Almost round-the-world tour of Leon Panetta
Leon Panetta, the US Secretary of Defense, made a non-standard step. Previously, America always looked for - and successfully found - enemies for itself. Mr. Panetta decided to go the other way - and try to find friends in the world.
You just do not think that he started it just like that, without a back thought - like a boy in the yard, yearning alone. Panetta was looking for those friends with whom it would be possible to put together a gang against China in the future, conducting together the correct international policy in the APR.
He began ... with Colombia. Having arrived on April 23 in Bogota, he became to praise wonderful Colombia, which was once a paradise for drug dealers, and now has almost overcome the drug contagion. The Pentagon chief, praising Colombia, did not forget to praise the United States: after all, 11 years ago this great country signed an agreement on military cooperation with Colombia, in full agreement with which generous Washington singled out its southern partner $8 billion - not in money, but in the form of equipment and training services. And today, the United States, according to Mr. Panetta, can be satisfied with the success of the Colombian army in the war against drug traffickers. In this phrase, the Colombians should have understood that their successes in the fight against cocaine barons without the US would be called by another word. Or, perhaps, cocaine barons would talk about successes over the Colombian army.
Such a dramatic change in the country occurred in just a few years. Colombian military, writes in his article Luis Ramirez ("Voice of America"), “They dealt a serious blow to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,” but before all the guys from this powerful organization “for several decades” abducted and executed people. Behind these, as it were, transparent words, the silhouette of Great Fraternal America clearly appears, always ready to come to the aid of Columbia's Lesser Brother.
Today in Bogota, Ramirez writes so well that its inhabitants "can be seen in restaurants and nightclubs several hours after dark, which was unthinkable during a crime rampage a few years ago."
A few hours later after dark in restaurants and clubs? .. For me, it means that the Americans instilled in the Colombians the American way of life. The population of Bogota, on the other hand, began to get drunk, imitating popular US secret agents, who not so long ago showed an innocent public in Cartagena how to drink, dance and almost shoot 24-year-old prostitutes for nothing.
The US Secretary of Defense promised that the friendly United States would try, despite the crisis of the Pentagon’s financial strength, to continue helping Colombia. For example, sell her combat helicopters at decent prices and prepaid. Colombia is generally America’s best friend in the region. Who knows, Comrade Chavez will go on the attack? He won how much weapons purchased from Russia. Panetta is probably studying the ratings of TSAMTO and knows that by the end of 2011, Venezuela took 1-th place among the world's buyers of Russian land weapons. Chavez bought from Russia Tanks T-72B1, BMP-3M, BTR-80A, 152 mm self-propelled howitzers 2S19 Msta-S, 120 mm self-propelled mortars 2C23 Nona-SVK, 120 mm mortars 2C12A Sled, 122 mm reactive systems volley fire 9K51 BM-21 Grad, 23-mm anti-aircraft artillery ZU-23 / 30M1-4, etc. Therefore, if the United States have a hard time, fraternal Colombia will help her in the fight against the socialist regional aggressor. Geographical location obliges.
Panetta was going to talk about China, threatening peaceful Colombia, but then annoying media representatives attached to it. All these little people news Give. Since there are no sensations and a third world war, the adventures of secret agents in Colombian girls will come down. According to some rumors, journalists were bothering the minister with questions about whether it’s true that the crisis in America is rampant, that the secret servicemen’s salaries are cut down, and now the whole team of secret agents has to drop one prostitute - and even that is not enough. A high-ranking official had, as they say, to quickly say goodbye and quickly go to the next friendly country - Brazil.
Panetta's visit to Brazil was even less successful. First, this country with Venezuela (by the way, and China) is not hostile, and Panetta’s propaganda slogans will not be there. Secondly, Brazil, according to America itself, is a “global power”. Thirdly, Brazil is a member of BRICS (as well as China), and in this union of the five countries is Russia, which just sells weapons to Venezuela, and sells generously, for its own credit, to Venezuela issued. Putin and Chavez are brothers, what can you do! Both tyrants, dictators, regularly infringe on democracy in their states, solder the opposition on 15 days. And they both dislike America. Fourth, as soon as Panetta in Brazil opened his mouth to to speak about close military cooperation, trade and fashionable issues of cybersecurity, so it killed.
And Mr. Minister again had to talk about prostitutes. Could stay in Colombia.
Brazilian journalists demanded a response from the Minister of Defense of the Great Country over the December scandal with the US military, which was brutal from the drunken cartagena scandal mentioned above.
The fact is that the bearers of the advanced democracy showed their face in Brazil. And Panetta, instead of having to talk about the trade in military equipment and the strategic alliance against China, which was appropriate for such a rank, had to be sulked by three US marines, guards of the US embassy who, together with an embassy employee, injured a prostitute. The girl-dancer, with whom the brave guards did not agree on the price, was pushed out of the car onto the road - and broke the collarbone.
Panetta has long explained to Brazilians that these brutal marines are no longer in the country, that they are even demoted. He, Panetta, will not put up with similar behavior - “neither in this country, nor in other places” (here, he probably remembered Colombia).
Then Panetta started talking about airplanes. He decided to unleash Brazil on monetary assistance to crisis America, and in return for money America would give Brazil some goods. Good product, albeit expensive. USA can sell Brazil's 36 Super Hornet combat aircraft for just 5 billion dollars (ok, for 4). Brazil only needs to hurry with a positive decision. After all, today Washington offers planes, and tomorrow it may change its mind. The minister of war is not well acquainted with marketing: there is no need to put pressure on a potential client. The client will understand that the seller has nowhere to go. Especially since this hapless seller should have guessed that he is not alone in the world market. What's more - which one of Panetta's friend? He himself says that today, they say, yes, but tomorrow - no. With such friends and enemies do not.
Brazil planes offer other suppliers. “Besides the Boeing company,” writes Neil Nikandrov (Strategic Culture Foundation), - in the fight for the contract involved the French - the plane Rafale (the company Dassault Aviation) and the Swedes - the plane Grippen (Saab). In addition, the Brazilians are extremely annoyed that the contract for the supply of Embraer light aircraft to 380 million dollars to Afghanistan was annulled. It was the fault of a rival US company. A lot of similar cases of American intervention in the Brazilian military-technical cooperation have accumulated. Embraer, in particular, failed to realize a good deal with Venezuelans. Some of the components of the Super Tornado aircraft were produced in the United States. Under this pretext, the Americans blocked the deal. ”
In general, it was not so hard that Panetta got out of sunny Brazil, in the forests of which there are a lot of wild monkeys.
In Chile, there were no scandals with prostitutes, but without much friendship. It is difficult to talk about the “expansion of cooperation in the field of defense and security” between the USA and Chile, when the country's parliamentary groups, together with human rights defenders condemn funding by the US Southern Command Valparaiso military base. By the way, Mr. Panetta enlightened the inhabitants of Chile in a geographical sense: from his words there learnedthat both Americans and Chileans are “Pacific nations”.
In general, Chileans are unlikely to go to war with the Chinese, if they are called by the American patriot Panetta.
After Chile, the defense minister temporarily returned to America. In order to recover a little, he spoke to those who always understood him well: to graduates of the American Naval Academy. He practiced on them - before his second tour, already in Asia.
Graduates of the American Naval Academy learned from the Secretary of Defense that the United States is a maritime power, which is returning to its origins. He also explained to future sailors that their generation would have to maintain and strengthen the American presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Everyone understood that Panetta hinted at the strengthening of not quite friendly China, whose military power is growing, but the head of the Pentagon suddenly spoke of the need to strengthen and develop military cooperation with China and thus ensure peace in the region. Panetta also said that this year he flies to China, where he had never been as Minister of Defense.
Not speech, but a democratic solyanka.
4 June Pentagon chief arrived in Hanoi. Then he was reminded of the times of war with true Vietnamese politeness. Marianna brown of "Voices of America" writes about it delicately: "The ministers representing countries that once fought against each other exchanged wartime relics - the diary of a Vietnamese soldier killed in battle and the letters of an American officer who served in Vietnam."
America has made great progress in relations with Vietnam. In recent years, in the port of Kamran, the Vietnamese repaired ... five American ships. The speech, according to M. Brown, is about the consent of Vietnam “to carry out simple repair operations on US courts that are not taking part in hostilities”.
Inspired by the Vietnamese-American progress in simple repair operations, Panetta left Hanoi for Singapore.
Then he opened the American public to the general public. The Chinese, of course, are not fools, and understood against whom America is gathering “friends” in the person of the chief gentleman from the Pentagon — and not the Minister of Defense of the PRC, but the deputy chairman of the Academy of Military Sciences, arrived in Singapore for a security conference. Mr. Panetta, who was surrounded by a solid staff of military gentlemen, including the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey and the commander of the Pacific fleet Admiral Loklira, against the background of a lonely comrade from China, there were as many as Lady Winter with her names against the background of the humble musketeer Athos. The fact that China’s defense minister Comrade Liang Guanle’s visit to Singapore was somewhat reminiscent of Putin’s ignorance of Camp David’s G8 summit.
In general, the increase in tensions in the relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China is connected with the adoption of 3 in January by 2012 in Washington, DC, entitled “Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21 Century Defense”. In this strategy, it was stated that China’s gain in the long run could affect the US economy and security. Key moments in the US military strategy are reduced to a reduction in the number of American armed forces while simultaneously concentrating budget resources on the development of satellites and unmanned aircraft. The strategy also implies a reorientation of resources to the APR. Hence it is clear that the Obama administration, while reducing military spending, does not allow them to be reduced along the APR line. On the contrary, we are talking about "reorientation" to the Asia-Pacific region. And in Singapore, the head of the Pentagon only confirmed the fears of China.
The key to shaping the balance of power in the APR is following: First, the United States is going to increase the number of its ships from 282 to 300 and equip them with modern weapons; secondly, to change the ratio of ships (now half of them are in the Pacific Ocean, half - in the Atlantic; this ratio will be changed accordingly 60: 40); thirdly, the Pentagon intends to send fifth-generation Joint Strike Fighter fighters to the APR, attacking Virginia-class submarines that can operate in shallow water, as well as electronic warfare weapons and precision weapons. Mr. Panetta said in an ominous voice: "We will purposefully, consistently and steadily shift the balance of the deployment of our armed forces in favor of this vital region for us."
That is such a friendship. It is not surprising that Liang Guanle did not go to the forum, having dissuaded "urgent matters." Such a comrade as the Chinese Minister of Defense often cannot repeat the words about the development of mutual understanding and the strengthening of military ties. China has long been a country that may be tempted by "simple repair operations" carried out on some old American boats. And the White House understands this very well, that's why Mr. Panetta is sent to the countries and regions tirelessly. repeatingthat changes in the US military strategy are not aimed at curbing the growing influence of China.
From Singapore, Mr. Panetta went to India. India, of course, is in BRICS and buys something from Russia, and cooperates with China, but in 2012, it is expected that the volume of trade between this country and the United States will be 100 billion dollars.
Как said Leon Panetta in Delhi, and America and India need to overcome differences with Pakistan - to restore peace in South Asia. (Yes, thinking of China, I do not want to be distracted by Pakistan).
As for the differences between America and Pakistan, then there is definitely something to work on. First, America, who wants to be friends, must learn to apologize. To apologize for the 24 of Pakistani soldiers killed last November - “by mistake”. But America does not know how to apologize.
Well, there are other issues. Two decades in America, undermining India, worked hard “Human rights activist” and head of the non-governmental organization “Kashmir-American Council” Syed Ghulam Nabi Fi, convicted in early April 2012 of the year to 2, for systematic violation of the law on registration of foreign funding. The 63-year-old human rights activist, who fought for the independence of Kashmir (this, by the way, is part of India), has been funded by ISI - Pakistan Inter-Agency Intelligence since 1990.
And now Panetta tells the Hindus that they need to live together with the Pakistanis.
Hindus who have somewhat deviated from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, recently successfully tested Agni-5 rocket, which is able to fly 5.000 kilometers and can carry a nuclear warhead - and they know a lot about geopolitical friendship. In India, they understand: if Panetta says that the armed forces of the two countries should join forces against "more complex threats" in the future, then we are talking about China. The US Secretary of Defense will not deceive the gullible Hindus, emphasizing colorfully that the United States intends to strengthen relations with the PRC: “The United States welcomes China to become a strong and prosperous state that plays an increasingly significant role in global processes, while respecting and observing international norms in the region over the past 60 years. ”
While Panetta was visiting in friendly India, declaring something about friendship with China, about establishing relations with Pakistan, in the south of Afghanistan 22 died and more than 50 people were injured in the attacks of three suicide bombers. On the same day, June 6, 18 civilians died in the province of Logar from the air strike of NATO troops. Among them were women and children.
Everywhere, where peacemakers from the Pentagon and the State Department put their noses, blood is shed and enmity is kindled. Do not believe them. Do not listen to them. Do not let them into your country. Lower barriers in front of him. Arrange them an iron curtain.
These friend seekers are no longer as strong as before.
Making a geopolitical “tour” and, like a traveling salesman, persuading to buy helicopters and airplanes from him, the US Secretary of Defense is showing almost panic. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, Americans make one tragic mistake after another, in Colombia and Brazil, journalists stick to the head of the Pentagon with questions about the "inappropriate behavior" of the US military, the Chinese defense minister ignores Mr. Panetta, finally, in the US, amid the economic crisis, the military budget is decreasing, and will shrink as expected by as much as ten years.
Leon Panetta and his bosses in the White House are only chasing the ghost of former hegemony. They managed to feel its taste after the collapse of the USSR. They feel sorry for her, with hegemony, to part - but she is no more.
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