BANG GOES THE ‘RULES BASED’ ORDER...

The USA has been a rogue state for a long time. It normally justifies its crimes by targeting governments it wants to change as ‘necessary actions to defend democracy’ or to protect the world from some ‘monster’ that it has suitably demonised.

In Venezuela, the mask has dropped. Trump wants the oil – and to kick China out of Americas ‘back yard’. The US has kidnapped President Maduro, dragged him round New York in an open prison van to humiliate him and charged him with ‘narco-terrorism’. There will be a ‘show-trial’. It is completely illegal.

‘Regime change’ is a well-thumbed American play book. First, identify the enemy and establish the ‘narrative’. ‘The country is undemocratic. The people yearn for freedom. The leader is an evil dictator’. The aim is to get people to believe intervention is noble, so shouldn’t be opposed.

Flood the target country with money to support opposition groups and bribe people to create chaos. Get people onto the streets to complain about legitimate grievances. Create more chaos.

Provide illegal weapons and indiscriminately target both police and protesters. When there is violence against innocent by-standers, the media reports on the turmoil, and this confirms how wicked the leadership of the country is. Then the conflict really explodes. Pressure groups and the media scream that the worlds sheriff MUST do something.

Sanctions are applied. When the country hits economic turbulence, the dis-satisfaction gets even worse. People demand elections to remove ‘the dictator’. It’s a ‘colour revolution’. US supported ‘democratic forces’ are on hand to step in. It is regime change on the cheap.

The aim is to dominate countries, strip them of resources and remove them as obstacles to US rule so that they become dominated by big business. This is modern imperialism. You don’t have to support the Mullahs in Iran or Kim Jong Un in North Korea to support their countries right to be sovereign. But if you are the worlds sheriff, those who do not submit must be crushed.

The internet age means it’s hard to hide these antics – so the narrative must dominate the media and must be controlled and censored. The ‘information space’ is now a major political battleground because of the nature of modern communications.

The propaganda becomes more intense and lurid. If people object to US intervention, they are intimidated as being associated with terrorists. The media is largely compliant and fed a diet of propaganda provided by state intelligence services, and this is then recycled as ‘truth’. Most people are too confused to follow what’s going on. By the time they find out, it’s too late to do anything.

Inspired by snatching Maduro, Trump now tackles Iran, contemplates targeting Colombia and Cuba and threatens to grab Greenland.

He has built on the US playbook and turned international politics into a series of property deals and ‘reality’ TV. These are not the actions of a strong and confident country. They are the actions of a rogue state in decline.