Is RIC the New World Order?
Russia, Iran, and China (RIC) have a bad bromance going on . . .
One of the most frequent criticisms used by Never-Trumpers and the media was that Trump was alienating the U.S. from her allies while subjugating the U.S. to ‘authoritarian dictators’ who should be our enemies.
Biden, however, would, as he often promised, “repair our alliances and engage with the world once again.”
Biden has indeed strengthened international alliances. Unfortunately, these alliances, even those of NATO members and other American allies, are strengthened by their increasing mutual rejection of the United States.
And one can hardly blame them. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. has destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines, as reported by
:
Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.
The White House’s denial of Hersh’s reporting seems feeble, given that Biden promised that the Nord Stream 2 would be brought to an end should Russia invade Ukraine, which Russia subsequently did. Never mind how many NATO members relied on those pipelines for natural gas.
If this is how we treat our friends, is it any wonder why NATO, which some thought Biden would save from Trump, may be crumbling because of Biden instead? It was after all during the Biden - not the Trump - administration that French president Macron warned that Europe “should not be caught up in a disordering of the world and crises that aren't ours,” raising concerns over how committed Europe would be to deterring aggression against nations like Taiwan, or even against NATO partners like South Korea and Israel that aren’t European.
Egypt, too, seems to be wandering away from the U.S, in this post-Trump period. The leaked Pentagon documents reveal that mid-February “had plans to produce 40,000 rockets for Russia in secret” and in direct defiance to the wishes of the United States. Interestingly this came not very long after Biden embarrassed Egypt by withholding $130 million of the $300 million she typically receives annually from us in order to punish her for her human rights record.
In September of 2022 I posted on our AACONS Facebook page what I had already been pointing out that for some time:
[China, Russia, and Iran] form a modern day Axis of Evil. They are a grave threat to the US.
China is putting tremendous pressure on the entire planet but especially Asia and to a large degree Africa. Putin is bullying Europe militarily and, thanks to their mistake of allowing themselves to be energy dependent upon him, economically. Iran seems to dominate the Middle East.
Today, this is a message heard often. The brilliant Lt. Col.
spoke about this “Axis of Evil” during our recent interview with him.Sean Hannity, as of late, has been warning about it nightly. Even Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who is such a Sinophile that he once told China that he would warn them if President Trump was going to launch an attack against them, is now saying of the China-Russia bromance, “[W]e are seeing them moving closer together, and that’s troublesome. And, then . . . Iran is the third. So those three countries together are going to be problematic for many years to come I think, especially Russia and China because of their capability.”
RIC is more than “problematic” however. It is the new world order. Biden has helped make this so.
One sign of this global shift is Saudi Arabia entering into a peace treaty with Iran that was brokered, of course, by China. It was only a few years ago that Saudi Arabia and Iran were mortal enemies, fighting each other through proxies in places like Yemen and Syria. They each wanted to establish itself as a Mid-Eastern superpower, and there were religious differences as well, as Iran is a Shia theocracy while Saudi Arabia is predominantly Sunni. Saudi furthermore is an ally and a popular tourist destination for wealthy Americans, while Iran considers us to be The Great Satan.
But that was then. Now we have seen Saudi Arabia and Iran sign a peace treaty, brokered by China. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, “The move is part of a broad effort in Saudi Arabia and some neighboring Persian Gulf countries to expand diplomatic partnerships beyond traditional Western allies in a marked pivot to the east . . . ”
The most damaging change, because of its immediate deleterious effect on the our economy, is the move by BRICS to replace the U.S. dollar.
BRICS is an alliance between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa whose GDP has recently surpassed that of the G7 (United States, Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Japan). It is also expanding. Iran has asked to join; and Saudi Arabia, Algeria, UAE, Egypt, Argentina, Mexico, and Nigeria are seeking to join as well.
This alliance is on course to replace with U.S. dollar. Lula da Silva — who defeated the Trump-backed candidate Jair Bolsonaro to become president of Brazil — recently said, “Why can’t an institution like the Brics bank have a currency to finance trade relations between Brazil and China, between Brazil and all the other BRICS countries? Who decided that the dollar was the [trade] currency after the end of gold parity?"
As Schiff Gold reports:
This is a big problem for the US government.
Uncle Sam depends on the demand for dollars to underpin its profligate borrowing and spending. The only reason the US can get away with massive budget deficits and an ever-growing national debt to the extent that it does is due to the dollar’s role as the world reserve currency. It creates a built-in global demand for dollars and US Treasuries that absorb the money creation and maintain dollar strength. But what happens if that demand drops? What happens if BRICS develops its own currency and no longer needs dollars to trade?
If the demand for dollars tanks, the greenback’s value will quickly erode away. That means even worse price inflation for Americans. And in the worst-case scenario, it could collapse the dollar completely.
Donald Trump put it much more succinctly during an April interview on Fox when he compared the U.S. currency being replaced to losing a war:
America’s global standing has been clearly trending downward since Biden took office. Much of this decline has been intentional. Incompetence alone cannot explain his opening our southern border, how he withdrew troops from Afghanistan, his ballooning debt, his refusal to press China on the origin of the Covid, and his drive to make America energy dependent.
Furthermore his campaign to appease Trump critics by “standing up to authoritarian dictators” has damaged American relations with nations like Venezuela, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, with no discernible benefit. Even Israel has noticed a chill in U.S. relations since Biden took the White House.
Hopefully, our next president will return us to the America First policies that were so denounced by the left. But, will it be too late by then?
—DK
Lost the B and S ... These three don't need them to take over the world?