Global Report
The Shrinking US Global Reach

William (Bill) Buckler
Captain of The Privateer
Jun 2, 2008

Extracted from the Late May 2008 Issue of Bill Buckler's "Global Report"

Nothing better exemplifies the current US geo-political situation than the five-day Middle East trip President Bush has just returned from. In Israel, he was, of course, greeted as a hero. But when he arrived in Saudi Arabia after three days in Israel, he arrived as a supplicant. Metaphorically, Bush stood in Saudi Arabia with an empty can in his hand and asked for oil.

Saudi Arabia offered to pump an additional 300,000 barrels a day in June - a pittance. After his meeting with the Saudi King, Mr Bush looked both irritated and confused. Five years ago, just after the US army had arrived in Baghdad and he had pronounced "Mission Accomplished" from the deck of a US aircraft carrier, it would have taken a mere phone call by the US President to raise the Saudi oil output by millions of barrels a day.

The Centre Is Broken:

Geo-politically, the issue which is now coming out in the open for all to see is this: The US now has to send its President out in the world to ask for favours. Things are no longer the other way around. The rest of the world is moving away with the US politically running after it.

That is not the classical or historical role of a superpower - the world's sole geo-political and geo-strategic centre of gravity. When there IS such a superpower - the rest of the world comes to it - to the centre.

The LIMA Declaration:

On Friday, May 16, at the Summit in Lima, Peru, a declaration was issued by representatives from nearly 60 countries promising to act with urgency to address the rising cost of staple foods. Europe and China were there. The US was NOT! A 60-nation Summit - and the US was not invited.

A SUMMIT In Russia:

Brazil, Russia, India and China are talking about forming a political alliance. The four largest emerging economies sent their foreign ministers to Yekaterinburg, Russia, where they met on May 16, for the first time outside the venue of the United Nations. The Europeans and Chinese were there - the US was NOT.

A SUMMIT In China:

New Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is visiting China on May 23 and 24 for his first foreign trip since taking office, a further sign of improving ties. President Medvedev will make a state visit to Beijing at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, China's Foreign Ministry has said. The US is not there. This is a new global pattern led by the Japan/China Summit in early MAY. The US is simply NOT there.

The Formation Of The New Four-Corner World:

The Privateer refers back to its previous issue in regard to the shape of this new four-corner world. It is now clear from the events of the last two weeks that it is falling in place with astounding speed.

The Fatal US Self-Made Distraction:

It is very important to emphasise that the Japan/China Summit and the three following summits referred to in this Global Report would never have taken place were it not for the strategic distraction which the US made for itself five years ago by invading Iraq and following up with a five-year occupation. There is still no end to this distraction in sight. Geo-strategically, this exercise has tied the hands of the US. As exhaustion sets in, the US is left with no strategic means to intervene militarily in other parts of the world. The rest of the world has seen their own doors opening. The debacle that the US faced at the recent NATO Summit and President Bush's meeting with Russian President Putin made it clear that politically and strategically, the US had lost NATO. That huge loss opened all doors.

A New Form Of Isolationism:

In fact, this new form is isolationism in reverse. It is the rest of the world acting in many way to isolate the US by the simple political means of walking away from it and making their own future agreements with each other without even inviting the US as observers. Representatives from 60 - repeat SIXTY - nations meet in Lima Peru. The US was not there! The Chancellor of Germany was there, as were Chinese and Russian delegations. Everyone wore smiles from ear to ear. Heads of State and Heads of Government from Europe were there in numbers too many to mention. The Heads of State or of Government from all of the Latin American nations were there. The US was not there! In fact, the 60- nation Lima Summit got barely a mention in the US media. But the proverbial "dime" has now at least dropped halfway in Washington. A few members of Congress woke up from their ongoing fund raising to mutter about - wait for it - "Who lost Latin America?" Then they too subsided into silence.

Trade between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean totalled about 160 Billion Euros last year, the European Commission has said on its website. After the Lima Declaration, it is bound to expand even farther and faster. Straight ahead lies a Latin American-European Union and a free trade pact - something the US has not managed to achieve. Europe and China are taking Latin America away and the US seems not even to be watching while this happens, distracted by its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Latin America, of course, would like nothing better than to get out from under the shadow of the US. But geopolitically the end result will be that within a few years, real US influence will end at the Panama Canal and at the northern coastline of South America. That is real isolation for the USA.

Napoleon's second dictum was very simple. He said this:

"Never interrupt your opponent in the middle of executing a mistake. You might cause him to change his mind."

The rest of the world has been following Napoleon's dictum for the past five years. These have been the years since President Bush decided to invade and then occupy Iraq. The world simply waited for exhaustion to set in. Once that was out in the open and the US had deprived itself of the means with which to militarily intervene in other parts of the world, the rest of the world moved. The US could do nothing even politically to stop the rest of the world from doing so. The Japan/China Summit followed. That Summit was quickly followed by the summits mentioned in this issue. These many summits will be given real effect on the ground over the months ahead as the US becomes increasingly internally distracted by its political party conventions and its presidential campaign. By the time the US looks around again in early January 2009, the world will be a very different place. The US will be isolated politically, strategically, economically and monetarily in its own geographic corner of the world as the biggest power - in North America.

The sole "wild card" in all this is will be played if the US attacks Iran in a fit of insanity and starts a wider war. The US military enterprise in the Middle East is over. The US can't win, it can only retreat.

Lots more follows for subscribers.

[Editor's note: There will be another extract from this report, on 321gold.com, in a few days].

June 2008
William (Bill) Buckler
Captain of The Privateer
email: capt@the-privateer.com

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capt@the-privateer.com (reproduced with permission)

The Privateer 2008 Volume - Late May Issue - Number 604

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