OMNI
US WESTWARD IMPERIALISM, PACIFIC OCEAN, EAST ASIA, NEWSLETTER #14. September 24, 2014.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
(http://omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/#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; #11 Feb. 26, 2014; #12 April 21, 2014; #13, June 26, 2014).
What’s at stake: . Listen to Justice Jackson: "To initiate a war of aggression…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 ). And read the UN Charter: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” (Article 2, Principle 4, United Nations Charter).
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.
See.doc, Nuclear Free Independent Pacific Day.doc, No Bases Network, Nuclear Weapons.
My blog:
It's the War Department
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
Nos. 7 - 13 at end
Contents of Westward Imperialism Newsletter #14
Japan
Dick, Militarizing Japan, Analysis of Pittsburgh Post-Gazetteeditorial.
Dick, P.M. Abe Reinterpreting Article 9, Chicago Tribune editorial.
Dick, Celebrating War Heroes
China
China Joke
China Removes Its Oil Rig from Waters Claimed by Hanoi
Dick, Nothing Like Fear and Loathing of China for Making Friends with Vietnam
Magdoff and Foster, Why the US Is Encircling China
EU/NATO’s Eastward Movement: Westward Meets Eastward Imperialism
No Bases Campaign: International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Bases
MILITARIZING JAPAN
3 Notes in Chronological Order
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “An Armed Japan Could Help.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (July 10, 2014). Could help what, who? Listen to the imperial stumble bumble: Following its surrender in 1945, the (pacifist) constitution and leadership (imposed by the conquering US), “authorized its security forces to act only in self-defense.” This was in accordance with the United Nations’ Charter: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” (Article 2, Principle 4). Now listen to the sentence that follows “only in self-defense”: “Now…Japan is moving to adopt a more militarized posture.” [That is, in opposition to the UN Charter, which is a binding treaty now part of the US Constitution. Now watch this offense-loving, threat-and-force-loving Pittsburgh editorialist.] “…the world, including…the United Nations and the United States” has asked Japan “to play an active role in foreign affairs, with aid and participation in peacekeeping. The latter obviously requires a stronger Japanese military.” Peacekeeping? If you have been reading OMNI’s newsletters on US Westward domination across the Pacific and encompassing E. Asia you know the threat and threatening by armed force have come overwhelmingly from the US, with which Japan has signed a military alliance. The Pittsburghlogician recognizes the liability of further militarizing Japan: it will stimulate increased military strength by China, making “northeast Asia “a more dangerous place,” but a militarily stronger Japan “is better able to counterbalance China, which has become a major concern to countries of the region.” Major? We can only guess which countries the writer refers to, but we can suppose Japan, though over what is not stated. But not only will a more armed and unleashed Japan counterthreaten China, it will also take “North Korea seriously,” which is useful to the United States, too. That is, it will counterthreaten countries that have been responding to US threats by increasing their military might and by N. Korea, their bombast.
The conclusion of this expression of US imperial policy is entirely familiar. “In general, a stronger Japan can take some of the load off the United States in terms of assuring Asian peace and quiet.” US westward Pacific-E. Asian militarization is producing peace and quiet?! What kind of peace and quiet does the Pittsburgh, virtual employee of the Pentagon, intend? Does s/he think the unconstitutional threatening of China and N. Korea will bring peace and quiet? In truth, NK has armed itself with nuclear weapons because they saw what happened to a fabricated “enemy” Iraq. And in response to US ten carrier battle groups (8 ships each ) roaming the oceans to protect “our” oil China has built its first aircraft carrier toward its first battle group to protect its shores and I suppose its fossil fuels.
This newspaper is part of the mainstream media (MM) US warfare state, as is the Chicgo Tribune—see the following. –Dick
Japan back in the military fold
By Chicago Tribune, Reprinted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (July 8, 2014), not available to nonsubscribers.
The AD-G reprinted only the opening sentence online: “ Japan is a close friend and ally of the United States, and a crucial strategic military partner in Asia. But if the going got rough, and, say, North Korea attacked U.S. forces somewhere in the Pacific, could we count on Japanese military support?”
At the end of WWII, Gen. MacArthur forced Japan to renounce waging war in its new constitution, specifically in Article 9. In contast to the US Department of “Defense,” Japan’s Defense Forces were truly defensive. For example, during the 1991 Iraq War Japan sent no troops (but did offer $13 billion). Now Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposes to re-interpret the constitution to allow “some direct military cooperation between Japanese self-defense forces and the U.S. military or other partners.” The Tribune attributes this shift to Japan’s tensions with N. Korea and China. Of course, the US has long supported the change.
The Tribune approves the change: “Japan will join its allies as a greater partner in security,” just as it approves US global domination: “The U.S. military is stretched thin and needs the help.” Dick
“China, S. Korea Pan Japan Memorial Trips.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (August 16, 2014). China and S. Korea together criticize our Japanese ally? They dislike Japanese Cabinet ministers visiting the Tokyo Yasukini Shrine, that honors war heroes, including war criminals? But one of the ministers said “his visit was a vow to never wage war again.” China considers the shrine “a spiritual tool and symbol for the Japanese militarists.” And adds: “Sino-Japanese relations can develop in a healthy and stable way only if Japan can face up to and reflect on the history of invasion and make a clear break with militarism.” Here is another case where the need for empathy is essential in national conflict. Japan sent its oficials around the world to apologise to countries for its WWII aggressions, something the US has not done about Hiroshima and Nagasaki or its several illegal invasions and interventions after the war. Article Nine of Japan’s Constitution forbids aggressive military forces, and the majority of Japanese supported it. The US, which insisted on the Article originally, now wants it removed. And now China and Japan are talking at instead of with each other, because they cannot see the world, especially “enemies,” as others see them, the title of the last chapter of the last book by former Senator J. William Fulbright: “Seeing the World as Others See It.” “What we can begin to do is to change the attitudes of the two sides.”
CHINA
China joke of the year, program on NPR 9 a.m. CST, April 28, 2014: US response to “China’s Territorial Expansion.”
AND VIETNAM
“China Pulls Oil Rig from Disputed Area.” Compiled by staff of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (July 17, 2014) 6A (3”). After two months of drilling, China removed its rig from the S. China Sea because 1) the typhoon season was beginning and 2) “the work had been completed.” Vietnam demands China never drill again in claimed Vietnam territory. What’s the story here? How much does it cost to start up a drilling platform at sea? China would plan to spend that money for just two months of drilling? They found no oil? Vietnam did not go to the World Court? --Dick
US AND OUR NEW ALLY VIETNAM
“Army Gen. Martin Dempsey became the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to visit Vietnam since 1971 seeking to boost military ties between the former foes at a time when Hanoi is embroiled in territorial disputes with China.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Aug. 15, 2014). Again, what’s the story? The full story? Our longest war (until Afghanistan): 56,000 of our troops killed, perhaps as many as 3 million Vietnamese killed, perhaps hundreds of thousands wounded on both sides—and our leaders are only now thinking the real enemy is not Vietnam’s “communism” (another tentacle of the huge Red Octopus reaching around the world from Moscow), but China’s alleged expansion and real economic competition? And how cleverly diplomatic of bully Pentagon to send arms to China’s neighbor, what a good way to build peace. But what good luck to the US that its policy during the Vietnam War to “kill everything that moves” failed, and today we can use the survivors to threaten China. –Dick
WHY THE US IS ENCIRCLING CHINA
One of the examples of “the story of centuries of European and U.S. plunder and expansion” is US “containment “ of China (a main topic of these newsletters). In What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism (2011), the authors Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster say this:
“China, a rapidly growing economic power, increasingly integrated into the world capitalist economy, is searching the world for investment opportunities in raw materials and is starting to build up its navy to protect shipping lanes, especially for oil from the Persian Gulf. China is in effect simply attempting to survive like any other major economy in the global capitalist system, but its outward expansion is being treated as aggression by the established imperial powers and being used as a justification for their own renewed scramble for resources in the Central Asia, the Persian Gulf, and West Africa. The result is a growing intensification of world geopolitical struggles.” Drawing from C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite, they observe (65-66,69) how a militarized economy in “a resource race” turns “all world problems…into military problems. . . .in which the military becomes more and more prominent, threatening world stability and even survival.” --Dick
EUROPEAN EASTWARD MOVEMENT, Enlargement of NATO -
Enlargement of NATO - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_NATO
Wikipedia
After the Cold War ended, and Germany reunited in 1990, there was a debate in NATOabout continued expansion eastward. In 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the ...
NORDEFCO - Georgia–NATO relations - Category:Enlargement of NATO
NATO's Eastward Expansion: Did the West Break Its Promise
www.globalresearch.ca/natos-eastward-expansion-did-the.../5380144
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rt.com/politics/163568-nato-expansion-destabilizing-ivanov/
RT
Jun 4, 2014 - The head of the Russian presidential administration has attacked NATO expansion towards Russia's borders and dismissed the possibility of ...
The Folly of NATO Enlargement | Cato Institute
www.cato.org/publications/.../folly-nato-enlargement
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Nov 27, 2013 - Russia's relations with the Western countries are troubled and dangerous in the Ukraine dispute, and an important opportunity may be lost.
Five Years Ago, Documents Exposed NATO's Lies About ...
larouchepac.com/node/30257
Five Years Ago, Documents Exposed NATO's Lies About Eastward Expansion. March 23, 2014 • 2:50PM. In demanding written legal guarantees from NATO that ...
PressTV - Russia warns against NATO eastward expansion
►►
www.presstv.com › Europe › Russia
Jun 10, 2014
Russia warns against any eastward expansion or military build-up by the NATO near Russia's borders.
Russia and NATO Expansion Eastward: Red-Lining ... - jstor
www.jstor.org/stable/40203375
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May 1, 2014 - "NATO expansion has been neither an anti-Russian plot nor a means ... at best, ambiguous with respect to NATO's further eastward expansion.
OPINION: Ukraine Crisis Exposes NATO's Eastward ...
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NO BASES - International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases Google Search, July 13, 2014
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Earlier Newsletters
Earlier Newsletters, US Westward Imperialism, Pacific, E.-Asia (and North
and South)
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
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
RESPONSE
From Ann Wright
Thanks so much Dick!
Great newsletter-wow you covered a lot if issues!
Ann
Ann Wright
Www.voicesofconscience.com
808-741-1141
Contents US Westward imperialism #12
CONTINUE EXPLORING US ALLIANCES IN PACIFIC AND ASIA, Including TPP
CONTEXTS
Jimmy Carter, US Leading War-Monger
Dower, WWII Asian Treaty
US MILITARY BASES
Gagnon, International Rally at Vandenberg, Lobbing Missiles from Vandenberg
to Kwajalein, US Satellites Near N. and S. Poles, Peace Movement Up Against
Weisgerber, Pentagon Prepares for War in Pacific/ E. Asia, Strengthening and
Dispersing Bases
Answer Coaltion, Stop New Base on Okinawa
US MILITARY BASES: SPECIAL OPS
Stockman, Nick Turse: Obama’s Escalation of Secret Wars to 134 Countries
“CHINESE THREAT”
O’Reilly, US Media Hype “Chinese Threat” in E. China Sea
TPP
Stiglitz, Will Benefit Wealthiest Few, and Illustrates US Mismanagement of
Globalization
Rendall, NAFTA on Steroids Corporate Power Grab
ARCTIC
Thomas Friedman, US vs. Russia Over Arctic Zone
Contents of Westward Imperialism Newsletter #13
Contexts
Dick, RIMPAC STARTED JUNE 26
Dick, the Moral and Intellectual Implosion of Secretary of War Hagel
Engelhardt, China
Engelhardt, Escobar, Washington’s global military-first strategy and Beijing’s civilian-
First
Herbert Bix, Japan and US
Bruce Gagnon, Westward Bases Humanitarian?
Conflict Over Arctic Resources as Ice Melts
Goldenberg, Westward Becomes Northward
Gagnon, War Planning for Arctic Resources?
Individual Bases and Countries as Bases
Philippines: Report from Karapatan
And Continents
Nick Turse, In Africa Westward Becomes Eastard
Pilger, In Eastern Europe, Focus Ukraine, Westward Has Become Eastward
END US WESTWARD IMPERIALISM NEWSLETTER #14