[courtesy Google Images]
The New York Times“ When Xi Jinping, then the newly minted Chinese leader, first broached the idea of a new Asian development bank in a public speech in 2013, few in Washington paid it much heed.
“But as Beijing systematically recruited longtime American allies to help fund and oversee the new bank, it became clear that the push was more than a public relations gesture to China’s Asian neighbors. It was also a direct threat to the post-World War II financial institutions led primarily by the United States, and to President Obama’s pledges to make a “pivot” to Asia in American foreign policy.
“Now with Britain, France, Germany and Italy signing up to join the new bank, despite direct pleas from Washington to steer clear, the question is whether the Obama administration mishandled a significant challenge from China, and what it might have done differently.”
No, that’s not “the question”.
“The questions” are:
1) Does the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) signal that the end of the US fiat dollar is not only inevitable but near to hand?
2) By joining China’s new bank, do our European allies (Britain, Germany, France and Italy) signal that they believe the fiat dollar’s days are numbered?
3) By joining China’s new bank, do our European allies signal that they’re not merely responding to the mathematics that tell us that the fiat dollar is doomed, but are instead so sick and tired of Washington’s financial bullying (FATCA), military invasions and false-flag revolutions, that their decisions to join the AIIB demonstrate a real break in US-European relations?
4) Is it merely a coincidence that Britain, Germany, France and Italy have all almost simultaneously announced their decisions to join China’s new bank? Or do those simultaneous announcements indicate a previous, underlying agreement (and even secret conspiracy) between those four nations (and Europe in general), to distance themselves from, and defy, the Obama administration?
5) Given that major European powers have already joined China’s AIIB, how many more nations will follow suit and also join the AIIB—and how soon?
“The question” is not whether the Obama administration has mishandled the single issue of the AIIB, but whether President Obama and former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have mishandled such a multitude of foreign policy issues for so many years that they’ve alienated former allies and much of the world.
If some of the world’s nations are joining the AIIB because they’re angry at US foreign policy, they’re certainly angry at Obama and probably angry at former Secretary of State Clinton. If so, these foreign countries are unlikely to support Hilary’s election as our next President. If US foreign policy abuses and failures under the Obama administration have alienated a number of US allies, will that alienation work against Hilary’s election as President to any significant degree?
• Note that our European allies aren’t alone in openly defying Washington’s demands. Israel is also growing increasingly and openly antagonistic to Barack Obama.
And look at Russia. Certainly not one of America’s allies. But, up until about 15 months ago, Russian-American relations seemed reasonably positive and amiable.
Then, while Russia was hosting the Winter Olympics, the US fomented the overthrow of the pro-Russian government in Ukraine and precipitated the subsequent civil war that’s flared for most of a year. Later, the US government imposed economic sanctions on Russia which damaged the Russian economy and pushed Russia further away from the US dollar and closer to China. Is that Ukraine policy merely failed or was it downright stupid?
More, by imposing economic sanctions on Russia, we jeopardized the flow of natural gas from Russia to the European Union. That had to make the EU mad. Another failed policy? More evidence of stupidity?
Don’t forget that China, itself, has demonstrated its antagonism to the Obama administration and the fiat dollar by simply creating this new bank.
Russia is attempting to create an alternative to the US-dominated SWIFT system for settling debts between the world’s banks.
In the widespread fallout from China’s creation of AIIB, we see reactions from other nations that indicate that the Obama administration has at least lost some previous political support from China, Russia, and Europe. Worse, Obama may have so antagonized those nations or regions that they’ve chosen to distance themselves from, and even defy, the US government.
• Whether the world flocks to the AIIB isn’t particularly important. But whether the world has chosen to distance itself from the Obama administration, is.
It may be that Obama foreign policy and even personal arrogance have antagonized so many foreign countries and lost the support of so many foreign governments, that he’ll be forced to pull in his horns and start to “play nice” with the rest of the world. Perhaps our government will be forced to stop invading, overthrowing, starting wars and “droning”for the remainder of Obama’s presidency.
• Closing remarks from The New York Times article:
“No matter how the new Chinese bank shaped up, it was highly unlikely that the United States would be a member. . . . [T]here is a strain in Washington that if the U.S. is not in the lead, then the U.S. should not be part of it . . . .”
That’s the kind of attitude, arrogance and narcissism that can make people mad and some some friends.
It’s beginning to look as if the “indispensable nation” (or at least the “indispensable administration”) is becoming “dispensable”.
The world not only doesn’t need the US to lead but, in some regards, it may not need the US at all. The emperor is being seen for what he is: not only butt-nekkid, but also irrational and abusive.
P.S. The New York Times article reports that Australia is expected to sign up for the AIIB in the next week, and South Korea is likely to follow. Reuters reports that even Japan may join the AIIB. Certainly, the number of countries joining the AIIB is growing. To what extent are foreign nations running to the AIIB? To an extent our foreign nations running away from the US?
Is there (still) an ally in the house?!
Is any nation’s government still willing to gladly follow the US lead? Or has Obama (and Hilary) squandered whatever loyalty or allegiance we might have formerly expected from our “allies”?
In the AIIB specticle , are we seeing evidence of a growing tide of anti-US sentiment among the world’s governments, evidence that the dollar is on the way out, or both?
That’s the question.