Global Research

-“It’s discouraging that the United States continues to perceive stability as a unipolar world in which it holds the domineering position. If you feel a leader, there will always be someone who you think is challenging you…”

The BRICS countries, which include Brazil, Russia, India and China, have been listed among those posing a threat to the US national security along with terrorism, cyber attacks, and the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta urged Washington to protect the planet against these countries’ attempts to ruin global stability.

The US development plan, approved last year, said nothing about any threats coming from Russia or China. At the end of August this year, the Pentagon cautioned Congress that in nine years China could have an army as strong as that of the US. China’s hefty investment in its military-industrial complex will enable it to build a military potential that could break the balance of strength in the region, reports from the Pentagon said. As for Russia, the Pentagon did not have to specify why it posed a threat because Russia is the world’s only country whose strategic nuclear potential is comparable to that of the US.

The recent data reveal, however, that the US tops the list of countries with high military expenditures. The Pentagon’s injections in the military-industrial complex accounted for 40 percent of the total defense spending of other countries last year. Russia is second on the list, and China is third. Since investment in new weapons requires funding, the American concern can also be attributed to the economic might of the BRIC group, which is now BRICS, after it was joined by South Africa. BRICS countries demonstrated rapid economic growth in the heat of the financial crisis.

But for the fact that Leon Panetta is not the only top US official to have recently made this kind of statement, his report could be seen as yet another move from Washington’s “hawks”. The more so since the US and Russian relations have been characterized as a reset and the two countries have moved away from Cold War rhetoric. However, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said a few days ago that the US is the leader and other countries are followers. Its for this very reason that Washington often sees a threat where there is none, Director of the Social and Political Research Center Vlaimdir Yevseev said in an interview with a Voice of Russia correspondent.

“It’s discouraging that the United States continues to perceive stability as a unipolar world in which it holds the domineering position. If you feel a leader, there will always be someone who you think is challenging you. In the meantime, there is a large number of real threats which need to be addressed by joint effort.”

The reality is that the world has entered a ‘post-American’ era and Washington will have to come to terms with it. Andrei Volodin, Director of the Oriental Research Center at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy, comments.

“In this new era, the US will play a far less significant role than it has before. Washington will no longer enjoy the right to set the rules of the game in the financial, military and political areas. Russia and a number of other European countries are gradually getting out of US control.”

Politicians in the US have been making all sorts of statements ahead of the forthcoming presidential elections. President Obama’s opponents, of which there are quite a few, have been using every opportunity to express their views.

In the days of the British Empire, colonizers pursued the so-called civilizing mission. Later on, this mission was renamed  ‘democratization’. But as it happens, there are a variety of civilizations across the globe and they supplement each other fairly well, if not disturbed.

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