Ariana Mohammadi I December 29 2022
A superpower in decline still retains a vast appetite for irregular, proxy warfare to slow down the imminent multipolar order. Iran, Russia, China are its big targets and all tools will be employed.
To maintain its global hegemony in the face of a rapidly emerging multipolar world, the US seeks to restrict the redistribution of power in all regions where its clout is foundering.
While Washington can no longer afford the high costs of engaging in direct, hot wars, its military-industrial complex – the powerhouse of the US economy – is likewise unable to afford disengaging from global conflict. Therefore, US military strategy has shifted from waging war to taking its war to its adversaries, via proxies.
The idea is to capitalize on sending weapons and military equipment to US proxies to sink its adversaries in long-term quagmires. The Pentagon’s 21st century wars are “full spectrum,” which means all tools of warfare are employed, including sanctions, disinformation, and sabotage in order to cause major disruptions in an adversary state’s social, political, and economic stability.
Washington’s end-goal is to reshape their adversaries into subordinate client states, or to neutralize them to such extent that they cannot resist US hegemony anymore.
As US congressman Adam Schiff made clear as far back as January 2020, “the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there and we don’t have to fight Russia here.” By February 2022, Russia began fighting back against the US in Ukraine, with no end in sight for that conflict.
Unconventional warfare
The US military-industrial complex has already started planning and promoting China’s war with Taiwan with a projected $22.69 billion budget allocated for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. These “deterrence initiatives” generally include a large military presence in the proxy’s territories, thereby provoking the adversary into a confrontation.
Washington’s strategy towards its long-time Iranian foe has been more complex and involves using sanctions, assassinations, cyberattacks, and information warfare to counterbalance Tehran in West Asia, both directly and via US regional client states.
While the US dream has always been to “Libya-fy” Iran – clearly impossible, else the Pentagon would have already done it – plan B seeks to drag the country into a protracted civil conflict and replicate the Syrian model to partition and plunder the country.
Iran’s military capabilities have grown in unprecedented sophistication and reach over the past years, making it a resilient force to counter NATO’s ambitions in West Asia. It is why Washington’s old all-options-are-on-the-table promise has increasingly morphed into a hybrid warfare scenario.
Woman, Life, Freedom…and NATO (thecradle.co)
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Ariana Mohammadi is a Canadian-based researcher and writer with training in law and language. She studies political discourse, the rhetoric of war, and legal linguistics.