The past two newsletters have covered Chinese relations with the West, with a particular focus on how the media presents information to build an overall narrative of fear of Chinese domination. It’s not that the information is necessarily incorrect, or that we don’t have any reason to fear the Chinese; it’s that we are being led down the garden path by our current overlord into a future of our own indetermination. Multiple friends have queried my insistence on examining the American Superpower before rushing to judge the rising Chinese Dragon. To be able to talk honestly about what the future holds, we also need to be truthful about how we got here. In that framing, the Chinese threat fades to dust in comparison to the ruling behemoth that has dominated the globe since World War Two. Here’s an off the record quote attributed to Karl Rove, advisor to US President George W Bush, speaking to a New York Times reporter in 2002:
“People like you are still living in what we call the reality-based community. You believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
Personally, a statement this explicit is irresistible for analysis and reflection. Trump was blamed from very early in his ascendancy for no longer respecting the Truth, but anyone with a memory (or who reads of before their time) knows that the official narrative has always been fashioned by the powerful, in the interests of the powerful. The United States has held the role as the most powerful nation on Earth for arguably a century, and stands alone as a cultural, economic and political propaganda machine bar none. Nearly every piece of media or news on consequential events is filtered through the lens of American primacy, whether we observe it in real-time or not. That quote, contested as it is, provides a clear insight into an administration that lied to the international community in forcing the War on Iraq. Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction was a lie, a lie that led to an illegal war, millions of civilian deaths, and the unspooling of the Middle East into nearly two decades of destruction. We know that it was all a lie, as the man who presented the false evidence to the United Nations, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, admitted as much after the fact.
This newsletter, therefore, will seek to explore how we in Australia are impacted by the waves of history rippled from the Empire. If the United States and its elite class are history’s actors, we are merely extras, trying to provide for ourselves and remain relevant in a rapidly changing global theatre. We are told what to say, and when to say it. See our trade battles last year with China, where we were the sacrificial lamb for attempting to call China out on human rights issues and secrecy surrounding the Pandemic. China refused to take our wine, seafood and some agricultural products. In a deep irony, it was American producers who gladly stepped up to supply the hungry Chinese market. These minor disputes, centred around contraventions of international law, will linger, fester and multiply as the two superpowers test each other's nerves.
The key to understanding international relations, specifically treaties and agreements, is that they are unenforceable. In the end, force rules the day. As stated above, the UN never approved the War on Iraq; it was a wholly illegal war that we in Australia duly supported. The idea of a “humane”, “sanctioned” war is in itself a fictitious concept conceived to deceive the populace into forgetting War. The quote above outlines this clearly: whilst the international community was outraged that its weapons inspectors had found no WMD but weren’t being believed, the US and allies were implementing a long-developed plan to overthrow Saddam. Appeals to international law and arms controls agreements were long tossed aside by the US, and we know the consequences. Alas, in 2004, the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), at the behest of the Bush administration, reported that:
“While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter, a policy ISG attributes to Baghdad's desire to see sanctions lifted, or rendered ineffectual, or its fear of force against it should WMD be discovered.”
Much ado about nothing then. But, at risk of being a bore, here’s a long (and in no way comprehensive) list of international treaties and agreements that the US has not ratified into law, or has withdrawn from:
UN Convention on Economic and Social Rights
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
International Criminal Court
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Arms Trade Treaty
Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
So, just take a second, and think of all the Chinese aggression (both internal and external), in violation of international law, that we are endlessly bombarded with in our media. Then, consider the US does not abide by those very rules it claims China (or Russia, or Venezuela, or Cuba) is in violation of. And finally, consider how implementing these treaties and agreements would result in the total capitulation of the global American Empire. You can’t run the Empire if you play by those rules. However, and this is the trick, you can write the rules, pretend everyone agrees, and then not sign or implement them. Reality has been under constant attack by these forces, long before Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement. This is the upside down world of official misinformation and disinformation that the US national security state trades in, implying other countries are in constant violation of international rules it doesn’t itself abide by. If you were outside the Empire, and had access to such information, would you trust an American? If you’re in Australia, like us, it should be clear that appeals to international law are meaningless, and those politicians, journalists and academics that believe they matter are pushing a particular agenda.
The attribution of the Pandemic will haunt international relations in the coming years. The origin story of COVID-19 has morphed many times to suit prevailing imperatives of the powerful: when Trump was in power, the bat virus had jumped into a seafood wet market in Wuhan and unfortunately spread to humans. This was the sole permissible narrative of the US mainstream media during early 2020. The idea that it had slipped out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology that studies bat viruses was labelled a conspiracy theory by the same very scientists who had been engaged in the work. Mainstream media ran with this narrative for a full year. It was clearly obvious the Lab-Leak hypothesis was being suppressed, for reasons unknown, but one can guess. The political class was concerned Trump would use the theory as justification to lash out at China, but it was also true the Wuhan Lab is funded with American money. The truth could not be revealed, or at least Trump could not wield it.
Then, Biden is elected. All of a sudden, mainstream media started to report the possibilities of the Lab-Leak again. Jon Stewart appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and made it true. Only in America does “Reality” get consecrated through half-baked comedy sketches (see the propaganda machine that is Saturday Night Live and its constant RussiaGate spin). Reporting started to be fed into the system, outlining how various scientific bodies and departments, including the World Health Organisation, tasked with investigating the origins, were conflicted in interest and motivation. Indeed, it has now been revealed the Wuhan Lab was engaged in risky research that Dr Fauci has long denied. However, crucially, there exists no scientific evidence of an actual leak occurring; rather we have a trail of evidence that points in that direction. The WHO has been shown to be hopelessly conflicted in investigating and assessing the origins of the virus; any determination it makes in future will be bounded by political necessity, rather than scientific accuracy.
HyperLinks are included because these stories have barely caused a ripple in the Australian media. We have been far too consumed by lockdown and vaccine politics to be engaged at the higher levels of attribution and conflict, which is understandable. But lockdowns and vaccine politics will pass. The geo-strategic rivalry of the US and China shows no signs of abatement, and anyone hoping a Democrat President will show restraint severely misjudges the balance of power in the American system. It was only with the ascension of Biden that the Lab-Leak narrative became an official origin theory. One has to be a naive partisan to believe the Democrats are immune to the whims of the US national security state that rules the globe. Reality is still being constructed for us to study, and in the interests of the powerful.
Finally, an anecdote of history long forgotten. The Lab-Leak theory was dismissed initially due to the unlikeliness of pathogens leaking from high security laboratories. What then to make of the Anthrax scares of September 2001, directly following the 911 attacks? Here’s a timeline of the official story of this particular Lab-Leak. Like COVID-19, no scientific evidence exists to link the bioweapon to a particular perpetrator. And just like WMD and the origins of COVID-19, it is unlikely to matter. The Anthrax attacks were a powerful sequel to 911, reminding all Americans that no-one was safe in the new age of the War on Terror.
We are dealing with a far more insidious pathogen, one which we still don’t know the origin of. Who blames who will be one of the defining stories of our time. The powers that be will construct that reality, propaganda will be dispersed through the media, and we will continue to play our role as Extras in the theatre of history, patiently waiting to take our lines from the behind the scenes directors and main actors.