last year, Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that trade agreements such as the TPP provide “a chance for these banks to get something done quietly out of sight that they could not accomplish in a public place with the cameras rolling and the lights on.”
Others have raised similar alarm.
“Not only do US treaties mandate that all forms of finance move across borders freely and without delay, but deals such as the TPP would allow private investors to directly file claims against governments that regulate them, as opposed to a WTO-like system where nation states (ie the regulators) decide whether claims are brought,” notes Boston University associate professor Kevin Gallagher.
- See more at: http://www.republicreport.org/2014/big-banks-tpp/#sthash.2rSBNCNh.dpuf

China Breaks Through Double and Triple Containment
Look at your world map.   Start at the Aleutian Islands.  Look closely at the outward and inward rings.  Midway Islands, Japan, S. Korea (Jeju Island).  Wake Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Okinawa.  Guam, Taiwan.  Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam.  Australia (Alice Springs, Darwin), Indonesia, Singapore.   Diego Garcia, India.    I’m half way around China, the eastern and south-eastern half, and starting the southern and south/western.  Where is the breakthrough spot, the weak link in our fences?   (Keep the Mexicans out, the Chinese IN.)  Between the Aleutians and Japan?!  Stay tuned.  See the next newsletter for a more complete map of what we have seen so far, including the western and North western fences, .and for an unfolding of the alliances glimpsed here.   As our officials say:  the US seeks a rigorous balance to China’s power. – Dick

FEAR OF THE CHINA “THREAT”
“Percentage of Americans who say China ‘can’t be trusted: 68.”  (“Harper’s Index” January 2013).   Where do you think that fear came from?   US encirclement of China would not happen without the majority of people first having been persuaded by the warriors to believe China is an enemy, just as with Vietnam and the “Axis of Evil.”  Who’s next?  Not if we are informed and RESIST.  --Dick

It is well to remember OMNI’s origins with Gandhi and King:
“Maybe some day, at the end of this long, painful transition, America will embrace Gandhi's view as its own. Maybe not. While we are waiting, we should resist the dangerous policies promoted by people who are terrified at the prospect of losing absolute "truth."
But we should also understand why they are terrified. We should remember to give them our compassion, as Gandhi urged.” [This will require a great deal of thought.]
Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of Mythic America: Essays and American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea. He blogs at MythicAmerica.us.

AND OMNI’S CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH FULBRIGHT’S DREAM OF INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP

J. William Fulbright writing in 1964:  “It is not impossible that in time our relations with China will change again, if not to friendship then perhaps to ‘competitive coexistence.’  It would therefore be an extremely useful thing if we could introduce an element of flexibility, or, more precisely, of the capacity to be flexible, into our relations with Communist China.”  Old Myths and New Realities, p. 39.  

Initial Google Searches for US MILITARYAlliances Surrounding China  (see future newsletters)
    US Southeast Asia Military Alliances
    Indonesia US Military Alliance

GOOGLE SEARCH, US Southeast Asia Military Alliances, 2-14-14, first page  (carry on, I’ve barely begun)

1.                             Southeast Asia Treaty Organization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia_Treaty_Organization‎
Wikipedia
Jump to Military aspects - Both the United States and Australia cited the alliance as... for a large-scale U.S. military intervention in Southeast Asia.
‎Origins and structure - ‎Membership - ‎Military aspects - ‎Cultural effects

2.                             Southeast Asia: U.S. Revives And Expands Cold War Military ...

rickrozoff.wordpress.com/.../southeast-asia-u-s-revives-and-expands-col...‎
Jun 9, 2012 - Stop NATO June 8, 2012 Southeast Asia: U.S. Revives And Expands Cold War Military Alliances Against China Rick Rozoff On May 30 the two ...
News for US Southeast Asia Military Alliances
1.                  An emergent US security strategy in Southeast Asia
Rappler ‎- 1 day ago
Nevertheless, the Southeast Asia alliance system as a whole ...The first steps of a redeployment of the US military to the region has been ...

3.                             Images for US Southeast Asia Military Alliances

 - Report images
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4.                              [PDF]

U.S. Alliances and Emerging Partnerships in Southeast Asia

csis.org/.../090710_southeast_asia_alliances_...‎
Center for Strategic and I...
Jul 2, 2009 - U.S.–Southeast Asia trade amounts to over $200 billion annually, and .....alliance. Disillusionment with the war and with Thai military ...

5.                             MILITARIZATION OF ASIA-PACIFIC: America Revives And Expands ...

www.globalresearch.ca/...of-asia...military-alliances...china/31336‎
Jun 9, 2012 - During the American military chief's visit the nation's foreign ... wider range of new military partnerships in Southeast Asia, particularly the role of ...

6.                             Pacific Power: The Politics of the US Military in SE Asia | The Diplomat

thediplomat.com/.../pacific-power-the-politics-of-the-us-mi...‎
The Diplomat
Nov 13, 2013 - Pacific Power: The Politics of the US Military in SE Asia ... open doors for the United States to strengthen security ties with allies and partners, ...
7.                              [PDF]

Assessing U.S. Bilateral Security Alliances in the Asia Pacific's ...

iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/10013/Tow_Final.pdf‎
by WT Tow - ‎1999 - ‎Cited by 16 - ‎Related articles
Regional security alliances, U.S. military planners argue, promote joint and .... U.S.and British military strategy and power in defending Southeast Asia into ...

8.                             The Transformation of Southeast Asia: International Perspectives ...

books.google.com/books?isbn=0765611392
Marc Frey, ‎Ronald W. Pruessen, ‎Tai Yong Tan - 2003 - ‎History
On September 6, 1954, representatives from the United States, Great Britain, France,... to discuss the formation of a regional military alliance for Southeast Asia.

9.                             Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), 1954 - 1953–1960 ...

history.state.gov › Milestones › 1953–1960‎
Office of the Historian
Finally, U.S. officials believed Southeast Asia to be a crucial frontier in the fight ... It maintained no military forces of its own, but the organization hosted joint ...

10.                         China, the United States, and South-East Asia: Contending ...

books.google.com/books?isbn=1134087055
Sheldon W. Simon, ‎Evelyn Goh - 2008 - ‎History
systematic way have arrived at similar conclusions: China's interests do not ... US alliances and other less formal security relationships in Southeast Asia. ... Beijing could use political, economic, and even military pressures on Southeast Asian ...

11.                         U.S. and Japan Agree to Broaden Military Alliance - NYTimes.com

www.nytimes.com/.../asia/japan-and-us-agree-to-broa...
The New York Times
Oct 3, 2013 - U.S. and Japan Agree to Broaden Military Alliance ... and said it would expand assistance to Southeast Asian countries to help them resist ...

GOOGLE SEARCH:   INDONESIA US MILITARY ALLIANCE, 2-14-14, first page plenty more to come

Search Results

1.                             Rights Concerns Shadow U.S. Alliance With Indonesia | Fox News

www.foxnews.com/.../rights-concerns-shadow-us-allia...‎
Fox News Channel
Aug 30, 2011 - President Barack Obama has embraced Indonesia as a crucial U.S. ally... Timor in 1999 that led the U.S. to sever military ties for several years.

2.                             Indonesia - FOREIGN MILITARY RELATIONS - Country Data

www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6353.html‎
It did, however, have military aid agreements with the United States and ... is not adefense alliance, military cooperation existed between Indonesia and its ...

3.                             The US Military Presence in Australia: Asymmetrical Alliance ...

japanfocus.org/-Richard-Tanter/4025‎
The Asia‑Pacific Journal...
Nov 11, 2013 - Through the ANZUS alliance, Australia, like Japan and South Korea, has... The United States military is fond of talking about “lily pads” these days, ...... In the Sukarno era Australian defence planning about Indonesia was ...

4.                             Walking among giants: Australia and Indonesia between the US and ...

www.aspistrategist.org.au/walking-among-giants-australia-and-indonesia...‎
May 24, 2013 - Finally, the US alliance provides Australian governments with some ...to project significant military capability in waters close to Indonesia, ...

5.                             MILITARIZATION OF ASIA-PACIFIC: America Revives And Expands ...

www.globalresearch.ca/...of-asia...america...military-alliances.../31336‎
Jun 9, 2012 - ... America Revives And Expands Cold War Military Alliances Against ...of forging military ties with Myanmar, which like Indonesia, Malaysia, ...

6.                             China, Indonesia wary of US troops in Darwin - ABC News ...

www.abc.net.au/...indonesia...us-troop...‎
Australian Broadcasting...
by Helen Brown - in 73 Google+ circles
Nov 17, 2011 - "As for using the form of a military alliance, China has its own concepts .... I am happy to see the US here and China and Indonesiaattitudes are ...

7.                             The Act of Killing, the U.S.-Indonesia Alliance, and ... - Dissident Voice

dissidentvoice.org/.../the-act-of-killing-the-u-s-indonesia-alliance-and-th...‎
Oct 15, 2013 - Among the casualties of the U.S. government shutdown is President ... of six Indonesian generals, killings that the Indonesian military (TNI) ...

8.                             Indonesia-US Military Alliance Is Being Revived; Jakarta Mulls ...

www.amazon.com/Indonesia-US-Military-Alliance.../B000...‎
Amazon.com
Indonesia-US Military Alliance Is Being Revived; Jakarta Mulls Leaving OPEC.: An article from: APS Diplomat News Service on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping ...

9.                             US House considers cutting off aid to Indonesian military even as ...

www.disappearednews.com/.../us-house-considers-cutting-off-aid-to.htm..
Jun 13, 2007 - Last November the US agreed to resume military ties with Indonesiaafter ... import of an alliance between Hawaii and the Indonesian military.

10.                         China ready to abandon "no military alliance" policy | Page 4 ...

defence.pk › Forums › World Affairs‎
Mar 27, 2012 - 16 posts
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are ... Many of them are not in any alliances with US, other than the usual ...

      
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175798
Tomgram: Greg Grandin, The Terror of Our Age
Posted by Greg Grandin at 4:00pm, January 26, 2014.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch.
Email Print
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: It’s time for TD’s first book offer of 2014, The Empire of Necessity, a remarkable new history by Greg Grandin, author of the acclaimed Fordlandia.  It’s the story of how the transnational slave trade reorganized our planet, of a dramatic slave revolt on board a ship, of Muslim Africans trekking across South America in chains, of ecological devastation, and of Herman Melville's terrifying vision of our future. The New York Times Book Review just hailed it as a “powerful new book... [and] a significant contribution to the largely impossible yet imperative effort to retrieve some trace of the countless lives that slavery consumed.”  Of it, Toni Morrison says: "Scholarship at its best. Greg Grandin's deft penetration into the marrow of the slave industry is compelling, brilliant, and necessary." I found it riveting, and you’ll get a sense of the power of Grandin’s writing from his post today.  In return for a contribution to this site of $100 (or more), Grandin will sign a personalized copy of his new book for you.  The offer will only last a week, so check it out at our donation page as soon as possible. Tom]
Okay, Big Oil's latest quarterly profits weren’t the highest in history.  That would be the combined$51.5 billion the top six companies hauled in during a single quarter in 2008.  In the third quarter of 2013, thanks to somewhat lower oil prices, the Big Five made a mere $23 billion in profits or $175,000 a minute -- slightly lower, in fact, than the same quarter in 2012.  In a similar spirit, the average temperature for 2013 set no records either.  It was in the range of 58.12 to 58.3 degrees Fahrenheit (depending on how you do the figuring), indicating that the year will fall somewhere between fourth and seventh hottest since global records began being kept in 1880.
In other words, it was just another humdrum year for the oil executives powering the most profitable corporations in history, as they continue to lend a hand to the warming of the only inhabited planet we know of.  In the meantime, a recent draft report from the prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that we have just 15 years left to rein in fossil fuel carbon emissions -- which could be considered the effluent of energy industry profits -- before a global crisis looms that will be “virtually impossible to solve with current technologies.”
So on the one hand, profit; on the other, destruction at an almost unimaginable level, involving the very habitability of this planet.  The pitilessly profit-driven logic of those energy execs, TomDispatch regular Greg Grandin points out, is hardly a new phenomenon.  In fact, he’s just written a stunning new history, The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World, that lays out how, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a similar logic drove other kinds of extractive destruction in what was then known as “the age of freedom,” the period in which millions of Indians and Africans were chewed up in the transnational slave trade.  Think of Grandin’s tale as an old one with a distinctly modern twist, or as the O. Henry story from hell. Tom 

LITERARY PERSPECTIVE:  MELVILLE’S BENITO CERENO
The Two Faces of Empire
Melville Knew Them, We Still Live With Them
By Greg Grandin
A captain ready to drive himself and all around him to ruin in the hunt for a white whale. It’s a well-known story, and over the years, mad Ahab in Herman Melville’s most famous novel, Moby-Dick, has been used as an exemplar of unhinged American power, most recently of George W. Bush’s disastrous invasion of Iraq.
But what’s really frightening isn't our Ahabs, the hawks who periodically want to bomb some poor country, be it Vietnam or Afghanistan, back to the Stone Age.  The respectable types are the true “terror of our age,” as Noam Chomsky calledthem collectively nearly 50 years ago.  The really scary characters are our soberest politicians, scholars, journalists, professionals, and managers, men and women (though mostly men) who imagine themselves as morally serious, and then enable the wars, devastate the planet, and rationalize the atrocities.  They are a type that has been with us for a long time.  More than a century and a half ago, Melville, who had a captain for every face of empire, found their perfect expression -- for his moment and ours.      MORE
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175798


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Contents #7  8-12-13
Occupied Pacific
Vitchek, Missile Test Site, Kwajalein
Dibblin, Marshall Islands and Nuclear Testing,  NYT  Rev. by Mitgang
Occupying E. Asia Surrounding China
Reed, Ring Around China
NYT Editorial,  Vandenberg AFB Missile Intercept Failure
Dick, Commentary on NYT Editorial
Vandenberg Protest Case Goes to US Supreme Court
Flowers and Zeese, TPP: Trans-Pacific Partnership (see earlier newsletters)
Jones, T-PP and TAFTA
Hightower, T-PP

Contents #8  11-8-13
TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, US Economic Empire (also see reports in #7 and before)
Dick, US Tests Missiles Vandenburg to Kwajalein
US Control of Micronesia, Over a Million Square Miles
Dick, Sixteen Reports on “The Pivot” from One Number of Space Alert!
Roots Action, Pagan Island in the Northern Marianas:  Stop Another Vieques
San Juan, US/Philippines Security Ties Increasing
Founding Fathers’ Principles

Contents #9   1-2-14
Several on Philippines
Hemmer, Philippines Typhoon, US Compassion?  Fox News:  Send in the Marines
Google Search, US Aid Options:  UNICEF, etc.
Crilly, US Altruism toward the Philippines?  Can Manila Say Pivot?
Bradsher, US Aid to Philippines:  What Kind?
Reuters, A US Motive?  Generosity Competition with China
Dick: Fulbright’s Reduced Tensions, Natural and Human Typhoons, China, Japan, Lashes, Bashes,
Dick, Rising Seas:  Aiding Threatened Islands?; US Instead  of Empire Help the Drowning Nations
Assange/Wikipedia Reveals TPP Agreement Text
Jolly and Buckley, China and US Emissions Common Ground?  Leading to?
Dick:  Fulbright’s Key Words and Principles
Dick:  Reduced Tensions: China, Japan, US
Dick:  Kerry Attacks China Defends Asia: Who IS John Kerry?

US Westward Imperialism, Pacific/E. Asia Contents #10 
Tensions
South Korea:  Jeju Island History: From the April 3, 1948, Massacre to the   Repression Today

The US “Pivot” Euphemism:  Gagnon, Global Network’s Space Alert!   See Newsletter #8

China
China:  From Immensely Dangerous to the Comic
Dorling, Asian and Australian Allies of US, “5 Eyes” Plus Singapore
Dick:  Wong, China Reacts to Japan
Robson, US Deploys Hawk Surveillance Drones to Japan
Global Network, Stop New Base on Okinawa
Dick, China Responds to US Encirclement
China Extinguishes Arsonist Fire at San Francisco Consulate!

Australia
Dick, Australia
Al Jazeera, Australia’s Coal Consumption

Tensions: TPP
BG (thinkcivic) Stop TPP Fast Track, Protest
Aroneanu, 350.org, TPP: Tell Your Congressional Representatives
Waren, Friends of the Earth: Stop  TPP

TENSIONS FROM THE PAST:  US Nuclear Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Marshall Islands
Hiroshima/Nagasaki
Dick:  OMNI Hiroshima-Nagasaki Newsletters 2010-2013
US H-Bomb Testing, Marshal Islands   (See #7, Dibblin) 
   Marshallese Residents Gather
   Chomsky:  Letter from Anjain to Dr. Conard
   Wollerton, Film Nuclear Savage About Marshallese Guinea Pigs Suppressed
Two Articles by Giff Johnson
   Kwajalein Marshallese
   Legacy of US Nuclear Testing
Film, Radio Bikini by Shain Bergen
Niedenthall and Chutero Film, The Sounds of Crickets at Night



END PACIFIC/E. ASIA IMPERIALISM NEWSLETTER #11


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