Events are unfolding at a quickening pace. Facing an alarming escalation in tensions around the world, we are looking to our most respected and renowned thought leaders for an honest assessment of both U.S. foreign and military policy to offer their most current thoughts and insights. We know they have some ideas for improving the prospects for peace.
Dan Kovalik is the author of critically-acclaimed No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using 'Humanitarian' Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests, The Plot to Scapegoat Russia, The Plot to Attack Iran, The Plot to Control the World, and The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela, is a dedicated peace activist, and has been a labor and human rights lawyer since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. He has represented plaintiffs in ATS cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Colombia. He received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford Law School, and has lectured throughout the world. His responses below are exactly as he provided.
The questions here are not philosophical or abstract. They focus on the realities of the international power struggle unfolding in real time. They directly address the role of the U.S. in the escalating tensions and its capacity to reduce them. We also probe the role of everyday citizens in affecting the relationship the U.S. now has and will have with the rest of the world community.
Here is what Dan Kovalik had to say.
Q. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has recently put the hands of the Doomsday Clock to 100 seconds before midnight. Midnight means all out war, probably nuclear holocaust. This is the closest it has every been. Do you agree with this dire assessment?
A. Yes, of course. First of all, after the tragic collapse of the USSR and the assumption of the Soviet Union's weaponry by the respective, numerous former Soviet Republics, the chances for accidental nuclear war increased greatly. The West recognized this immediately and had offered to help the various Republics secure these weapons, but of course quickly reneged on this promise, making the world ever more dangerous. In addition, the US over the years has taken a more and more aggressive policy towards Russia and China - both nuclear states of course - intensifying the encirclement of Russia through NATO and increasing its provocative acts against China in the South China Sea. The chances for a Third World War are greater than ever, and with this the risk of accidental or intentional nuclear war. Finally, we have the elephant in the Middle Eastern living room - Israel - which is a nuclear power without declaring itself to be one. The chances that Israel will file a nuclear weapon to protect its advantage in the Middle East seems a real possibility, especially as the world is beginning to awaken to and reject Israel's cruel domination of the Palestinian Territories. Israel is left with nothing but brute force to carry out its will, and its nuclear weapons are the greatest fount of this force.
Q. The U.S. always portrays itself as the greatest force on the planet for peace, justice, human rights, racial equality, etc. Polls tell us that most other nations actually regard the U.S. as the greatest threat to stability. What in your view is the truth here?
A. This is undoubtedly true as international polls acknowledge and as Martin Luther King opined years ago with his famous statement that "the US is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world." Jimmy Carter has recently stated this truth, proclaiming that the US is the most war-like nation in the history of the world. The US has more military bases around the world by far than any Empire in history, with over 800 such bases around the globe. Meanwhile, the US is at war in numerous theatres in one way or another. In total, the US is waging wars, mostly through Special Forces and private contractors, in at least 80 different countries. And, these wars, carried out exclusively in the developing world of the Global South, are invariably being waged against people of color to deprive them of their right of self-determination and their right to manage and benefit from their own natural resources. These conflicts are making the targeted countries less safe, less stable and less prosperous, and that is the goal. The US has decided that the best way to open up the world to maximum exploitation is by sowing chaos and destroying states abroad in order to take away any resistance to the ability of US corporations to extract valuable resources and exploit labor without limit. The US is also engaging in such operations through proxies when it is not doing it directly. One of the more notable examples of this is the DRC where the US has been using African proxies (especially Rwanda and Uganda) to plunder that country beyond recognition. The result is over 6 million dead - a Holocaustal figure which highlights just how brutal the US Empire has become.
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