Steve Bannon: 'We're going to war in the South China Sea ... no doubt' - by Benjamin Haas
NB: The Sangh Parivar, who curse Christian missionaries on a regular basis, and conducted an orgy of violence in Kandhamal in 2007 and 2008, will now make an adjustment towards Christian fundamentalists and warmongers led by Trump and his chief strategic advisor Steve Bannon, a man whose appointment was hailed by the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. But communalists are drawn to one another: Bannon also doesn't like secularism and socialism - DS
The United States and
China will fight a war within the next 10 years over islands in the South China Sea,
and “there’s no doubt about that”. At the same time, the US will be in another
“major” war in the Middle East. Those are the views – nine months ago at least
– of one of the most powerful men in Donald Trump’s administration, Steve Bannon, the
former head of far-right news website Breitbart who is now chief strategist at
the White House.
In the first weeks of
Trump’s presidency, Bannon has emerged as a central figure. He was appointed to
the “principals committee” of the National Security Council in a
highly unusual move and was influential in the recent travel ban on
citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, overruling
Department of Homeland Security officials who felt the order did not
apply to green card holders.
While many in Trump’s
team are outspoken critics of China, in radio shows Bannon hosted for Breitbart
he makes plain the two largest threats to America: China and Islam. “We’re
going to war in the South China Sea in five to 10 years,” he said in
March 2016. “There’s no doubt about that. They’re taking their sandbars and
making basically stationary aircraft carriers and putting missiles on those.
They come here to the United States in front of our face – and you understand
how important face is – and say it’s an ancient territorial sea.”
China says nearly the
entire South
China Sea falls within its territory, with half a dozen other
countries maintaining partially overlapping claims. China has built a series of
artificial islands on reefs and rocks in attempt to bolster its position,
complete with military-length
airstrips and anti-aircraft weapons. Bannon’s sentiments
and his position in Trump’s inner circle add to fears of a military
confrontation with China, after secretary of state Rex Tillerson said that the US
would deny China access to the seven artificial islands. Experts warned any
blockade would lead to war.
Bannon is clearly wary
of China’s growing clout in Asia and beyond, framing the relationship as
entirely adversarial, predicting a global culture clash in the coming years. “You
have an expansionist Islam and you have an expansionist China. Right? They are
motivated. They’re arrogant. They’re on the march. And they think the
Judeo-Christian west is on the retreat,” Bannon said during a February
2016 radio show. On the day Trump was
inaugurated, China’s military warned that war between the two countries was a
real possibility. “A ‘war within the president’s term’ or ‘war breaking out
tonight’ are not just slogans, they are becoming a practical reality,” an
official wrote on the
website of the People’s Liberation Army.
Aside from conflict
between armies, Bannon repeatedly focused on his perception that Christianity
around the world is under threat. In one radio show, used to
promote an article incorrectly claiming that a mosque had been built
at the North Pole, Bannon focused heavily on China’s oppression of Christian
groups. “The one thing the Chinese fear more than America … they fear
Christianity more than anything,” he said.
But China is not the only
hotspot Bannon sees, and forecasts another ground war for American troops in
the Middle East. “Some of these situations may get a little unpleasant,” Bannon
said in November
2015. “But you know what, we’re in a war. We’re clearly going into, I
think, a major shooting war in the Middle East again.” He also branded Islam as “the
most radical” religion in the world, and moved swiftly since entering
the White House to enact policies hostile to Muslims. Some have called Trump’s
central doctrine a “war
on Islam”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/02/steve-bannon-donald-trump-war-south-china-sea-no-doubt
see also
Ignorance is Strength-Freedom is Slavery-War is Peace (George Orwell, 1984)
