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by Stephen Lendman
US imperial policy prioritizes endless wars for unchallenged global dominance - madness by any standard at a time super-weapons can end life on earth.
Russia and China are Washington's two main rivals - Moscow militarily, Beijing mainly for its growing economic dominance.
It's now the world's largest economy based on purchasing power parity (PPP) - the cost of a representative basket of goods in one country v. another.
Its growth since the 1980s is one of the greatest success stories in modern times - extraordinary by any standard, enough for Washington prioritizing regime change.
It wants pro-Western stooge governance replacing China's sovereign independence. It wants a major rival eliminated by any means necessary.
Robert Blackwell is a former Bush administration deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for strategic planning - a neocon lunatic by any standard.
Ashley Tellis is a former Bush administration State Department senior advisor and National Security Council staff member. His ideological extremism matches Blackwell's.
Their April Council on Foreign Relations "Special Report" is titled "Revising US Grand Strategy Toward China."
They maintain Beijing represents a threat to America in a part of the world not its own.
US "primacy in Asia" is at stake, they say. So is "a consequential challenge to American power globally," they claim.
They urge challenging China's growing economic, political and military "ascendancy" aggressively.
Above all, they want all challengers to America's global supremacy eliminated - by any means necessary including war.
Their policy recommendations include "revitalizing the US economy." Phony numbers conceal its dismal state.
Q I GDP suggests recession conditions - real negative growth concealed by a fabricated +0.2%. Real final sales (GDP minus inventory buildup) fell at an annualized 0.5% quarterly rate.
America's economy appears headed south. It never recovered from 2008-09's major recession.
With over a fifth of its working age population unable to find jobs, it's in trouble. It could take years to turn things around. It requires polar opposite policies than current ones nowhere in sight.
Strengthen America's military, Blackwell and Tellis urge. Washington already matches or exceeds what the rest of the world spends in total on militarism.
"Congress should remove (virtually nonexistent) sequestration caps and substantially increase the US defense budget," the authors maintain.
"Washington should intensify a consistent US naval and air presence in the South and East China Seas."
It should "accelerate the US (Pacific-based) ballistic-missile defense posture."
The authors barely stopped short of urging Washington declare war on China and carpet-bomb its land mass with nuclear weapons.
They stressed expanding US/Asian trade. They prioritize enacting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement - a stealth freedom-destroying corporate coup d'etat critics call NAFTA on steroids.
"US grand strategy toward China will be seriously weakened without delivering on the TPP," they stress.
"A major push by the White House for ratification should therefore begin immediately in the new Congress, including seeking trade promotion authority" (fast track license to ram legislation through Congress with minimal debate and no amendments).
Blackwell and Tellis want Washington "limiting China's access to advanced weaponry and military critical technologies."
They want America's allies pressured to go along with imperial US policies and objectives.
They want all nations subservient to Washington's will. They want total US control over planet earth and space.
They want Washington imposing "costs on China (exceeding) benefits it receives from" alleged cyberspace violations.
They want US "offensive" cyber capabilities enhanced. They want congressional legislation benefitting America at the expense of other countries.
"The United States cannot defend its interests in Asia without support from its allies," they maintain.
They want US regional power increased along China's borders - with Asian allies pressured to go along with policies harming their own interests.
They prefer dominating China diplomatically. They support war if other options fail.
They want no US geopolitical rivals anywhere. The want unchallenged American dominion over planet earth - even at the risk of destroying it.
The authors' attitude toward US/China relations and all independent countries America doesn't control matches dominant thinking among neocon lunatics infesting Washington.
They see no prospect "of building fundamental trust, peaceful coexistence, mutual understanding (or) a strategic partnership" - code language for wanting all independent governments replaced by stooge ones Washington controls, a prescription for endless wars of aggression.
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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".