Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation. (substantially edited for clarity at 4:30 PM Seattle time)
The thesis of this essay is as reflected in the title: the directors of the US-led Empire are insane or irrational at best. Although this may characterize some officials in the Empire, I think, to put it in the form of a colloquialism, "there is a method to their madness". Thus, I believe there is a rational basis within a capitalist context that is motivating their dangerous propaganda--and by all appearances--their actual implemented policies.
On the eve of WWII the sovereign debts of Nazi Germany were huge, and the only way forward was through imperialist policies which would make possible the theft of other countries assets. Germany's remarkable "economic recovery" was possible through the forgiveness of many debts imposed on the country by the Versailles Treaty and by borrowing heavily.
On the eve of WWII Germany had amassed a huge debt. They could easily have been stopped by the other Western capitalist powers, but the latter always knew that Hitler's plans were against the Soviet Union which was always seen as a threat to capitalist rule. Thus, they acquiesced in his absorption of Austria and part of Czechoslovakia. Then the Nazis moved east against Poland where they aroused the ire of the British ruling class because they had made a mutual defense treaty with Poland. Here I'm not sure why the British honored their pact with Poland. In any case Britain and France formally declared war on Germany, but actual warfare was delayed for over eight months, a period often referred to as the "phony war". Apparently they expected that Germany would move east via Czechoslovakia and then move against Ukraine which was a part of the Soviet Union.
It is important to realize that because of the split among both British and French ruling capitalist classes--pro-fascist and nationalist camps--German armies easily overran resistance posed by armies of Holland, Belgian, French, and British forces (that fought in continental Europe at the start of the war.) It was not because of the superior fighting power of the German army as is always reported by Western authorities.
We now see the US becoming heavily indebted owing in part to the vast industrial-military complex and the Empire's many foreign military adventures, but also in part due to bailouts of US and other banks during the recent economic collapse. The US in now facing increasing triple deficits--national debt at over $18 trillion, ongoing annual trade deficits, and savings deficit among its citizens. Thus, I think that our ruling masters with their huge military are using the threat of overpowering military force, if not outright aggression, in an attempt to intimidate the rising powers of China (which holds a huge amount of US debt) and Russia as a solution to their debt crisis very much like what we saw with Nazi Germany. Of course, in the context of our today's world where numerous countries possess nuclear weapons, it is insanity. But our masters seem to be stuck in the 20th century in their thinking.
