US sets sights on China and Russia: American scholar

The United Sates has set its sights on China and Russia, because they are threatening Washington’s global dominance, American scholar James Henry Fetzer says.

“The United States is now attempting to focus on China and Russia, no doubt in large measure because of the emergence of the BRICS, [whose] banking system worldwide is going to replace the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,” Fetzer told Press TV on Wednesday.

Fetzer, who is also a journalist with Veterans Truth Network and a retired professor in Madison, Wisconsin, made the remarks when asked to comment on US Army General Mark Milley’s warning about Russia’s nuclear capability.

“Russia is the only country on earth that contains a nuclear capability that could destroy the United States,” the general told the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

“It’s an existential threat to the United States, so it has capability. Intent, I don’t know; but the activity of Russia since 2008 has been very, very aggressive,” he added.

Professor Fetzer said that “the statement by US Army General Mark Milley, who’s been considered to become the army chief of staff, is further confirmation that Obama is putting into place war hawks, neoconservatives, including the new secretary of defense, Ashton Carter.”

He added that all of these officials are “identifying Russia and China and North Korea -- and in some cases ISIS -- as the major threats confronting the United States. ISIS, of course, is a creation of the United States; we know that from a defense intelligence agency document of 2012 that was recently released and has been published.”

Milley, who was nominated to be the next Army chief of staff, also noted that China and North Korea, “Each in their own different way represent threats, security threats, to the United States.”

Professor Fetzer said that “the general’s remarks are incoherent in relation to the history of the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States, where, for more than four decades, known as the Cold War, both nations had massive nuclear ballistic capability of annihilating the other, which led to a peaceful coexistence because neither would contemplate attacking the other, knowing full-well that would lead to national obliteration.”

“Why is this general [Mark Milley] therefore suggesting Russia constitutes an existential threat to the United States? It’s completely bewildering. It makes no sense,” he asked.

“It is clear that the administration has adopted the rigid attitude that any nation that has an independent foreign policy and does not simply capitulate and conform to Washington’s preferences and desires is a threat to the United States,” the analyst noted.

“In a way, these threatening remarks are bad news, because they reflect the worldwide policy of the United States. But unless the United States wants itself to undergo national annihilation, it would be insane for it to attempt to attack Russia,” he concluded.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk