The ABCs of Global Power

Russia and the United States have the world’s largest nuclear arsenals. Both countries have powerful armies, fleets and air forces. The same can be said for China, as well, which stands as the world’s third most powerful country. The three countries are large, in land area and population. Together they possess a quarter of the world’s surface land area, almost a third of the world’s population and over 90 percent of the world’s most powerful and advanced weapons. As the greatest of these three powers, the United States is dominant. If this domination suddenly came to an end (due to a financial crash) the current alliance between Russia and China would quickly fill the vacuum left by the collapse of American power.

What would the world look like without America in a dominant role? To answer this question we need to consider the differences between Russia, China and the United States. If there are no significant differences, especially regarding the use of power, the three countries would be interchangeable. The world would remain stable, with no threat of a major world war breaking out. Unfortunately, the three powers are not the same.

Whatever sins the United States has committed, whatever harm the Americans have done, there is no comparison between America and the two other powers – Russia and China. The East and West differ in history, politics and culture. Most of all, in the methods used to gather and maintain power. American history is completely different from Russian and Chinese history. America’s history is not a parade of tyrants. It is not the story of the first Ch’in Emperor who unified China in 221 B.C., or of the first Tsar, Ivan the Terrible. Most nations are born in bloodshed, it is true, but not all blood is spilled for similar ends. One seeks in vain for Chinese emperors or Russian tsars who resemble George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Russia and China have always been ruled by despots. These were not concerned with liberty, but for self-aggrandizement. Today, Russia and China are still ruled by despots.

To better illustrate the character of Russian power – in the past and present – readers are urged to read an article by Jamie Glazov titled The Russian-Al-Qaeda Axis. It is basically an interview Glazov conducted last month with the prime minister in exile of the Chechen Republic, Ahmed Zakayev. When asked whether the Chechen Resistance is nationalist or Islamist, Zakayev explained that Islamist ideology is a KGB-organized “provocation” against the Muslim population of the former Soviet Union. At that time the KGB founded the “Party of Islamic Revival of the USSR.” Its purpose was, in Zakayev’s words, “to split every Muslim nation by dividing it into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslims.”

It has been a long tradition in Russia to divide and conquer; to penetrate, infiltrate and subvert rival powers; to create false opposition fronts with which to corral enemies. According to Zakayev, Islamic radicalism was “the Kremlin’s vaccine” against the national independence of various Muslim groups within the USSR. “For all those years,” said Zakayev, “the main mission of the ‘Islamic’ ideologists was to discredit and disorganize the Chechen Resistance.” He further explained that the FSB/KGB is “the most experienced terrorist organization in the world, whose foundations were laid even before the Bolsheviks captured power….” Russia’s special services know how to conduct “every kind of terrorist activity, including kidnappings, explosions, hijacking planes, hostage-taking, use of poisons and nuclear materials for assassinations, etc.” But the KGB’s most prized capability, Zakayev noted, “is the FSB’s ability to form and develop extremist ideologies.”

It is not widely appreciated, but the most influential and destructive conspiracy ideology of the 20th century was created by the Russian special services in Paris. I am referring to the forgery known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Hitler believed in the Protocols and Nazism based its genocidal campaign against the Jews on this very document. Much of the conspiracy nonsense animating the extreme right in America, as well, has been influenced by this forgery. One only has to cite the case of Timothy McVeigh. If the Russian secret police had not fabricated the Protocols, the Oklahoma City bombing would have had no conceptual antecedent whatsoever (see The Turner Diaries).

After 1917 the Soviet government persevered in the tsarist tradition of feeding extremist ideology. One such example involves Soviet encouragement of the JFK assassination conspiracy cult (see The Mitrokhin Archive). To cultivate widespread distrust, hatred and pessimism, the FSB/KGB has developed sophisticated intellectual tools to disrupt target societies. Extremist ideas have greatly impacted the patriotism of many Americans, leading them into disillusionment and paranoia.

The Islamic terrorism threatening the world today is yet another example of the KGB’s creation of extremist ideologies. According to Zakayev, al Qaeda is “a global provocation, designed to clash the Islamic world with the Western world, thus weakening both sides as much as possible. Those who capitalize on that are Russia, China and their allies in the totalitarian camp.” Zakayev is almost certainly correct.

Reflecting on the facts of Russian history, on the KGB’s employment of extremist ideologies, what would be the result of America’s decline? What would be unleashed? What violence would be committed, and what nations would suffer? As I explained at the beginning of this column, there is only one nation capable of resisting the nuclear threat of Russia and China. If America weakens and retreats the power of Russia and China necessarily advances.

For those who curse the United States and Israel, who embrace various conspiracy theories, I offer this caveat. Do you want Russia and China to dominate the world? Would you trust the heirs of Mao Zedong and the disciples of Felix Dzerzhinsky to keep the peace, to maintain freedom, to further global prosperity? Do you want the legacy of Ivan the Terrible and the first Ch’in Emperor?

One power is going to dominate. One legacy is going to find itself realized. Will it be a legacy of global terror and oppression? Or will it be a legacy of free markets and free elections?

About the Author

jrnyquist [at] aol [dot] com ()