Washington's war on France

Al Jazeera is featuring live coverage today of thousands of Nigerien protesters surrounding a French military base, demanding that French troops leave the country. This comes after the deadline has passed for France’s ambassador to go home. In relations between sovereign states, the expulsion of an ambassador means bilateral relations are in grave danger of descending into conflict. When Macron brazenly insists his ambassador remain in Niger, he is deliberately escalating an already explosive situation. Macron’s rationale is that he is standing up for democratic ideals by defying the coup leaders. Here’s where Uncle Sam comes in to muddy the waters. By refusing to call the coup by its name, America gives legitimacy to the coup leaders and undercuts Macron. Why? Recall that Zbigniew Brzezinski in The Grand Chessboard spelled out the need for America to achieve and maintain full spectrum dominance over any country or group of countries that could emerge to threaten its global dominance. We’ve been conditioned to believe that any such group of countries could only emerge from those we consider hostile; ie some combination of Iran, Russia, China and a few other illiberal authoritarian states. Deep State strategists see things differently. They could see the danger to US hegemony of major EU states getting too cozy with Russia. Hence the destruction of the NordStrom2 pipelines, an act of war against our democratic allies in Europe. Germany is now rapidly deindustrializing due to forced reliance on US LNG that is exponentially more expensive than Russian gas. France was not as beholden to Russian gas supplies but has other vulnerabilities. The French state clings still to the colonial hangover of “French Africa.” That’s why Macron imagines he retains the last word on what happens in former colonies. By forcing the situation in Niger to open conflict he will soon find himself embroiled in another Algerian war. American hegemony depends on not only weakening rivals like Russia, Iran, and China. It also depends on weakening allies who could someday become rivals, like France and Germany. The first shot at France was the cancelation of its $90 billion submarine contract with Australia. That was a major blow to France’s armaments industry and international prestige. A quagmire in Africa will doom France to third-tier status in the hierarchy of nations for generations to come.