The US fears a multipolar world

• Published date: 06 May 2024
• Publication title: Mail & Guardian: Web Edition Articles (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Schumer usually looks like an irritated school principal, with his glasses finely balanced on the bridge of his nose, but on that Wednesday he was different. He puffed his chest out as he said: "We're feeling really good. You know it's not every day you can say you made the world truly a better place. But I think the Senate can say that tonight and I am very proud of what has happened."

Schumer is typical of the Washington party political elite who believe that American foreign policy makes the world safer. The $95 billion is called an aid package; it would be more apt to refer to it as a war package.

Ukraine gets $61 billion, Israel $26 billion and $8.12 billion goes to counter China in the Indo-Pacific. Let us understand that this is in billions of dollars; one billion is a thousand million.

By the time Schumer and his Senate buddies had passed the legislation, the Biden administration had already begun preparing a $1 billion arms package for Ukraine, which will include vehicles, Stinger air defence munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155 millimetre artillery ammunition, Javelin anti-tank munitions and other weapons to be put to immediate use on the battlefield.

In other words, $1 billion will be deposited into American military companies' bank accounts immediately.

Many writers and analysts have highlighted the hypocrisy of the "developmental aid" and defence packages from countries such as the US, where the money for aid is actually corporate welfare for the US oligarchs and monopolist robber barons. Regarding this war package, the customary hypocrisy is the least of our problems.

It seems that the US is threatened by the rapid rise of China. It would rather take the world to the brink of destruction than accept the demise of its global hegemonic power.

As Schumer glowed on American television screens, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, had already touched down in Beijing to meet the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Blinken's trip to China was not friendly nor co-operative; it could be interpreted as threatening.

Blinken's stare-down began as he made Xi wait for a couple of minutes before they met. YouTube footage suggests that as Xi paces around waiting for Blinken he asks his aide how long Blinken will be in China, and says "good" when he is told that Blinken will return to the US the same day. No love lost there, it seems.

There are two full-on theatres of war — in the Ukraine and the Israeli genocidal...